One Project A YEAR

Okay - since I want to follow exactly in my good friend Gail's footsteps, and since she is starting "One Project A Year", I decided I needed to do it too. I guess the idea came from some over-achieving scrapbook guru who challenged herself to one project A MONTH that needed to be accomplished. As Gail (and I) found out, one project A YEAR is plenty.

So here was my plan. My big boys needed window screens on their bedroom windows. I called the window store and asked how much it would cost. They said if they came out to my house and measured it would be $50 for the measurement alone plus the cost of making the screen. I looked on the Internet and read how EASY it was to make your own screen, so, of course, that's what I decided to do.

I convinced FOS that it would be a really fun activity and something we could do together. We needed to take a measurement first. The first obstacle was the window well filled with spiders and all kinds of creepy crawlies. FOS was more of a girl than I was. We also had to fight through the mounds of stuff in his room in front of his window. We finally got the measurements for the window and I headed off to Home Depot. Look what I found! EASY TO BUILD WINDOW SCREEN! It has to be easy - it says so on the packaging! I'm in luck. (Of course I wanted to do this without MOMD so he would be proud of me when he came home from work ...)FOS wielded the hacksaw (as needed per instructions) and we (he) sawed our window frame to the exact size. We put the frame together (it fit like a charm) and set it into the window to check for fit. It was a titch too big. Okay, no problem. We pulled it apart, measured the amount we needed to take off and sawed again. Good job FOS! We again put the frame together and checked for fit. It was still a little big. By this time (about two hours after our start time) FOS had had about as much fun as he could take and he suggested waiting for MOMD to get home from work.

When MOMD got home, he rolled his eyes (I can't imagine why he would do that) and said we'd work on it another day. (I'm not sure he understood the concept of having the project done THIS year - as per scrapbooking guru.)

A couple of days later I suggested (nagged) about the screen and everybody jumped on the task. MOMD took new measurements, found that we were just a slight bit off and the frame would just need to be sawed again.

Here is the progress as it unfolded. This is MOMD AFTER he took the measurements and sawed a bit of the frame off. He is putting the frame together before fitting it to the window.

Whoops! It was just a bit too big (for the fourth time) so here's MOMD sawing some off. Note the concentration ...

Guess what? The frame fit the window. Now it's time to put in the screen. Here's MOMD putting in the spline (window word meaning ... oh, who cares?). FOS is standing nearby helping but he didn't want his picture taken.

And now, the finished product! Look at the satisfaction (or is that a grimace) on MOMD's face! He is amazing!

I'm thinking of posting these informative pictures/instructions on YouTube so everyone else can make their own new window screens. The only problem with YouTube is that I wouldn't be able to edit the swearing and dirty looks I received as I helped with this project. By the time it was finished, we were all so tired that we couldn't do any more so FYS won't get a new screen for his window at this time. Maybe that's a project for ANOTHER YEAR!