Fun and Functional

I love when good things happen on a Monday.

Fun?  Drawer handles arrived.

Shiny Happy Handle

I can't wait to install them.  They are going to look lovely with the knobs.  Basic but beautiful.  Pulling out the drawer will never feel so glamorous.

Mostly because....

Functional?  I replaced the slide on the top drawer. 

This all goes back to the subpar (warped, bowed, knotted, cheap plywood, no straight edge or true corner) kitchen cabinets that came with our house 8 years ago.  The drawers have the absolute worst sliders ever.  They're loud.  They're broken.  And so they jam up.  All.  The.  Time.

I simply needed to replace them, but decided to do it after the painting because sliders aren't free at Home Depot.  And that's my budget. 

I went back after painting, but still not free.  So I tried to fix a slide.  I couldn't make it worse, right? 

Wrong.

Won't Close

Instead of being loud and jamming up, the slide I "fixed" wouldn't slide anymore.  At all.  I could open the drawer about 6 inches and that was it.  If I tried to close it all the way, it wouldn't open.  You can see above...the top drawer was in a state of not-quite-closed all the time. 

Just what you want to see when admiring your "new" kitchen.

So I spent $20 this weekend and took another stab at it this morning.

Old Slide

New Slide

This before and after says two things.  The new slide is the same but different. 

I wanted to get exactly the same slide so I could remove and install on the same horizontal line and screw holes.  But the old has wheels and the new has ball bearings. 

Luckily, I managed to maintain the line and drill only a few new holes.  Those holes made me nervous....but I kept on.  Naptime is only so long.

Old

Shiny and New

Since I had already gotten this far with my previous attempt to "fix" and then failed, I was feeling a little sick to my stomach at this point.  Please don't tell me I made new screw holes for nothing.

Success

It worked!

And it's a dream.  I've opened and closed the drawer for no reason a few times today.  Maybe a hundred.

Better Than Ever

Dare I say the top drawer is the only level one now...?  Is it the new slide?  Or wonky drawer fronts...  All the more reason to replace the other three slides BEFORE I install the handles. 

Is anything right in this kitchen?  Ha!