I am often asked how we know how to repair so many different things. We have all been fixing things for 40-60 years, so we have a lot of experience, but the internet has added substantially to our competence.
About one-third of the time we use either Google or YouTube to answer your questions or to check what we thought we knew about your problem. Google has many solutions that are written in by people who have had the same problem and have found a solution. They are not all correct, but a large majority of them are. Youtube has thousands of videos to show you step-by-step how to repair almost anything that breaks around the house.
YouTube is a collection of videos uploaded by people who have solved a problem and made a video to show you what they did. We recently had a question about how to remove a large mirror glued to the bathroom wall. We asked several Woodchucks and got answers that ranged from ones that probably wouldn’t work to one that was dangerous. A 15-minute search on YouTube produced the following:
Not everyone is competent at doing Google searches and finding YouTube videos, but since you all live in Sun City, you have an opportunity not available to many other people living outside of Sun City. The Sun City Computer Club, which each of the last two years ended with 1700 members, has 30 volunteer monitors and technicians who can help you during any of the four open sessions in the computer lab in the Meadow View Lodge each week. There are also formal classes each month on various computer subjects.
Update: A few issues back, I answered a question about where to get replacement plastic shower door guides. I gave a web site that has hundreds of these guides. The problem with this site is that it has HUNDREDS of these guides. At the recent Consumer Expo in the Prairie Lodge, I was able to pick the brains of two vendors that do these repairs all the time and have probably seen most of the different shower door guides in Sun City. TJ at a Touch of Glass and Larry at Larry’s Home Maintenance told me that Home Depot has a large selection of these guides. If you have a broken guide, remove it from the shower doorframe and take it to Home Depot where you can use it to get a direct replacement. If you don’t know which end of a screw driver to use, you can call TJ or Larry, both advertise in the Sun City Lifestyles magazine, to come to your house to do this repair.
They both can also replace, repair, and adjust the rollers on the bottom of patio doors. We have gotten questions about this repair several times over the years.
Question: Do you have a source for the Merillat cabinets pullouts?
Answer: Kramer’s in Sycamore, Illinois have parts for Merillat cabinets.
Question: My father owns an APN unit in 32A. The lock no longer works properly on the sliding glass door leading to the patio. We have searched for any manufacturing markings but haven’t found any. We have tried to remove the lock, but we lack the expertise. Our only other alternative is to replace the slider. I thought I would try your advice first.
Answer: At the last consumer expo, I spent some time talking to Larry Bernstein of Larry’s Home Maintenance about the kinds of problems he sees around Sun City and this problem came up. The handles and locks on sliding glass doors do not stand up well to any kind of abuse. The good news is that Larry has the parts to do this repair and he has done many of them.
Question: We are new residents to Sun City and are interested in adding crown molding to some of our rooms. Would you have any recommendations on qualified craftsmen for this type of work?
Answer: I wish we could help you with this, but members of the Woodchucks usually do projects like this themselves and therefore have no experience with craftsmen that they can evaluate and make recommendations. You might want to join the woodchucks and learn how to install crown molding; it’s not very complicated.
If you have suggestions for future tips or have questions about maintenance around your home submit them toask.the.woodchucks@gmail.com
