Anyone that knows me knows I'm cheap; if I find out something's going to cost me HUNDREDS of dollars that I can figure out to do on my own, I will ALWAYS choose "learn it & do it yourself, Ron." Always.
So we're in the process of selling our home and one of the "punch list" items after the home inspection was "replace frayed or torn window screens," and much to my dismay, I learned you can't just walk into your local Lowe's or Home Depot and buy four-packs of pre-made, pre-framed window screens. I mean, I kinda thought most home windows are standard size and figured the screens would match. They do this for filters for heating & air systems, so why do they NOT do this for window screens?
Anyhow; they don't. Lo and behold, there I was, buying rolls of window screen and spline (the thin rubber you put in the groove to keep the window screen in the frame and a spline tool to help you embed that spline in that groove.
Freely admitting to this ... the first couple screens didn't come out so good. I was using a flat-head screwdriver to press that spline in REAL good, and that screwdriver was also slicing the screen on the wrong (inside) side of the spline, so I was replacing torn screen with a newly-torn screen. D'oh!
That said, once I got the hang of it, I got 'er done! All. Fourteen. Of them. Plus it was warm-ish outside all weekend so I kind of enjoyed that. So did Herschel, the cat; we harnessed and leashed him up for some father-cat time out in the sun.
So what "do-it-yourself" (DIY) project have you tackled and conquered? Brag away!
ABOVE: those 5 lb weights were finally of some use to me as I re-screened 14 window screens at home this weekend.