Sod's Murphy
I'm nearing the end of my 4-day weekend and while I'd probably enjoy some more time off after the way the last few days have gone I find I kinda want to go back to the office.
I couldn't sleep Friday night, due in great part to the 3 hour nap I took after work and possibly the large cup of coffee I drank after I awoke. After tossing in bed for hours, at 4:30 I said fuck it and got up to make some breakfast. I scrambled an egg with some sausage, had another cup of coffee (decaf, this time), and watched a documentary on how they are training elephants to track poachers. I went back to bed and managed to nap for a bit before being woken by the Orange parade. This is some sort of religious parade, the purpose of which seems to be to generate awareness of their religion but results in a lot of people angry that the bible thumpers have added drums.
I got up, got dressed, and took the subway over to Partick to see if the shop had received any new furniture in. I want a new, larger, wardrobe unit for my bedroom as well as a nightstand and bookcase and rolling tv stand. I walked thru the shop twice, but just wasn't inspired by any of the pieces. I crossed the street to the post office and dropped off the two ebay sales, and then double-backed to the train station to catch the twelve o'clock to Drumchapel. From there I walked about a mile to the retail park, stopping at Sainsburys to pick up several bottles of the ginger/lemongrass hand soap I like so much and then made a bee-line over to the B&Q (exactly same thing as Home Depot) to get my supplies.
I was in there for a couple of hours, going up & down each aisle trying to locate every item on my list. I needed paint for my bedroom, of which I'd use the extra in the lounge closet, lamp re-wiring kit, shelves for the kitchen, brackets for the frames, paint for the nightstand, etc. I made the purchases, loaded up the backpack with the bulk of the stuff and put the shelves into a carry bag and set off for the train station. Part way there I was full-on sweaty and questioning my wisdom in not calling a taxi, but the exercise felt really good and by the time I made it home I was exhausted but happy with a feeling of achievement.
First project I started was the lamp re-wire. I have these two basic clear-glass lamps my sister brought across with her this last trip and while they are in serious need of a bath, they are from my great-grandmother & grandmother and have a lot of sentimental value to me. I recently purchased two lampshades that will be just perfect and I know these will look fabulous on my sideboards, all I had to do was change the wiring to UK (to be fair, they were so old that had I still been in the US I would have eventually re-wired anyway). I gathered my tools, pulled out the parts, and discovered that despite bringing the old parts with me "Bob" had given me the wrong replacement parts. Disappointed!
On to the next project, installing shelves in the kitchen. I'd had a giant board cut down to size which I'd just planned to set onto glass blocks, but "Bob" sold me on the idea of using these brackets. I began to screw the brackets onto the first board, under estimated the size of one of the screws and screwed the shelf to the floor, cussed and unscrewed the screw and continued until all three brackets were in place. At this point I discovered that with all three brackets on I would need to take the cupboard door off to get the shelf in. And then also had to remove the middle bracket. All done, I get the shelf in and reattach the middle bracket and realize that with the distance and crappy walls I won't have the strength to screw the brackets to the back of the cupboard. Frustrated as hell, I sent a text to ember begging assistance.
While waiting for ember to arrive I decided to dye my hair blond. I've contemplated this for months, because I am craving something drastic and since I've already whacked off all my hair a radical change in color is the closest to rebellion I can get. I've got a few extra greys lately, so left the color on the full 45 minutes. Rinsed, conditioned, and then blown dry I discovered my hair remained the exact same color! After years of coloring my hair, this wasn't the first time I'd done this switch up so I knew that to take my hair from medium golden brown to blond I would need to use a very light ash blond (ash to get rid of the red, I don't want strawberry blond). The roots are lighter, but otherwise I still have frickin' medium golden brown hair. I'm not sure if I should consider this a failure, or the universe telling me that blond is just not a good idea. At this point I can't be arsed to buy another box of color, so I'm gonna go with the universe on this.
Ember arrived to look at the shelves, nixed the bracket idea, and decided to cut me 'legs' using the left over piece of wood. Ember then went home and I decided to test the paint color for my room before I went to bed. I opened the plastic bucket and then somehow, I never know just how, the lid flipped out of my hand and landed paint-side down onto the carpet. I blotted it up and left it to dry, figuring I will brush it out when its dry instead of grinding it into the carpet. I decided I'd had enough of the snafus and went in to wash up and go to bed. I opened one of the new containers of handsoap and as I went to put the soap into my existing GLASS dispenser it slipped and crashed into the sink breaking into pieces. Luckily the sink wasn't chipped and I wasn't cut as I disposed of the glass. I washed my hands, using the good ol' plastic bottle the soap comes in, and went to the spare room to sleep.
I awoke after a nice long sleep and thought to start straight away on my room. I got an old tupperware container for the paint, one missing its lid, and brush in hand climbed up the ladder. The texture of this wall paper means I had to paint the entire room by hand, not normally that big of a deal, except these are very tall ceilings and I don't have either the dexterity or stamina that I had before my car accident in 2001. Which was demonstrably evident when just a few short minutes into painting I managed to 'let go' of the container sending paint splashing all down the backside of the door (lucky, that, as I was able to scrap off and save most of it), but also onto my mirror, the radiator, and all in front of the doorway-- the area not covered in plastic. Joy. I tidied up best I could and opted for breakfast and full strength coffee before tackling it again.
All day I would work just a two foot area and then rest. Long going, but no more mishaps and while it took me all friggin’ day to paint it, my room is done. I was literally scraping the bottom of the bucket there getting the last drops and just managed to give the whole room one coat, but since I decided I like the color I won’t need to go over it with another coat. I had purchased this light, cream color but when applied to the gold/mustard/babypoop already on the wall it turned a sort of taupe color. It is so much brighter in there now and I’m quite pleased with the end result.
When I moved into this flat, the previous tenants had left behind a couple pieces of furniture the landlord said I could either use or toss. I kept the nightstand and its been in the spare room, but with the new paint in my bedroom I wanted to get myself a better nightstand than the pine Ikea box I’ve been using. I haven’t been able to find anything at the charity shop and I can’t/won’t buy anything new so I’ve decided to go the cheaper route and snazz up the old nightstand. On Monday I got up and took the nightstand from the guest room out to the back yard, emptied out the drawers, sanded the chipped bits, removed the old drawer pulls, and wiped it down. I then set it on some newspaper, shook the can of black spray paint and then applied it with several quick light layers (this avoids drip marks and aids in quicker drying). As it wasn’t windy I would have left it outside to dry, but it started to rain (of course it did) so I moved it back into the close, left it to dry for a couple of hours and then put new drawer pulls on. Its still a little tacky to the touch, so I’m going to leave it sit the rest of the week before I set anything on it.
I quickly showered and enlisted ember to drive me back to B&Q where I returned all the wrong parts and got (I thought) all the right parts for the lamp, and then over to asda so I could load up on some groceries. Back at the flat I put away all the food, grabbed some lunch, and started my next project -- installing a clothes rod in the utility closet. I don’t have a wardrobe in the spare room, and while I do have hooks on the back of the doors, it might be nice for my guests to have somewhere to hang clothes, if need be. I wanted to re-use the rod that we removed from the lounge closet, but it isn’t long enough to hang outright in the utility closet, so I bought two rod hook thingymajigs that will install the rod directly off the shelf. Aside from reaffirming the knowledge that I’m greatly lacking in upper body strength, this was a pretty straight forward project. Hold bracket up against shelf, draw where hole should go, hammer a starter hole, then install screw. The last part took about 15 minutes and produced the same amount of rapid breathing and sweat that half an hour of yoga does.
It was late when I re-started the re-wiring project and well, let's just say it didn't go well. The parts were NOT the correct ones (AGAIN) and I only discovered this when it was too late to get the lampholder off which I tried to do wherein I managed to slice up my hand and also drop the lamp onto the coffee table, shattering the glass top. I wrote a scathing entry about B&Q and the 'burning hetred' I was feeling, and then took myself to bed before things got any further out of hand. I watched Beaches and had a good cry and in the morning I awoke with a solution for the 2nd lamp. First lamp is going to have to remain wonky since I couldn’t get the lampholder off.
On my way home from the hospital this morning (just a hearing aid checkup) I stopped at the local Mom & Pop shop and purchased 5 washers to sit at the bottom of the stem and take up the extra space. Got home, assembled the lamp with extra washers, wired the lamp holder, threaded the wire through the stem, wired the plug, added the lampshade, inserted a bulb, plugged it in and voila it works. Fifteen minutes. Just 4 years, 6000 miles, two trips to B&Q, £90 (£25 parts, £15 travel, £40 shades), sliced hand, shattered coffee table, and I finally have my table lamps.
Laundry is washed and hung to dry, kitchen is still a frickin' disaster, I've got newspaper strewn about the living room and I just had a very long nap on the sofa with the sun on my face and the fresh breeze blowing through the flat. All said, this has been a very good weekend.
I couldn't sleep Friday night, due in great part to the 3 hour nap I took after work and possibly the large cup of coffee I drank after I awoke. After tossing in bed for hours, at 4:30 I said fuck it and got up to make some breakfast. I scrambled an egg with some sausage, had another cup of coffee (decaf, this time), and watched a documentary on how they are training elephants to track poachers. I went back to bed and managed to nap for a bit before being woken by the Orange parade. This is some sort of religious parade, the purpose of which seems to be to generate awareness of their religion but results in a lot of people angry that the bible thumpers have added drums.
I got up, got dressed, and took the subway over to Partick to see if the shop had received any new furniture in. I want a new, larger, wardrobe unit for my bedroom as well as a nightstand and bookcase and rolling tv stand. I walked thru the shop twice, but just wasn't inspired by any of the pieces. I crossed the street to the post office and dropped off the two ebay sales, and then double-backed to the train station to catch the twelve o'clock to Drumchapel. From there I walked about a mile to the retail park, stopping at Sainsburys to pick up several bottles of the ginger/lemongrass hand soap I like so much and then made a bee-line over to the B&Q (exactly same thing as Home Depot) to get my supplies.
I was in there for a couple of hours, going up & down each aisle trying to locate every item on my list. I needed paint for my bedroom, of which I'd use the extra in the lounge closet, lamp re-wiring kit, shelves for the kitchen, brackets for the frames, paint for the nightstand, etc. I made the purchases, loaded up the backpack with the bulk of the stuff and put the shelves into a carry bag and set off for the train station. Part way there I was full-on sweaty and questioning my wisdom in not calling a taxi, but the exercise felt really good and by the time I made it home I was exhausted but happy with a feeling of achievement.
First project I started was the lamp re-wire. I have these two basic clear-glass lamps my sister brought across with her this last trip and while they are in serious need of a bath, they are from my great-grandmother & grandmother and have a lot of sentimental value to me. I recently purchased two lampshades that will be just perfect and I know these will look fabulous on my sideboards, all I had to do was change the wiring to UK (to be fair, they were so old that had I still been in the US I would have eventually re-wired anyway). I gathered my tools, pulled out the parts, and discovered that despite bringing the old parts with me "Bob" had given me the wrong replacement parts. Disappointed!
On to the next project, installing shelves in the kitchen. I'd had a giant board cut down to size which I'd just planned to set onto glass blocks, but "Bob" sold me on the idea of using these brackets. I began to screw the brackets onto the first board, under estimated the size of one of the screws and screwed the shelf to the floor, cussed and unscrewed the screw and continued until all three brackets were in place. At this point I discovered that with all three brackets on I would need to take the cupboard door off to get the shelf in. And then also had to remove the middle bracket. All done, I get the shelf in and reattach the middle bracket and realize that with the distance and crappy walls I won't have the strength to screw the brackets to the back of the cupboard. Frustrated as hell, I sent a text to ember begging assistance.
While waiting for ember to arrive I decided to dye my hair blond. I've contemplated this for months, because I am craving something drastic and since I've already whacked off all my hair a radical change in color is the closest to rebellion I can get. I've got a few extra greys lately, so left the color on the full 45 minutes. Rinsed, conditioned, and then blown dry I discovered my hair remained the exact same color! After years of coloring my hair, this wasn't the first time I'd done this switch up so I knew that to take my hair from medium golden brown to blond I would need to use a very light ash blond (ash to get rid of the red, I don't want strawberry blond). The roots are lighter, but otherwise I still have frickin' medium golden brown hair. I'm not sure if I should consider this a failure, or the universe telling me that blond is just not a good idea. At this point I can't be arsed to buy another box of color, so I'm gonna go with the universe on this.
Ember arrived to look at the shelves, nixed the bracket idea, and decided to cut me 'legs' using the left over piece of wood. Ember then went home and I decided to test the paint color for my room before I went to bed. I opened the plastic bucket and then somehow, I never know just how, the lid flipped out of my hand and landed paint-side down onto the carpet. I blotted it up and left it to dry, figuring I will brush it out when its dry instead of grinding it into the carpet. I decided I'd had enough of the snafus and went in to wash up and go to bed. I opened one of the new containers of handsoap and as I went to put the soap into my existing GLASS dispenser it slipped and crashed into the sink breaking into pieces. Luckily the sink wasn't chipped and I wasn't cut as I disposed of the glass. I washed my hands, using the good ol' plastic bottle the soap comes in, and went to the spare room to sleep.
I awoke after a nice long sleep and thought to start straight away on my room. I got an old tupperware container for the paint, one missing its lid, and brush in hand climbed up the ladder. The texture of this wall paper means I had to paint the entire room by hand, not normally that big of a deal, except these are very tall ceilings and I don't have either the dexterity or stamina that I had before my car accident in 2001. Which was demonstrably evident when just a few short minutes into painting I managed to 'let go' of the container sending paint splashing all down the backside of the door (lucky, that, as I was able to scrap off and save most of it), but also onto my mirror, the radiator, and all in front of the doorway-- the area not covered in plastic. Joy. I tidied up best I could and opted for breakfast and full strength coffee before tackling it again.
All day I would work just a two foot area and then rest. Long going, but no more mishaps and while it took me all friggin’ day to paint it, my room is done. I was literally scraping the bottom of the bucket there getting the last drops and just managed to give the whole room one coat, but since I decided I like the color I won’t need to go over it with another coat. I had purchased this light, cream color but when applied to the gold/mustard/babypoop already on the wall it turned a sort of taupe color. It is so much brighter in there now and I’m quite pleased with the end result.
When I moved into this flat, the previous tenants had left behind a couple pieces of furniture the landlord said I could either use or toss. I kept the nightstand and its been in the spare room, but with the new paint in my bedroom I wanted to get myself a better nightstand than the pine Ikea box I’ve been using. I haven’t been able to find anything at the charity shop and I can’t/won’t buy anything new so I’ve decided to go the cheaper route and snazz up the old nightstand. On Monday I got up and took the nightstand from the guest room out to the back yard, emptied out the drawers, sanded the chipped bits, removed the old drawer pulls, and wiped it down. I then set it on some newspaper, shook the can of black spray paint and then applied it with several quick light layers (this avoids drip marks and aids in quicker drying). As it wasn’t windy I would have left it outside to dry, but it started to rain (of course it did) so I moved it back into the close, left it to dry for a couple of hours and then put new drawer pulls on. Its still a little tacky to the touch, so I’m going to leave it sit the rest of the week before I set anything on it.
I quickly showered and enlisted ember to drive me back to B&Q where I returned all the wrong parts and got (I thought) all the right parts for the lamp, and then over to asda so I could load up on some groceries. Back at the flat I put away all the food, grabbed some lunch, and started my next project -- installing a clothes rod in the utility closet. I don’t have a wardrobe in the spare room, and while I do have hooks on the back of the doors, it might be nice for my guests to have somewhere to hang clothes, if need be. I wanted to re-use the rod that we removed from the lounge closet, but it isn’t long enough to hang outright in the utility closet, so I bought two rod hook thingymajigs that will install the rod directly off the shelf. Aside from reaffirming the knowledge that I’m greatly lacking in upper body strength, this was a pretty straight forward project. Hold bracket up against shelf, draw where hole should go, hammer a starter hole, then install screw. The last part took about 15 minutes and produced the same amount of rapid breathing and sweat that half an hour of yoga does.
It was late when I re-started the re-wiring project and well, let's just say it didn't go well. The parts were NOT the correct ones (AGAIN) and I only discovered this when it was too late to get the lampholder off which I tried to do wherein I managed to slice up my hand and also drop the lamp onto the coffee table, shattering the glass top. I wrote a scathing entry about B&Q and the 'burning hetred' I was feeling, and then took myself to bed before things got any further out of hand. I watched Beaches and had a good cry and in the morning I awoke with a solution for the 2nd lamp. First lamp is going to have to remain wonky since I couldn’t get the lampholder off.On my way home from the hospital this morning (just a hearing aid checkup) I stopped at the local Mom & Pop shop and purchased 5 washers to sit at the bottom of the stem and take up the extra space. Got home, assembled the lamp with extra washers, wired the lamp holder, threaded the wire through the stem, wired the plug, added the lampshade, inserted a bulb, plugged it in and voila it works. Fifteen minutes. Just 4 years, 6000 miles, two trips to B&Q, £90 (£25 parts, £15 travel, £40 shades), sliced hand, shattered coffee table, and I finally have my table lamps.
Laundry is washed and hung to dry, kitchen is still a frickin' disaster, I've got newspaper strewn about the living room and I just had a very long nap on the sofa with the sun on my face and the fresh breeze blowing through the flat. All said, this has been a very good weekend.
posted by Gertie at 20:35
2 Comments:
Wow! I would have given up on the home improvement projects long before you did if I were having the same luck. I have to say that the end results are fabulous, though. It's amazing what paint and new pulls can do to an old piece of furniture.
heh - believe me, I had many the thought of giving up!
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