I Shouldn’t Be A Carpenter*

Sooo I decided to take the weekend off from writing and relax a bit. (by relax I mean have an insanely busy / productive day on Saturday and a fabulously busy day on Sunday)

Saturday the Hubster’s dad came for some manual labour a visit and rescued my kitchen. In our old apartment there was this perfect little microwave nook that didn’t take away from my counter space. I love counters. I love to use unnecessary amounts of counter space when I cook because I feel it is the right thing to do. It makes me feel chef-ish. Big mess = great food, right? Right?

(I don’t always make a big mess. Just almost always. Ha)

In our new and lovely apartment I did not have my microwave nook. So, the first few hours in our new place were spent surfing the net for a cute, inexpensive white microwave stand… and I found one, at Canadian Tire of all places. IKEA’s selection was not impressive. *sigh* However, as we have not yet purchased a vehicle we needed to wait for someone to rescue us / take us to Crappy Tire. So, for the first few days my nice little (ok, not so little) microwave sat on my kitchen floor.

This annoyed me, but for a couple of days we didn’t need it so I let it slide.

As time wore on I realized that I was eventually going to have to start making food in my new kitchen (a girl can only go so long without popcorn, you know…) and moved my microwave onto my counter and half of it (the counter) disappeared. There was no space. None. Zip. GONE.

Annnd I was sad. For several days my microwave dominated my kitchen counter frustrated me to no end….

…until Saturday. When the Hubs’ pops drove out and, again, went above and beyond his “Dad Duties” by driving us all over to get things we needed, including my new un-assembled microwave stand.

Which I tried to build. By myself. Folks, I now know there is a reason why I am not a carpenter. I managed to get the frame of the stand together without too many mistakes, and then it was time to put the back on. I thought I was sooo smart getting it done by myself and hardly having to bug the hubs for help. He and his dad were busy doing macho manly stuff like hanging our ceiling fan and rigging my bike to hang from the ceiling (that’s right–my huge cruiser bike hangs from MY CEILING… crazy) so I thought, “I’m a university graduate–I can figure out how to assemble a little microwave stand, right?”

WRONG.

I started hammering away as I put the backing onto place until about the fourth nail when I realized the back was turned the wrong way and you would be able to see holes. So, I thought I would be oh, so, sneaky by taking out the nails and fixing it without the Hubs ever being the wiser. So, I rotated the board around so the holes were all aligned and began hammering again. Now I am a super hammer-er, let me tell you. My nails were in SO well (except for the mistake I made at the top… oops) and I was allllllmost finished when it dawned on me that the outside of the backing probably shouldn’t be white. I flipped the stand over praying that it was white on both sides… but alas, the ugly brown that was supposed to be on the back was now glaring at me between the shelves.

In a brief moment of panic I began tearing at the nails to try and get them out so I could fix it (again) before the Hubster noticed. Unfortunately my oh-so-amazing nailing job came back to haunt me as I couldn’t get a single one out. When I realized I couldn’t fix it by myself I sheepishly signaled for the Hubster.

Me: “Umm… Hubs, can you come here for a sec?”

Hubster: “Yup, just hang on a sec… almost finished here…” (assisting his Dad with the hanging of our ceiling fan. They are complicated lil suckers)

Me: “Soo… my building is not going so well.”

Hubster: “What happened?”

Me: “Welllll… I was doing this AMAZING hammering job when it occurred to me that the backing might be the wrong colour.”

Hubster: “What are you talking about? It’s white, right?”

Me: “Umm… right now it’s brown.” (I tip up the stand to show the beautiful brown cardboard-y looking backing that is on backward)

Hubster: “Well, you’re going to have to take the nails out and switch it around.”

Me: “…can’t I just paint it?” (the easy way out is my friend.)

Hubster (laughing): “Nooo… it will look like crap. You’ve gotta rip the nails out.”

…and then I heaved a great sigh and attempted to rip the nails out on by one as the Hubs and his dad made yet another trip to Home Depot to fix the backing.

In the end, I got the nails out and retired from my two hour carpentry career. The Hubs magically fixed the back and now it looks cute and perfect for our kitchen. I’m getting close to the point where I’ll be ready to take pictures and showcase our little place… so hang in there. It almost looks like a home!

On a completely unrelated side note, I am hopelessly addicted to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Somehow I managed to live the last decade of my life without knowing this show existed and then fall madly in love with it while staying with my cousin last month. The Hubs and I have been watching pretty well non-stop. It’s SO much better than CSI. (Sorry Spart–it’s the truth!)

And now, I am tired. And this post is freaking huge. And I want to go watch You’ve Got Mail. :)

Shop Girl*