Adventures in Home Improvement

A trip to Ikea on Saturday made for a fun Sunday morning filled with Home Improvement! There is now a shelf in the laundry room, at good height for us to fold laundry, and mostly intact. There were a couple of mishaps, which led to the front corner of the table getting dinged (anyone in the area have any wood glue?) and the bracket on the left-hand side getting bent. But it's up, stable, and for the most part, well done!



Hard to believe these boxes and this bare wall will soon be Useful!



About an hour later, behold! It sure felt like longer, though...



And about ten minutes after that, with the addition of a hook on the wall for the delicates bags, and tacking up the instructions for a load of laundry. Look at it! It's so wonderful!

Now, what did we learn from this experience, boys and girls? Well...

1. If you think it'll be easier with help, and help is available, if sleeping, WAIT FOR THE HELP! Don't think to yourself, "Aww, he's so sweet, sleeping there. I am Modern Woman; I can do this by myself, though it might be easier to wait until he gets up. But I want to surprise him with my Handyness!" No. If I had waited for help, there might not be a broken corner and a bent bracket.

2. When you are doing Home Improvement, clear the area of all non-essential equipment! If there's a mishap (which there were, a couple), you run the risk of breaking the non-essential equipment. Luckily, it didn't break, but it could have!

3. They may have done everything by hand eons ago, but sometimes, power tools make things easier. Now, I did all the assembly with non-power tools, and my hands still hurt from attaching the legs to the table-top. Ikea kindly gives you little tiny starting holes, but you're putting the screws into it with sheer muscle. And if you're not stripping the screws or the screwdriver, you're putting all your weight into the middle of your palm and turning... three millimetres at a time. Would it have been easier with power tools? Maybe. Too late to say now. But maybe I should have tried it, and saved my already painful hands.

End result? I've already used it to sort and fold laundry, and I love it! I'm a little frustrated that I broke it a little, but live and learn, right? Stay tuned! Adventures in Home Improvement (Phase II) will be coming once the weather gets nice enough to sand and seal wood outside!