Mr. Fix-It Strikes Again!

As most of you know, when our household has a problem of any kind, my sweet hubby and I try to fix it ourselves before we call in reinforcement, and before I call in my sweetie, I try to fix it myself.  I’m just like that. I can’t help it. My dad was a do it yourselfer, my brothers both grew up with a wrench in their hand, and their bicycles up side down, more than right side up, and even my mom would try tackling something herself.  My brother Jack, along with Louie, say, if together,they can’t fix it, or figure out how to make it work some other way, it just can’t be done.  It’s genetic.  It gives me great satisfaction to fix something that someone else has given up on (hence, thrift store shopping!)… and if I do say so myself, (breaking arm, by patting my own back…ouch!) I am pretty mechanically inclined. I have to be, because I sure lack in the ‘book smart’ department. God thought I needed ‘something’ to carry me through, so mechanically inclined, I am…..but I couldn’t figure out this one.                            The bottom left corner of the control panel of our 13 year old (and NOT overly used) microwave panel was loose. It was getting looser (how can that be?). Louie and I for the past few weeks have commented on how it needed ‘looked at’, but that is as far as it go. (Well, in all fairness, I guess we ‘looked’ at it over a dozen times, but we just didn’t do anything about it.)  This morning, I got up, and decided that ‘today was the day’. I looked for screws, and found one, but when I removed it, couldn’t see it’s significance, so I put the screw back in, and did not gain a thing. I thought a bit, and tried a couple other things, but failed….so I went to my computer and started doing searches for my microwave model, and searched for a pdf manual. (Am I the only one who can’t find their appliance manuals?)That failed, so I ‘googled’ my question on how to fix a loose control panel. I found a youtube video, and within 58 seconds, had my answer on how to remove it, or to at least see what held it in.  I didn’t bother watching the rest of it, but here it is.

With hubby in the kitchen, and tools in his hand, I relayed the information to him, and in no time at all, my kitchen looked like a twister had gone through.                                                                This also required cleaning vent screens, which I am ashamed to say, had never been cleaned, but in my defense, we do not fry anything, so they really didn’t look bad.  I guess they were….(hanging head in shame). They were just lightly coated. Can you imagine how bad this would look if I actually fried?                               Here they are, all nice and clean.                                      I didn’t get a photo of when he had the control panel tipped down, but what we found, was, the little tab that held the corner in, had just broken off. Wear and tear, I guess, from 13 years of pressing buttons,  What Mr. Fix-It did, was clean everything with alcohol, then he applied a nice thin strip of double sided automobile trim adhesive tape to the length of the edge of the whole left side of the panel, and ‘stuck’ it down.

It’s as good as new! (I only hope in a month, we don’t have to replace the whole thing, like we did after we fixed our toilet!)                                                                        What do you do when something breaks or needs repair?

 

He will find me a Mr.Fix-it!

Be blessed!

Michelle