Quick and Easy

Haven't had anything to write about for quite some time now, I have just been burned out on house stuff, but this week we are finally beginning to pick things back up. First I have to say that I was terribly disappointed, let me say, sick, when I went into my daughter's newly renovated bedroom last week, (yes, the one we spent so much time and energy on the last three years, and the subject of most of the last few blogs) and saw that there are multiple and growing cracks on every single wall. The tape in the corner of the room has torn all the way from floor to ceiling. I am frustrated and ticked off about it. But the reason we were in her room was to finish putting all the hardware on her new furniture and to help her with the computer she bought herself for her senior year of highschool and then(gulp)college. Did I say college? Did I mention that when we moved in here she was only eleven? How fast the time has flown. (takes a moment for a little tear-ing up here)
So, doing my best to ignore all the cracks that are screaming out failure to me, I arm myself with a screwdriver, the appropriate hardware, and think to myself, "wow, this is going to be quick and easy."
Huh.
The furniture in question used to belong to my sister. It is a beautiful set, with beautiful hardware, that she took off to paint and never got around to putting back on. Finally she bought a new set and asked me if I wanted this one, and of course I am never one to turn down quality furniture. The desk I was going to be working on was one with a hutch, and the top of the hutch had oblong glass doors that hinge onto the sides of the furniture, opening outwards. The hinges that came with the desk were rusty and I had been trying since January to unfreeze them with WD40 and several other things recommended by the experts at the hardware store, with no success. I decided today just to buy a new set of hinges and start fresh, ignoring the fact that the original ones were unique and probably irreplaceable. I would just drill some new holes, and presto, it would work out fine. So I got the doors out and start drilling. I got half the hinges screwed on, and then my aunt came to help me with the rest. Finally I took the doors into the other room with the desk and then realized with horror, that I have screwed them all in backwards. So I sigh and unscrew everything and start over. But now I am having a problem with the screws themselves. They are cheap. They are stripping. It is taking everything I have to get them to go all the way down, and some won't go even then. I am hot, sweaty and irritated, but holding onto my temper (now THERE'S a
miracle). My aunt has been a huge help but we are both getting a little tired.
So finally we get all the screws in and one of the doors screwed onto to the hutch. It has been two and a half long hours. I put the other door up to the hutch in it's position to make sure before we go any further that the doors will fit together correctly-and make another horrible discovery, the hinges I bought are too fat and now the doors will not close together.
I have to admit that some not so choice words came out of my mouth. I will leave that to your imagination. I resigned myself to never being able to finish any project properly and put the hutch back on top of the desk, unfinished.
While I was putting away my tools, my aunt disappeared from the room. In a few moments she was back and had all of the original rusty hinges in her hands. In amazing feat of some kind of black magic she had been able to do in a few moments what I had been unable to do in five months and all of the hinges were now moving freely and usable. I immediately took one of the hinges and went back to the hardware store for more screws. We would finish this project yet. When I got back I laid out all the little baggies of screws I bought (I bought three different sizes, so I couldn't go wrong) and we began putting the hinges back, this time on the doors first, instead of the hutch itself. As we finished the third hinge we realized that we were one short. Where was the fourth hinge? I was amazed at the ridiculous setbacks we were experiencing. What happened to "quick and easy"? As we began to look around the house, and then expanded the search to the car, I realized we (actually "I") must have lost it. It had vanished into thin air. It was by now full dark and too late to search the yard from car to house. I reasoned that I must have dropped it somewhere in between. I would find it in the morning. Meanwhile we finished putting knobs and handles on the rest of the furniture and left the doors to the hutch in the corner of the room. As I went to bed I said a quick prayer that God would bring it back to me. I needed that hinge, as I said, it was unique, and the three without the fourth were useless.
Next morning revealed that I had not dropped the hinge anywhere in the driveway, car, or house. I knew it had to be SOMEWHERE so I called the hardware store and asked "Hey have you seen any extra hinges laying around anywhere?", all the while chuckling at myself for asking such a ridiculous question. I described what I was looking for and where I had been in the store and they went to look. Nothing. So on a whim I got in my car and drove to the store, parked where I had parked, and got out. I walked around my car-and there-on the ground, right in front of the store was my hinge.
I said a very grateful prayer to the God who gives all good things and went home.
The look on my aunt's face when I walked in the door waving the hinge in her face was priceless.
I guess it's ok to be ridiculous on this journey to renovation-just as long as we eventually get there.