It’s not unusual for me to be busier than normal at this time of the year. Work is picking up and may soon be a seven day a week thing, at least for a good portion of the summer. I have a relatively undemanding job that does leave me with a fair amount of free time, but it can get intense at times.

Add to that the fact that my house renovations are still not finished, and that I have yet again missed another deadline to put it on the market (that was the end of April, now looking nearly impossible for the end of June…). This has me trying to juggle work with home-work and the other odds and ends that make up daily life. The ball in the air that might get dropped is this site, at least until I can get on top of things again.

So, even though I will be doing what I can to get a new article ready each week, they will not be anything major. I simply don’t have the time to get started on any of the larger projects I have planned. Good news is that I do have a whole list of projects and this will be something to look forward to.

I got sick of the wind blowing my back workshop door closed, so I went looking for a kickdown door holder while I was at the hardware store. They had one that looked good and seemed to be solid, although it was a little small. Unfortunately, it was $19.99. I’m not cheap (yeah, right), I’m frugal and if I can save that $20 by doing it myself, I will. Here’s what I came up with:

I already had the parts on hand. Just some nuts, washers a bolt and three eye-bolts:

Some scraps of wood and a little time to put it all together. It works great and doesn’t look too bad either.

Doing something like this may not seem worthy of the effort, for some, but I see it differently. If I happen to kick this while walking out the door and break it, I can easily fix it. That would probably not be the same for the store bought model. I also get to choose how long it is, to hold open a door that is over a step, for instance.

After all, this site is about ingenuity and the do-it-yourself spirit and this is a very good example, I think.