Shot in the dark here, but does anyone have any suggestions for tricks for tightening cabinet hinges that have come loose? I’m guessing it’s humidity related, but about half the doors in our new kitchen are slight askew now, and one of the hinges are a bit loose. Going to attack them with a screwdriver this weekend.
Not sure if there’s special tricks to lining them up or anything. My only thought is using a manual screwdriver, not the electric, to keep things from going wild.
If the screws were overtightened, there may not be room for a larger screw. One trick is to get a sliver of wood* or two, depending on how thick they are, about the length the screw was into the wood, and put it in the hole. It gives the screw a little extra to bite into. I’ve heard about putting a little wood glue in the hole, too, but only if you don’t anticipate the screw needing to be be removed. The screw needs to go in with the glue wet; if the glue is dry, the screw will likely split the wood. I haven’t done it with glue, because if the screw is ever removed, I don’t want it to tear out a big chunk of wood on the way out.
I’d go manual, too. Need to be able to feel if it starts getting mushy.
*just a sliver, you don’t want it too thick. sometimes a toothpick will work, but it might be too thick - can try to cut it in half lengthwise or whittling it down a bit. Actually, the results of whittling would probably be about the right thickness, too.
EDIT: Above method is for solid wood. If it is particle board, then maybe a dab of glue would be helpful to bond the sliver to the loosened particles and firm everything up in there.
EDIT2: If the power/manual screwdriver / going wild part is because you’re putting screws in new holes, I would also recommend drilling a very small pilot hole, just to insure that the screws are going where you want them, though I know that can be a bitch if you’re holding a door up and eyeballing everything while contorted into a cabinet.
If particle board, the best solution is to drill the hole out to the size of a wooden dowel, glue/insert the dowel, re-drill the hole. I don’t know how many times I had to do this after drilling out the tiny brass screws that always broke the heads off as soon as I got them where I wanted them.
Ooh, I like that. Especially if using the fluted dowels made for assembly/gluing.
Ok, insurance will cover it. They pushed closing back, again, so we’re going to try gonna be it all fixed by the time they take possession. And then present it as a done deal.
I’ve used toothpicks in the past to do this, but I like @Rizak’s idea if it’s particleboard.
I’ve used this method to tighten loose hinges on doors in our previous house (all doors were solid 6-panel wood doors with hollow-core hinges.) It worked well for a short time, but due to the weight of the doors I was working with, I had to replace some of the screws with longer ones that held better.
However for something like cabinet doors I would think that this would work (and was going to suggest it before I read your post - now I’ll just second it) - unless, of course, your doors are made of solid lead or something. 
Yay, great news!
We ended up just tightening a few screws and it solved the issue. It’s mainly the cabinets we use most wiggled out a bit. We’ll see if it persists.
One of the most satisfying videos I’ve watched in a long time.
Oh, and I want to buy a set of stilts.
Since the start of pandemic lockdown, we’ve had to call someone in to repair the dryer, replace the water heater, and now the fridge has died (damn you, LG linear compressors!).
And the entire supply chain for major appliances is b0rked. I ended up buying a display model from a shop way up near the city because it was literally the only unit that hit anywhere near our requirements.
I hear ya. My Rolla is in for an engine overhaul, and it’s a struggle to get parts, COVID19’s causing supply chain b0rkage.
AC is acting up again. I’m not getting the guy out we had previously. He has a bad reputation apparently and is a miserable person to work with.
I did some digging on this a while back when we were thinking of buying massive quantities of meat to store. Turns out due to the changes in freon they can use a lot of the factories that make parts were shut down already before the Chinese New Year for adjustments in the manufacturing lines. They were supposed to finish just after the New Year, but obviously not. Even the models “made in America” rely on Chinese parts often.
We were due for a freezer shortage already this spring, COVID just made it that much worse.
We just sprayed for ants again yesterday. The guy came in and sprayed the bedroom and bathroom and did a fogging in the attic. There is no activity anywhere except in those rooms and on the ceiling. If they have a nest in the walls or the attic, I’m in for a very unhappy time. 21 days until the new poison reaches peak effectiveness. I guess we’ll see. There are flying carpenter ants as well as tiny pavement ants. The Dragonlady gets totally freaked out by ants. Spiders she likes. Ants, no. Anything with a thousand legs, no.
When I retire in about 10 years, we plan to sell this house in Ottawa (Ontario) and move to Moncton (New Brunswick). I can easily get $400k for this place and buying a more suitable place there will be less than half of that. The way things are going, we could move there now and I could telework. I am so low on the pecking order that I never get the pager for overtime so I don’t need to go in to the office to fix anything. I can handle everything online, as I have been for the last 5 months. It’s a really tempting idea. Rent a place there, pack up and move, find a good home, move in. I mean, we’ve been constantly watching the housing market there and we’d easily be able to find a home that would be close to perfect and be in our budget to fix up the way we like. A really decent home in the area I grew up can be had for $185k.
REALLY tempting.
Take a look at realtor.ca to see what I mean.
EDIT: Whoops. My mistake. This is a link to what is basically my house. $550k. Mine would need a bunch of work to get it into that shape, but it’s a good number. No upgrades but a corner lot.
Getting so much closer. Old fridge to the garage, new fridge hooked to water, most of the he cabinets up, and dishwasher installed and running a test wash right now.
However, did you know that some people install hot water pipes up against studs so when you install cabinets you can drill right through the pipe? 
This is why I took photos of a lot of our walls before drywall went up.
Sadly I did not have that information prior to drilling through the hot water pipe. And then we put the repair thingy on and the pipes wouldn’t seat so now I have three extra holes in my wall. At least they should be covered by the cabinets and backsplash. 
I have an appointment with an electrician tomorrow morning to discuss upgrading to 200 amp power and running power to the garage, finally. How long ago did you come up here to help me run power @DocDubious?