Getting Ready

I am 64 and my dad is 86. I called him and asked if he could come to my house on Saturday to remove the cabinet over the refrigerator so the new fridge will fit. I spent Friday evening clearing out the cabinet over the fridge (I store liquor up there. I don't drink, so it works for me.) Then I cleaned off the fridge. I removed all the magnets and knicknacks.

"Oops, I dropped a screw."

My dad doesn't drive much, so I went over to pick him up. We gathered a few tools and headed back to my house.  First we moved the fridge out of the way, brought out the step stools and got to work.

First we removed the doors, and the screws holding that cabinet to its neighbor. The cabinet came out smoothly. We cleaned up all the dust, and got the wallpaper out. There was a scrap big enough to fill the space. "How are you going to hold it in place" my dad wanted to know?

"Spray adhesive," I replied. My dad arched an eyebrow. I laughed. Now, my dad and I work great together. He's easy to be with, and never lets anything get the better of him. Even if something goes wrong, we just put it right without any fuss. You can read about one of our adventures here.

I held up the piece of wallpaper and we taped it in place with blue painter's tape. Then I took it down and trimmed one edge using one of my big long quilting rulers. We put it back up, and I used the spray adhesive to hold it in place. My dad gave advice, and sometimes I took it, and sometimes I laughed. I wasn't worried about matching the design or even lining it up with what was already there.

After we slid the fridge back into place my dad measured the opening. He thinks we might be able to salvage the cabinet by trimming it down a bit. I have my reservations. I moved the liquor to a different spot anyway.