What NOT to do when mounting stuff.

Do you ever start a project, but pay no attention to finishing it properly?

I do this on the rare occasion I must say. And I do this mostly when an idea smacks me upside the head and I have to implement it NOW. Food, sleep nor even air matters. I have to do that thing in my head.

One of those such projects brings us back to March. You may have read about it HERE first.

I had this nice clock and this nice wall but the brown telephone wire had to go.

So I came up with this little clever solution of a lattice panel to hide the cord. Cute yes? But there's a problem here. Look just above the chair. See those light switches? Look hard. They're jammed tight behind the lattice.

Here's a nice closeup for you. Nice implement, tool girl!

So, I recently had help with getting a new light installed in the kitchen. This is how the conversation  went.

Smarter them - "So, we're going to put up your island light!"

Not so smart Me - "Cool!"

Them - "Well...  how do you get at these switches?!?" pointing to my fancy dancy don't you dare touch it lattice.

Me - "Um... I don't?"

Silence.

Them - "Well, we need to get at them to put in your light."

Silence. Crickets even.

Me - "Ugh. Ok." So my don't you dare touch it display is dismounted leaving me with...

... this all over again. But now I have a bunch of ugly screw holes in the wall. But as they say, all things for a reason. With my pending open house, I sorda needed to fix this wall mounted vignette to show the masses that I infact know what I'm actually doing.

It was such an easy fix. I simply sawed out chunks of lattice. See that handsaw? Skip that part if you own a jigsaw.

Now, when you cut lattice, it goes abit wonky on you. They like to twist this way and that, so I strengthened the cut shafts with screws from the back.

Look!! Function! I truely lucked out knew what I was doing when I landed this lattice for these switchplates. Great fit! I can't wait for my lighting buddies to see this.

 

Nice! Much better! Now I'm so glad it had to come down. I can use my lights again!

The moral to this story is, (don't be like me?!?) do it right the first time and you won't have to revisit the same project again. Because there is sort of abit more to this story that I left out.

That SADY box? That had to be mounted on the lattice first, THEN the lattice is attached to the wall. I forgot. So the lattice came down again, box was then attached, then hung up yet again. There's actually ALOT more screw holes behind that lattice, more than you can even imagine. Because I had trouble finding the stud due to my stud finder having a bad day. And when I finally did locate the stud, I stripped the screw head as that tool bit was stripped long ago that I forgot about. Then the screw was stuck in the stud so I had to bang it out with a hammer.  And it just got ugly.

I'm REALLY glad for that lattice display. And I hope it never has to come down ever again. Because then I'll have to drag my 5 gallon drum of spackle up the stairs (that really requires a dollie), crack fill and start all over again. No. It's just fine the way it is. Perfect even. Unless we ever have to get to the phone cord of course... ugh.

How about you? Ever get busted for a project gone slightly wrong? Your stories would make me feel alot better. Thank-you. Really.