STUFF A CARPENTER SCREWED UP

—Peter Thomsen

“The irony is that our attempt to protect the precious finishes, along with my lacka-daisical slicing, directly led to the damage.” We’d just installed a whole kitchen-full of new cabinetry and were doing the final cleanup. In an abundance of caution, we’d taped cardboard to the fridge to protect the pristine stainless steel from the clunky shop vac. The cardboard kept a cabinet door from opening; we needed to vacuum inside. So I grabbed a box cutter, put a few fingers behind the flap as a spacer, and ran my knife down the length. My coworker had his hand on the offcut; as he pulled it free he gasped, hand to mouth, like a scandalized Southern belle. THE FIX The stainless-steel refrigerator was fine … not so the molecularly perfect, bright-white finish on…

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Old House Journal (Digital) - 1 Issue, September/October 2024

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