random thoughts – Day 2,119 (Sunday) – assembly required

Old tracks and new tracks.

It was snowing (again) when I woke up today and it’s feeling like a daily situation that can stop any time now. As much as I would have liked to stay home staring out the window, it was the first day of dance group for the new year and we are scheduled to perform in a showcase in a month, so there would be no skipping out for me. I was prepared to assemble. 

The yard and driveway had a combination of freshly covered old tracks and recently made fresh tracks from the local wildlife, not that I could identify any of them. Luckily, the snow was light and fluffy and stopped before there was much accumulation. 

Driving back from dance the sky was blue and at times, the glare of the sun off the wet road was blinding. The wind blew powdery snow from the trees and created ghostly snow shapes in the air. Or maybe it was real ghosts. I’m certainly no expert in the world of the supernatural. As I passed Dunn Pond State Park, there was a sudden urge to go snowshoeing, but the snow shoes were still at home in the shed and not in the car where they belong in the winter.

Another piece of assembly-required furniture delivered this afternoon, on schedule as promised. It’s a bathroom storage cabinet that felt necessary to store the toilet paper closer to where it’s used and declutter the linen closet. The unit was on Amazon offered by two different companies at two different prices with one charging $10 more than the other. WalMart often has the same products available for delivery and I found it on that website for $20 to $30 less than the Amazon sellers. Then, I remembered I had a new postcard from Wayfair with 15% off. The Wayfair price was comparable to WalMart and the discount made it even less.

How it started.

It delivered mid-afternoon and I got busy with the assembly. There were a lot of pieces and hardware to be sorted but the instructions were remarkably clear and were illustrated well. I laid everything out on the bedroom rug which was the largest space available close to the final destination.

The instructions called for full assembly before placing the cabinet. That would have required lifting the 42-pound, 66-inch tall cabinet above the toilet tank to slide it into place behind the toilet. I can do some stunts, but that wasn’t one I was willing to try.

I assembled the lower half and placed it, then attached the assembled upper section. The only issue is the backing board couldn’t be screwed to the top edge of the bottom half but it’s a small price to pay to avoid breakage of a wall, the shelf, or myself. I also could have left off the bottom crossbar and slid the unit straight back to the wall, but the crossbar adds stability so I did the lift and lower installation. 

How it finished.

My measuring was good and the thing fits in the intended space, which is a small nook. The color in the product photos looked like a near exact match to the bathroom woodwork, and it’s close but a little bit off. The woodwork now looks more olive than sage by comparison, but daylight might have an affect, and it’s not something I am going to lose sleep over (there are plenty of other things for that). 

It only took a couple hours and it is possible there was not one single swear word uttered, which would rank the project as a near miracle. I may need to write to the company to congratulate them on the clarity of the instructions. The packaging is ready for Monday’s recycling and the cabinet is already stocked with toilet paper, tissues, and a surprising number of jugs of soap refills and shower pump soap which had been hidden in the previously crowded linen closet.