Monday, October 31, 2005

A little more Bob Vila, a little less Tim Allen

I am a fricking home improvement GENIUS. Since I’ve been on this “fixing up the house” kick, I’ve spent all my free time, well, fixing up the house. And it gives me an immense sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Now here’s where I admit something. My house is a little over 1200 square feet. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It has a large entry hall closet, and each bedroom has a walk-in closet. The closet in my room is practically the size of the guest bathroom. And yet? I can’t find anywhere to store anything. It ends up that stuff is haphazardly piled everywhere and I can never find anything. This does not work for me.


So I took matters into my own hands and bought this. I thought it would be your typical “you only need a screwdriver” type of assembly, but it turns out that while I did need a screwdriver, I also needed a tape measure, pencil, hammer, level, and drill. Luckily I have all those things, and more importantly? I know how to use them. This little shelving unit requires actual mounting into the wall and so the OCD kicked in and I drew pencil lines all over the closet so that I made sure everything was straight and level. I finally finished it yesterday afternoon and spent last night reorganizing my fantastic new closet.

I can’t wait to show Not Boyfriend, because I think he thinks that just because I’m a girl, I can’t use tools properly. He called while I was installing the shelves, and was quizzing me on wall stud placement and why they call anchors “butterflies.” Dude – my dad can build and/or fix anything on this planet, and I spent every weekend as a kid either watching or helping him do carpentry projects. And, I’ve lived alone for four years – I know from fixing and building stuff. I fully admit that there are some things I can’t do, but I leave those to my dad. And Not Boyfriend is a “professional” fix-it guy, because he works in construction, so I allow him to tell me things that maybe I already know. I might not know the technical name for everything, but I usually know what to do with it. And you know what? If I waited around for those two to do all these things for me, I’d end up sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth and mumbling about how I know those Christmas ornaments are around here somewhere, but because the closets are such a mess, I’ll just never know. As a result, I did it myself and am now unbelievably proud of my accomplishment. I keep opening the closet, just to look at it.

I don’t have any pictures for you today – so we’re going to be celebrating Halloween for a few more days this week, and that’s just how it’s going to be. The reason is that I had my brother’s camera to document my weekend, and that means I am now at his mercy as far as when he gets around to downloading my photos. However, I promise that sometime in the very near future, you will have pictures of me in my costume, the Halloween Cats, and the house in my complex that I have (very appropriately, I think) named “The house where Halloween threw up.” You will love it.

12 comments:

Stephanie said...

Glad you had fun! Can't wait for the pics :)

Carl Spackler said...

i can't wait to see the photo's of you...preferably naked. oh, kudo's to you on your home improvement project. i for one am very impressed. i can't wait to see what you have done with the place when i head to denver for our breakfast date.

dasi said...

You're very impressive! I, on the other hand, just PRETEND I know what I'm doing, and even if I screw it up, insist it looks GREAT. And make everyone else tell me how great a job I did. (I have a fragile ego, you see...)

And I can't wait to see your pics! More so now that my daughter just called me at work to tell me she has decided NOT to wear the costume I got her this year and instead wear street clothes with her flashing bunny ears to go trick-or-treating. More $$ flushed - I told her next year she will have to MAKE her costume!!! Sheesh!!!

KC said...

I'm totally hiring you to do my closets. You accept Starbucks cards, right? Can't wait to see the closet in all of its glory!!!

Amber said...

I don't know, Kendra. Since we're coming up on the annual "Have OCD girl hang my Christmas lights, oh and maybe give me a french pedi, you know since she's here but it's cool because I give her wine" I might get busy. And yes, I do accept Starbuck's cards and Ann Taylor cards.

KC said...

Hmmmm, Christmas lights and French pedi. It's the most wonderful time of the year. :)
I almost forgot about the AT addiction. I don't know HOW I almost forgot, but I almost did.

ME said...

Wow.. A fix it upper chic...
Thats always good.
If the man cant fix it then you can :D

PackerPundit said...

okay so like Im unimpressed with your mad handi-woman skillz

its just wrooooong for a girl to be like hammering and drilling and like... ratcheting stuff

this is of course the same theory in reverse that has served my father and I so well... re: cleaning the bathroom and more specifically... the toilet area. being that we are batching it... we still amintain a certain decorum in bathroom maintenance. I would like to point out that even though this is an odd year (2005) and the next toilet bowl cleaning is not due till 2006 (an even year)... we did infact... make an attempt to get off the couch between innings of the game and clean the toilet... area.
well... actually I spilled my beer into the bowl and flushed it down... BUT... it was a legitimate attempt

*makes eyes west then puckers lips*

BB said...

I am horrible at puttting stuff like that together. One time, mid-attempt at putting together a filing cabinet, Beth walked over to me, took the screwdriver out of my hand and said, "go to your room, I can't watch you do this anymore." This is why she has totally remodeled her 1920s home and I call maintence for everything,

Tim Hillegonds said...

What up Tim Allan!! Not too shabby for a girl. I would much rather just pay someone to do something for me. I'm getting old.

Alice said...

i LOVE putting stuff together / using tools! one of my favorite xmas presents EVER was this totally fab cordless drill from my uncle. a girl's best friend, i tell ya...

Kiki said...

I admire you for putting up the shelves by yourself!!! I try to do stuff like that and it never turns out right. I'm giving you mad props from the cheese state! ;)