All I did was follow the directions. My wife wanted me to install bathroom towel racks.
Simple, right? I didn’t even try to do it my way (like in the old Home Improvement shows). I followed the directions exactly right.
I was instructed to tape a template to the wall using a level.
It looked great until I stepped back.
Now it looks like the towel racks were installed in an amusement fun house. They look as if in the process of climbing. I tried a towel on them. Perhaps the towel will cover up my workmanship. The towel slumped to one side. "Great!" I thought sarcastically.
The volume level in my home is going to be rising tonight!
Somewhere, some place near; a husband in Suburbia land followed the instructions exactly and his wife is praising him for doing the job right!
The lesson here is simple: When living in an historic home, there are many hidden and open benefits but plum lines are not one of them. Some two hundred plus years puts a gravitational wear on a building. My floors and walls curve (depending on where they are) either out to the exterior walls or curve into the interior wall.
The right thing to do is to take a tape measure and make sure the racks are equal distance from the floor plane.
Perhaps I can fix it before she gets home!
-P. Preservationist
Brick and Tree 