First of all, thank you to everyone who contributed to our baby shower on Sunday. A group of Jen's friends organised it and many of our mutual friends came along and helped make it a very memorable afternoon. Baby Ellis should feel thoroughly welcomed once it turns up.

It was a busy weekend, dominated by baby-related stuff. Jen's brother and mother visited for the shower, and we spent a lot of Saturday doing different projects on the pre-baby project list.

For instance the workshop curtain rails have now been hung and simply await curtains, but I think my very favourite project was the bin drawer.

The bin drawer is one of those projects that I have known I needed to do for a long time. When we moved into our house in 2003 we were quite pleased with the location of the recycling and the rubbish bins in large drawers rather than just hidden behind doors. Having these things slide outmakes them easier to use, and to empty, and to clean.

Unfortunately the rubbish bin drawer kept on jumping off the runners. The drawer had obviously seen a lot of use over the years, and so the runners were quite worn. One side had had its backstop replaced with arbitrary screws, the other side had been twisted. When the drawer came of the rails it was suddenly three times harder to open, wouldn't close at all, and just generally was a pain to use.

So I got some new rails, and put those on instead.

What a difference. For an hour's work, the drawer now slides smoothly and easily. The closest copmarison I can think of was the cupboard door handles at our old house in NE Portland, where Jen had removed the old handles in anticipation of putting on nicer handles and then never got round to it. The drawers all opened easily enough without handles, although it was tough on your fingers. When we finally fitted the handles that Jen had bought all those years ago it made the drawers so much easier to use.

It's a bit like that with the bin drawer.

So, if you have any DIY projects which you have been putting off, dust of the materials and get on with it - you'll be so much happier when it's done!

Posted by Dunx at May 23, 2005 03:12 PM