A True "Labour" Day
You know the one thing I've learned about owning your own home is that you really do need to rely on yourself to get things done around the house. The floor isn't going to sweep itself after all. So I decided that I should really put this into practice in all areas of home improvements and projects. I found a great deal on hutch for the space between my living and dining areas and borrowed Dad's truck to go pick it up with my friend Christine on Saturday of the long weekend. There was nothing going on Sunday and the weather was grey so I took it upon myself to open the box and get started constructing the new piece. According to the box, all I needed was a Phillips screwdriver (which my handy home tool kil contained) so I thought - it can't be too hard, I'm going to do it!
After laying out the approx hundred pieces and reading the instruction manual through, I proceeded to follow step-by-step what it said to do. Besides being a slow process, it actually wasn't all that tough to make the structure. Two hours in and I was nearing the last few pieces and constructing the larger portions when I realized I had a piece (from near the beginning) in backwards! Grrr... what a pain. My energy and motivation was weaning at this point and I was sweating so I took a walk over to Mom and Dad's to get some air. After telling them what I had been up to, Dad drove me back to take a look. He and I took apart the work and reversed the erroneous board. He then helped me to put it back together and I finished up... only to discover that another piece was also in backwards... Dad said to leave it and he'd come tomorrow and fix / finish it. After he left, I decided that wasn't what I had set out to do and that would be taking the easy way out. So, I worked back until I could get to the wrongly placed part, corrected its position and proceeded to complete what I had started. Three and a half hours of work but a huge feeling of satisfaction in the end.
I think this fall is going to present a lot of challenges like that and I hope my experience with the hutch has better prepared me for other obstacles ahead.
After laying out the approx hundred pieces and reading the instruction manual through, I proceeded to follow step-by-step what it said to do. Besides being a slow process, it actually wasn't all that tough to make the structure. Two hours in and I was nearing the last few pieces and constructing the larger portions when I realized I had a piece (from near the beginning) in backwards! Grrr... what a pain. My energy and motivation was weaning at this point and I was sweating so I took a walk over to Mom and Dad's to get some air. After telling them what I had been up to, Dad drove me back to take a look. He and I took apart the work and reversed the erroneous board. He then helped me to put it back together and I finished up... only to discover that another piece was also in backwards... Dad said to leave it and he'd come tomorrow and fix / finish it. After he left, I decided that wasn't what I had set out to do and that would be taking the easy way out. So, I worked back until I could get to the wrongly placed part, corrected its position and proceeded to complete what I had started. Three and a half hours of work but a huge feeling of satisfaction in the end.
I think this fall is going to present a lot of challenges like that and I hope my experience with the hutch has better prepared me for other obstacles ahead.