Projects

I need to apologize for not writing a blog post on Friday – I sidetracked myself with a project that ended up taking a little longer than I anticipated.

One of the things I told hubby I wanted to do when we moved to the new apartment was replace the old filing cabinet. I don't know how old it was, but there's a strong likelihood that it could be 40 years old. It wasn't high end in the first place, and it's been moved too many times to count. All of that actually says that it was in pretty sad shape.....to say nothing of the fact that I no longer need a three-drawer file cabinet, now that the kids are gone and I'm not keeping files for them.

I tried to buy one before our move, so the old rickety one didn't have to come with us. But we couldn't find anyone in town with one for sale. If I'd had an extra box or two, I could have moved the files in those and ditched the old file cabinet. But I had just a few boxes and kept reusing them as I moved stuff over from the house – and by the time of the final move, they were all full of things for the movers to take.

And that was a long way of saying that I ordered a new two-drawer file cabinet online. It arrived just before noon Friday – and I decided around 2 that I would go ahead and assemble it. I opened the box and emptied out all the pieces-parts. After my immediate “what have I gotten myself into?” reaction, I grabbed the instructions and started sorting things out.

In the big picture, it went pretty well. I really didn't have anything that I had to take apart and assemble a second time. The thing that held me up for awhile was the drawer rails. I've put together all types of unassembled furniture. And the TV stand we got not long ago was made by the same company. That helped my familiarity with the different parts. Their instructions are all diagrams. Everything is pretty clearly marked with identifying marks......but there are no words. You have to look at the diagram and figure out that Tab A goes into Slot B.

I'm a visual person, so in the big picture I'd rather have diagrams without words instead of the opposite. I finally forced myself to really focus on the diagrams of the drawer rails, and suddenly I could clearly see how they went. And so I progressed, with the hammer and phillips head screwdriver. Before long, I had the shell done – and it seemed pretty solid.

I took a break for a few minutes, then I built the two drawers and installed them. And whaddya know – I had a file cabinet! The drawer rails worked like a charm. It felt good to transfer our files over and take that old metal monstrosity to the trash. We're both really happy with how the new one looks. But once I conquered that project, it was nearly supper time and I just didn't have the energy left to write a blog!

I hope everyone had as enjoyable weekend as we did. And this weather we have right now is great – our thermometer tells us it's 78 outside. The wind is gusting, but it feels great. Mom and I enjoyed attending a 90^th birthday reception yesterday afternoon for a friend. It's nice to be able to recognize these milestones with people you've known all your life.

It's another day, another week. My goal for this week is to actually find the time to write a blog post five days in a row! We'll all know by Saturday if I manage it or not.