How I spent my weekend - Sunday
Aug. 4th, 2003 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
volksdragonWidget slept pretty late in the morning, and when she got up, I got up and left ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
siercia to sleep. We had a nice breakfast, and then I figured we'd be nice and go out for some coffee for Siercia, so I plopped Widget into her backpack, and we walked out the door. Into a WALL. OF. WATER. No, not rain, but SOOOOO humid, I couldn't believe it. I came back dripping wet from a not terribly strenuous walk down to Dunkin Donuts and back, and almost all the ice in Siercia's Ice Coffee was melted!
Widget had expressed interest in going to the playground (duh) and having Mommy tag along. Mommy agreed that this was a fine idea, and that she would go to the gym afterwards, and Widget and I would go to McDonalds and play and eat while she was sweatin' to the oldies or something. :) However, once at the playground, we remembered that Sunday was supposed to be "Entertainment Center Shopping day" so we amended our plans, and headed south to Avon, MA, to a fine place called Affordable Furniture - To Go!. When they say "To Go", they mean, "Can be moved without using a solid rocket booster, but that's really all they're claiming. We looked at their selection of Entertainment Centers (which was quite large), and decided on what was probably one of the three biggest pieces there, this unit. It was pretty pricey, but looked well-made, and we liked it. However, there was no way in HELL I was paying $90 for an assembly fee on top of the piece itself so it got packed into the car in two INCREDIBLY NOT EASY TO CARRY boxes of 150 pounds each. Yes, it weighs 300 pounds. 307 pounds to be precise. OOF.
So, we drove home very caerfully, what with 150 pound boxes packed up against the seats and stuffed in next to Widget, who looked AWFULLY confused. While Siercia got Widget a sandwich, I started dismantling the OLD entertainment system, and most of the rest of the living room to make room for the new unit, and the Siercia and I were able to get the boxes out of the car and into the house. Once again, I must say, I like having a strong woman for a spouse. :) She did her part of handling those boxes to get them inside. Widget them went upstairs for her nap (and passed out fast) and Siercia ran off to the gym for the trip she'd missed earlier. It was 3pm. I started construction of the new unit.
The packaging and documentation with this unit had its good points and bad points. A good point was that the instructions were VERY clear and precise on how to put the thing together, which was a joy. The downside was that things were packaged in an order so that they would fit, but not so parts that had to go together were packaged together, and while there was an index of what every piece WAS, it was not noted which box it was in. There were EASILY over 150 pieces of varying sides, some of which looked very similar, so a good piece of time, at the beginning, was spent identifying all the pieces. Also, there were 10 bags of screws, nails, snap-locks, rails, door-pulls, bolts, and metal pegs, and even THOSE weren't identified too well.
Siercia had gone for a short gym trip, and then came home about 4pm to help me out. I had made no appreciable progress, except to have a bunch of specific parts separated, and some hardware attached to them, basically the first step in the instruction book. Actually, I take it back, I had the top molding attached to the top surface of the unit. Yay. However, I did now know where everything was going to go, and so started assembling sections. The drill with the screwdriver attachment was NECESSARY, as there were literally more than 150 screws of various sizes to put in, and some were VERY LARGE screws, screwing into some pretty solid surface. I would have needed at LEAST an electric screwdriver, but the drill was easier on my wrists. Siercia dug into helping with assembly on some pieces, putting together some drawers and miscellaneous hardware while I started working on the frame. The bulk of the weight of the unit is in the three cross-sectional shelves, they weigh probably 50 lbs each, and together with the sides, and latticework of drawers and shelves, comprise the bulk of the weight, which is what you end up putting together before you can stand it upright. We had the framework together and stood it upright (using a clever pillow mechanism to keep from breaking/scratching the unit bottom or the floor) about 5:30pm, about the time Widget woke up from her nap.
Siercia kept her upstairs and out of the way for another hour while I continued construction, nailing the back onto the unit with the EIGHTY-FIVE teeny nails it had to keep it on. It's a good design, though, in that ALL the nail holes are marked very clearly, and are all very accurate. That still took 45 minutes, and Siercia decided to take Ms. Widget out for that McDonalds trip we had considered before, to keep her out of my way while I was working. Yes, I was still working. Now that the entire shell was done, it was time to construct and install all the interior shelving, doors, and other goodies.
I had to put together five or six doors, construct two shelves, install a double-hinge door (which was one of two things I messed up installing, and had to remove and re-install, and build 3 or 4 shelves to go on the doors (which was the other thing I thought I'd messed up. Turns out I didn't, but I had already taken one apart before I figured THAT out) Siercia came back with Ms. Widget, who is fascinated by the noise the clutch on the power drill makes. Widget wandered around the huge piece of new furniture in the packed-full living room before being escorted upstairs for a bath by Siercia. At this point, I had the side cabinets constructed and the doors installed, the bottom doors installed and all the hardware put on, and the glass component door installed. I stopped construction briefly to read a goodnight story to Widget, just after finishing the final drawer and installing it.
After Bedtime for Widget, I got to work putting components back into the unit. I had to determine optimal shelf height for the component shelves,and wiring runs, and all that, and so I didn't quite make my goal of having everything back in my 9pm, for Sex in the City. ARGH. I had most of the components, but not wired together, so I watched TV until 11pm and then came back down, finished wiring everything (it worked on the first try!) and then another 45 minutes after that putting the living room back together, and moving the old entertainment "center" into the basement, along with the old TV that had been hiding out in the bedroom upstairs.
Entire time spent on construction? ~6 hours. Not bad, considering how huge the thing is. Entire time spent on project? Close to 8 hours for everything involved. But it's together, it's solid, and it's purty. ;) Go me.
siercia to sleep. We had a nice breakfast, and then I figured we'd be nice and go out for some coffee for Siercia, so I plopped Widget into her backpack, and we walked out the door. Into a WALL. OF. WATER. No, not rain, but SOOOOO humid, I couldn't believe it. I came back dripping wet from a not terribly strenuous walk down to Dunkin Donuts and back, and almost all the ice in Siercia's Ice Coffee was melted!Widget had expressed interest in going to the playground (duh) and having Mommy tag along. Mommy agreed that this was a fine idea, and that she would go to the gym afterwards, and Widget and I would go to McDonalds and play and eat while she was sweatin' to the oldies or something. :) However, once at the playground, we remembered that Sunday was supposed to be "Entertainment Center Shopping day" so we amended our plans, and headed south to Avon, MA, to a fine place called Affordable Furniture - To Go!. When they say "To Go", they mean, "Can be moved without using a solid rocket booster, but that's really all they're claiming. We looked at their selection of Entertainment Centers (which was quite large), and decided on what was probably one of the three biggest pieces there, this unit. It was pretty pricey, but looked well-made, and we liked it. However, there was no way in HELL I was paying $90 for an assembly fee on top of the piece itself so it got packed into the car in two INCREDIBLY NOT EASY TO CARRY boxes of 150 pounds each. Yes, it weighs 300 pounds. 307 pounds to be precise. OOF.
So, we drove home very caerfully, what with 150 pound boxes packed up against the seats and stuffed in next to Widget, who looked AWFULLY confused. While Siercia got Widget a sandwich, I started dismantling the OLD entertainment system, and most of the rest of the living room to make room for the new unit, and the Siercia and I were able to get the boxes out of the car and into the house. Once again, I must say, I like having a strong woman for a spouse. :) She did her part of handling those boxes to get them inside. Widget them went upstairs for her nap (and passed out fast) and Siercia ran off to the gym for the trip she'd missed earlier. It was 3pm. I started construction of the new unit.
The packaging and documentation with this unit had its good points and bad points. A good point was that the instructions were VERY clear and precise on how to put the thing together, which was a joy. The downside was that things were packaged in an order so that they would fit, but not so parts that had to go together were packaged together, and while there was an index of what every piece WAS, it was not noted which box it was in. There were EASILY over 150 pieces of varying sides, some of which looked very similar, so a good piece of time, at the beginning, was spent identifying all the pieces. Also, there were 10 bags of screws, nails, snap-locks, rails, door-pulls, bolts, and metal pegs, and even THOSE weren't identified too well.
Siercia had gone for a short gym trip, and then came home about 4pm to help me out. I had made no appreciable progress, except to have a bunch of specific parts separated, and some hardware attached to them, basically the first step in the instruction book. Actually, I take it back, I had the top molding attached to the top surface of the unit. Yay. However, I did now know where everything was going to go, and so started assembling sections. The drill with the screwdriver attachment was NECESSARY, as there were literally more than 150 screws of various sizes to put in, and some were VERY LARGE screws, screwing into some pretty solid surface. I would have needed at LEAST an electric screwdriver, but the drill was easier on my wrists. Siercia dug into helping with assembly on some pieces, putting together some drawers and miscellaneous hardware while I started working on the frame. The bulk of the weight of the unit is in the three cross-sectional shelves, they weigh probably 50 lbs each, and together with the sides, and latticework of drawers and shelves, comprise the bulk of the weight, which is what you end up putting together before you can stand it upright. We had the framework together and stood it upright (using a clever pillow mechanism to keep from breaking/scratching the unit bottom or the floor) about 5:30pm, about the time Widget woke up from her nap.
Siercia kept her upstairs and out of the way for another hour while I continued construction, nailing the back onto the unit with the EIGHTY-FIVE teeny nails it had to keep it on. It's a good design, though, in that ALL the nail holes are marked very clearly, and are all very accurate. That still took 45 minutes, and Siercia decided to take Ms. Widget out for that McDonalds trip we had considered before, to keep her out of my way while I was working. Yes, I was still working. Now that the entire shell was done, it was time to construct and install all the interior shelving, doors, and other goodies.
I had to put together five or six doors, construct two shelves, install a double-hinge door (which was one of two things I messed up installing, and had to remove and re-install, and build 3 or 4 shelves to go on the doors (which was the other thing I thought I'd messed up. Turns out I didn't, but I had already taken one apart before I figured THAT out) Siercia came back with Ms. Widget, who is fascinated by the noise the clutch on the power drill makes. Widget wandered around the huge piece of new furniture in the packed-full living room before being escorted upstairs for a bath by Siercia. At this point, I had the side cabinets constructed and the doors installed, the bottom doors installed and all the hardware put on, and the glass component door installed. I stopped construction briefly to read a goodnight story to Widget, just after finishing the final drawer and installing it.
After Bedtime for Widget, I got to work putting components back into the unit. I had to determine optimal shelf height for the component shelves,and wiring runs, and all that, and so I didn't quite make my goal of having everything back in my 9pm, for Sex in the City. ARGH. I had most of the components, but not wired together, so I watched TV until 11pm and then came back down, finished wiring everything (it worked on the first try!) and then another 45 minutes after that putting the living room back together, and moving the old entertainment "center" into the basement, along with the old TV that had been hiding out in the bedroom upstairs.
Entire time spent on construction? ~6 hours. Not bad, considering how huge the thing is. Entire time spent on project? Close to 8 hours for everything involved. But it's together, it's solid, and it's purty. ;) Go me.
