It's Tool Time!

While I love my current desk, it has one drawback. It's very narrow. I also have a very hard time keeping it clear, so when I saw a little stand in an ad, I was intrigued. And when it went on sale, I bought it.

Of course, some assembly was required.

The instructions said you needed two people to put the stand together, but I did it on my own without much difficulty. It just took a little bit of work to balance the pieces without someone holding them for me. Not a big deal.

My dad always checked the pieces before he began putting things together, but I didn't feel like it, so I decided to wing it. I actually had one extra of each screw and fastener, so it was okay. No half-finished projects sitting on my office floor.

Well, assembly projects. I do have some half-finished knitting projects sitting on the floor. :-)

Luckily, the instructions were clear and all the parts were labeled. This helped it be an easy task.

As you can see in the picture above, the stand came flat-packed in a small box.

This picture shows the first two pieces attached to each other. We're underway!

This picture shows the stand upside down as I attach the bottom piece. I just need to put the screws in and tighten them.

This picture is the finished stand with the top freshly attached. Done!

 

I thought I would use the stand to get the laptop off my desk, but the cord between my docking station and the laptop isn't long enough. I could buy another cord, but I moved my writer's planner to the stand instead. This is actually working really well because I have it close enough that I can lean over and read my writing to do list whenever I need to.

Before I moved the planner, I was worried having a separate one for writing was going to be another fail. I wasn't looking at it. Once I moved it to the stand, where it's close at hand, I began to use it every day. This planner is still an experiment, but after the shift in location, it seems to be working.

Just Call Me Handy Andi

While my parents were still in Atlanta, my dad (with some help from me) assembled a night stand, a TV stand, and a coffee table. I didn't think I needed anything else. That soon proved to be a wrong assumption.

I had a chair next to the recliner that I put the phone on, the TV remote, my box of Puffs tissues, and assorted other things as the situation dictated. The top of the folding chair was far too small for everything I wanted at hand and there was much grumbling from me as I shifted things around. I finally admitted I needed an end table and it arrived today. Some assembly required.

This was my first time assembling anything on my own. I counted out my parts and ensured everything was present and accounted for. I checked the wood to make sure it was in good condition and then I began putting legs on the table.

The directions failed to mention I needed a Phillips screwdriver. They provided an Allen wrench and I thought that was all I needed. Luckily, my dad left some tools here or I would have had to run out and bought one today.

Other than that, things went relatively smoothly last night. Except for one thing. The end table wobbles. It's not too bad and it'll have to be good enough until my dad comes down again and can fix my assembly.

Assembly Required

On Wednesday, I bought a new shower caddy to replace the rusted out one and decided to get a new shower head, too. I wanted one that was stationary and had a hand-held unit as well. It's been a PITA to clean the shower since I moved into the house, and at times, I've even resorted to using my toothbrush cup to rinse cleaning solutions off the walls. Yeah, not too slick.

Both items claimed ten minute assembly. They lied.

We started with the shower head since it would be easier to maneuver without the caddy in the corner. And yes, you know my dad was over helping me. The old shower head came off easily, the new one went on relatively easily, but the adjustable spray functions on both heads wouldn't work.

My dad suggested that maybe it took water pressure, and since that sounded logical, I pulled up my sleeve (It snowed here Wednesday morning, so we're still wearing long sleeves in MN) and turned on the water. Then I reached up and over and tried to turn the ring to adjust the spray.

No go. And now I have water running down my arm.

After I turned off the water, I went online and did a search. No helpful information turned up. Apparently no one else in the world ever had trouble getting this shower unit's sprayers to work. Sigh. I went to the company website, got a phone number, and called.

The woman I talked to said to force it. I finally got one to move, but not the other. She said to take the other head down and hold it. If I forced it and it broke, she'd send a new one. I had to pull off my socks and get in the wet shower to get the head down. It took a hell of a lot of force, but I did get it to move. As I went to tell the woman eureka! my wet feet slipped on the floor and I went down.

Since I've been a klutz all my life, this didn't particularly faze me. I just went to the phone, thanked the woman and hung up. My dad, though, was all upset. Sigh. Guess he forgot all the bones I've broken, ankles I've sprained, and bruises I've acquired as I've fallen, walked into to stuff, tripped over stuff, etc. I wasn't hurt, BTW.

Onto the next project. Assembly shower caddy with three baskets. This is where I really hurt myself.

It seemed like such a simple thing--use the scissors to cut off the tie wraps fastening the pieces to each other. Unfortunately, they were very sturdy tie wraps, and as I applied force (More force!), the pad of my index finger went between the scissor handles. I have a dark discoloration under the skin. I'm assuming it's a small blood pool subsurface.

Adding the extension to the shower caddy was where we ran into problems on this project. It took a visit to this manufacturer's website to find more detailed information that made everything clear. Also, my ceiling is marked up from the rubber foot. Some of it came off, but there's more that I missed. Project for another day.

So basic breakdown: 2 projects each supposed to take 10 minutes for a total of 20 minutes. Actual assembly time: 2 projects, 1 hour per project for a total of 2 hours.