Handy-Woman

I think it may be a fairly common misconception that I don’t know how to use tools. The reality is that, yes, I do know how to use tools, I just don’t get much practice. I know about screw drivers – phillips and flathead – which way to turn a screw – righty tighty, lefty loosey… I know how to use a drill and a hammer…. Anyway, basically I know how to use tools, I just usually don’t.

So, Robin and I purchased two small pieces of furniture this week both of which needed to be assembled. Robin had been busy between working 10 hour days and going to school so I thought I would save him the trouble of assembling the furniture and I would do it. Besides, it’s pretty impressive when your wife can put together furniture, right?

Project 1 – small drawers that Robin can file his paper work, school work, and various other office supplies into.

Before

After

Not too bad. It only took me about and hour and 15 minutes. I am an expert.

Project 2 – Larger drawers to put in our entry way.

Here is the picture of the directions:

One man, 1 hour, two tools. Ok, that isn’t too bad… One woman, one and a half hours (or two), two tools… I can do that.

Before

Now, let me explain some of the problems I had. I was happily assembling the drawer runners when I realized I put two of them on backwards… Turning them around would not have been a problem if I hadn’t accidentally stripped the head on one of the screws…. Lucky for me, my dad was awake and when I talked to him on the computer he gave me a quick solution to solve the problem. Ok, continue putting on drawer runners… wait a minute… that pre-drilled hole isn’t lining up! No way, no how. So I got out the drill and put a new hole in by myself (it didn’t mention a drill in the instructions). Continue assembling. It took me an hour just to complete step 1! Then the phone rings, but where is my phone… hmmm…. Got it. Ok, back to my project. The next few steps weren’t too hard… mostly. Then finally on to putting together the drawers… it says to use the wood glue, but it doesn’t say where. I put together one drawer just to make sure I could do it, but I didn’t use the glue. I put it in on the drawer runners, attached it with a screw, pushed the drawer in, then tried to pull it out… Oh, that’s where I need the wood glue! The face of the drawer came off in my hand. No problem; get the wood glue, apply to the pegs, push the face back on. Easy. So I put together the rest of the drawers, put them in the places and now I am the proud new owner of this lovely piece of furniture.

All in all, it took me about 3 hours.

I went to pick Robin up from work and I told him I had a surprise waiting for him at home. He was excited to see whatever the surprise was… he could hardly wait so he drove home fast. We walked in the door and he saw it. He liked it.

About an hour after he go home, I decided I wanted to try out a brownie recipe (the brownie mixes here aren’t very good). I started making brownies and Robin told me he had thought the surprise would be brownies… not furniture.

Note to self: leave the furniture assembly to Robin, I can just stick to making brownies J