Alone Again

With Haley on her mission, Felicia and I are alone again and thinking about home improvement. The screens on our front window had holes worn in them. I decided this was a do-it-yourself project that could mesh with the Oct 2017 General Conference Saturday session. I bought the materials for 3 windows and detached the first frame, brought it into the house, and Felicia turned on the BYUTV.

While modern prophets and apostles spoke, I removed the old screen and rolled out the new one over the frame. I determined that stretching the mesh while I put it in place would ensure that there would be no wrinkles when I installed it. I anchored the corners and stretched as I used the roller tool to press the screen edges into the grooves holding it in place. I then rolled the spline into the groove to lock it and trimmed the excess material. It looked great but when I tried place it back over the window, I discovered that the stretched mesh bowed the sides in and created an hour-glass shaped screen that wouldn't match up with the bolt holes.

I had to take it back in to the house and remove the newly-placed screen, discard it, and roll out new screening material. This time I did no stretching. The result was perfect as shown below.

For the next one, I didn't pay attention to make sure the frame corners were square and I discovered I had a rhomboid shape when I went to install it. Lining up the bolts stretched the screen resulting in wrinkles as shown.

Every mistake I make is a learning opportunity and allows me to increase my skill and do better the next time.