Ikea hack

Well, it took a lot longer than I planned, but I'm finally finished with my latest project. It's made out of reconfigured "Lack" components from Ikea.

I started by ripping two tops of side tables in half.

I also purchased five small coffee tables. I'll be using their tops and shelves.

I've got 14 legs left over. Wonder what I can use those for...?

Then I painted the undersides of the tabletops to match.

I assembled the ripped side tabletops and two of the coffee tabletops into a sort of bench using dowels. I love my new dowel jig! It's so simple and fun.

I almost left it just like this. But instead...

I added an upper section with the three remaining coffee tabletops. This area will hold a TV and a couple shelves. To quote my nephew Linc N sitting on his brother's brand new car seat: "Look, Mom! I fit!"

My last step was to install shelves and place the TV. The shelves were trickier than I planned. The shelves are shallower than the depth of the cabinet, and the middle of the cabinet is just cardboard honeycomb (see first photo). Consequently, I had to make rails that stretched from front to back so they could be screwed into solid wood. After that I could just lay the shelves across them.

Violà!

My next project may be to get a bunch of picture frames or something to dress up the shelves.

Drip, drip

I noticed a couple weeks ago that I was getting a drip under my kitchen sink. I didn't think much about it because I've always had a problem with the hose from the sprayer. Each time I used it, a few drops of water would travel down the hose from above. I kept a pan underneath, and it was dry most of the time. But this was different. I hadn't used the sprayer in a while. And the drip was getting worse. I finally decided to do something after one load in my dishwasher produced an inch of water in the pan.

My investigation did not take long. I merely touched the drain pipe, and it crumbled like wet tissue paper.

Metal drain pipes disintegrate over time, from the inside out. Pinholes develop and the pipe starts leaking like a sieve.

My biggest challenge was removing it. There wasn't much metal left to grab onto. The only part that hadn't disintegrated was located inside the bigger pipe (downstream, so to speak). As you can see, it wasn't much fun getting it out.

All fixed!