Twice a year I move the vertical blinds on my balcony door from the front to the back room because I switch it up with a cover on the door that keeps out the draft in winter in the front and blocks the sun in summer in the back. Last winter one of the stems that holds the louver (vertical slat) broke off in the frontroom, so when I wanted to move the blinds back for summer, I had to repair it before I could hang them back up. Here is a photoblog of how I did this.


I didn't have time to fix it right away, so I had a hole in between the blinds for the past week (I put a scarf on the door to cover it, so the neighbours in the flat across the street couldn't peek through;). In the photo on the right you can see the broken stem.


Carefully took the system apart (and took photos of the process, so I could see how it was supposed to be put back together...)


Fortunately this rail has 11 carrier bodies while I only have 10 slats, so all I have to do is I take the broken one out. To do this I still need to take the whole thing apart. It took me a while to figure out how to disconnect these plastic distance keeper strips*.


I managed to do it, but then after taking the carrier body with the broken stem out from between the rest, I fiddled a lot to connect the distance keeper again and in my struggle I broke one:(


Seeing as there is no tension on them, I figured I could repair it with tape and sure enough: that worked! Then I carefully fiddled some more to connect all the carrier bodies in one row:)


Now to put it all together again... (using the photos I took as a guide in reverse:)


Tadaah!

Shout out to this instruction video by Peter Heine who showed me that the rails could be taken apart and what parts I should be careful with (*his distance keeper strips were metal, so he didn't have to worry about breaking them;)

DIY job #2: The Windowsill
Ever since I replaced the huge marble windowsill with a smaller plain white one I've been meaning to fix the uncovered window frame. (I had to get rid of the marble to give the radiator underneath a chance of heating the livingroom properly). A former resident had to make a hole in it to fit the original marble, I filled it up with liquid wood before I painted the whole frame. Here are pictures before, during and after my DIY-efforts:









DIY job #3: The tiles in the kitchen
The grout between the tiles on my kitchen-wall looked dodgy. I thought I only had to whiten them a bit, but as it turns out that was a lot more work than I thought. When I cleaned them, following instructions on the tube with the whitening-solution, I found the grout rather damaged underneath the old layer of paint. So I had to fill the gaps first. I als discovered the pipes of the boiler could use a lick of paint. Besides cleaning, sanding and painting I had to do a lot of waiting in between. But I think the result is worth it:


BEFORE


Painted pipes, whitened grout.


Finished!

And just in case you missed it: DIY job #1: The Bookcase

All done now. Back to my favorite vacation-activity: slacking:)

Had a lot of DIY on my to-do list. While paint and wall fillers are drying, I can show you the one job I did get done today: straightening my bookcase. It was leaning like the Tower Of Pisa, thanks to me putting it on wheels because I thought I would occasionally want to move it around while redecorating. WRONG! As it turns out I like it against the wall, so I decided it was time to do what Ikea had told me to do in the first place and attach it to the wall for extra support.

BEFORE:


Notice how it's leaning away from the wall:


It was quite a hassle getting the screw in the wall in the right position...


But the result was well worth it: look at it, standing up straight:


Although after I had tightened the screws, it was not quite level with my floor anymore...


But I figured it would settle after I put my books back:


(It hasn't settled down yet: there is still a gap at the bottom, but it's hasn't toppled over either, so I trust it will be alright. Time will tell;)