My installer had a headache from the kind of cramped position the shelf put him into and as much as I wished it, it wasn't to be. I am just tickled pink though at what we did do. Okay, what he did. I just picked up the screws he dropped and handed him shelf brackets.
After the install. I know.
It doesn't look like much but in my eyes, it is huge. 64 inches of straight across storage on a 32 inch deep shelf up to a height of 3 feet. It doesn't take much to tickle my fancy, does it? The other little things were just busy work. The water connection on the washer, which had always been wrong, are in order and it is clean and dust free behind the unit. And the unit is back in its place square after sitting crooked in its space since I tried washing a pillow in it in the summer. Bad move, that.
Why this storage? Seriously, how much Christmas stuff can you need and why the artificial tree to store when storage is at a premium? These are really good questions asked over and over again the last years, at the house long before Brian's passing and since. It became urgent last year. I needed a different sort of tree. The 2 other trees were far too big for this small house already so filled. I debated for months about artificial versus real. I even debated the merits of no tree at all. The quest was filled with a great deal of anguish that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense out of context. Bottom line is there is nothing for the soul like a real tree and nothing near like its scent but the convenience of artificial can't be beat. I like the tree to be up the first week of December and I like to keep it up to Ukrainian Christmas. Real trees need constant and regular watering. They just don't last that long with a travel break in the middle while I go visiting.
That was what made the choice in the end. I knew the storage would be an issue, but knew it could addressed. I originally envisioned it would go outside, in my small storage box behind my deck but it was impossible to get to it once the snow came. I did not expect finding the solution to take this long!
I spent a very little more money than I planned when I was out, but it was very, very well spent.
I have a little Ryobi battery powered screwdriver. It does the job but the batteries don't last long enough to complete even a small shelving project and it just doesn't have enough power for occasions I might want to drill. And yes, I do on occasion. Like fixing my front screen door or remodeling existing shelving that could use a reinforcing extra screw on the side, into a shelf to hold up the heavy burden of my books. I needed a girl drill.
Girl drill defined as so cheap and weak that Mr. Needles would only use it if no one saw him, if I never spoke of it, if the batteries of his tools were stone cold dead and it was a desperate emergency. the kind of tool that he would never take out to the shop and commandeer for himself. I had to be tricky with little tools. Stubby screwdrivers? I lost a lot of those to the shop till I figured it out. Don't buy the good kind, buy the ones he wouldn't enjoy using.
His own tools in the shop, with which he did all the marvelous things he did for me, were quality tools, but had heavy batteries. I did not like managing the beasts. I wanted something to fit my hand and my wrists better, something lighter which did not need to be powerful enough for construction just for ordinary household work. I found a drill today at the right price. It has a cord, but I don't see me walking all over the house for days on end, drilling stuff. Plus, I needed something that could be used right when I needed it without worrying about battery charges and is it dead yet. The cord is a bonus in my eyes.
I also did a wee bit something silly, but I am enormously pleased by it. That is something for another day and till then, I feel energized and alive.
Which is a good thing, because I will be spending part of tomorrow with those swift moving little kiddies of mine again.
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