I was paid a little innocent type visit from my neighbours Jake and Janette today. Sure, come on in and measure stuff! How nice to see you too!
And with some news. Apparently my smoke belching wreck of an airtight wood stove was getting a new home tonite. (that would be my driveway). Hmmmm... that would mean... mild renos ahead. Soon. Today even. Ok, more like NOW. Room not prepared.. now what?!?
All weekend while I was cleaning my house and doing laundry, the usual that generally takes up the entire weekend in itself, I was wondering how on earth would I find enough time to start on this massive project ahead? I've been going to the dump and MCC runs while purging lots of items, but as you know, when you're busy doing the things you should be to keep up with the household, how do you steal the time to get extras done?!? Today I figured out that answer.
Many hands.
We needed to move some hardwood flooring stacked up to the side to enable the woodstove to be removed. While that was being done, Janette 'found' this full box of Ikea components and asked me what it was. I explained it was a cabinet I bought 2 years ago... it was to hold shoes by the front door, but I didn't put it together because a different opportunity for something else came up instead so now I had this 'extra', but I had thoughts on perhaps using it to put my tv on instead...
Janette happily offered Jake for the job! LOL (run Jake run!)
Honestly, if it were me putting that thing together, I'd need a massive expanse of floor, all the parts spread around and squinting at the directions with my reading glasses. It would have taken me approximately 1 hour to lay it out and 2 hours to figure it out. With no interruptions. Well, Jake had it together in about 20 minutes. Smart hands!
I then had to leave to pick up Cody and left the dangerous duo alone in my house with handfuls of tools.
As I was driving home, I had a spurt of "NO WAY!!! THAT THING IS BEING PUT TOGETHER! WITHOUT ME!" What an awesome feeling. And when I walked in and saw it set up, it was wonderful. Just wonderful. It LOOKED good, it WORKED, and it was JUST FINALLY DONE. No more tripping over that silly box! It was done!
Jake started getting crazy with the crowbar and tore off some strange bavarian styled something or other around the stove. Honestly, I was just watching it happen when I finally just realized, hey, it's really happening, so get in there already and make it go faster! RIP BANG DUST COUGH UGH YAY!
Then a team of muscles, Stan, Erv and Blake, arrived at the door upon a call by Jake. It took the four guys to haul the stove outside to the delight of my neighbourhood's viewing pleasure. And it only took a few minutes!!!
Just know, this would have been a year's venture for me to coordinate. But with many hands, the entire stove-out-the-window project lasted approximately 2 hours. That's it! TWO hours!
Tonite I giggled. I looked at my tv cabinet and excitement started to rise. I looked at the vacant spot the wood stove ate up for way too long and smiled. "Cody, our house is going to LOOK so good! Soon! Look at the cabinet! It's awesome!" Even sitting on my plywood floors, it looked awesome. I am so thankful.
I'm just really really thankful for all those many hands that helped today!
