March 8, 2019
Dear Everyone:
A few weeks ago I decided it was time to reconsider the way things were
arranged in my bedroom.
Specifically, the bedside table, which I have had for roughly 40 years,
might not be large enough to hold certain things.
Frankly, it’s barely big enough to hold a lamp, a clock, the
eyeglass case, and a couple of remote controls.
It was originally part of a “semi-antique” set that was comprised of a
dresser, table, headboard and a standalone full-length mirror.
The woman who sold it to me, back when our parents were living in
Moss Beach, California, declined to part with the mirror, as she wanted
to give it to her daughter.
That was fine with me.
I’ve always liked the
dresser, although the drawers are rather shallow,
because it featured a drop-down shelf, revealing a
cupboard that could
hold lots of things that don’t fit well into drawers.
The matching
headboard was manufactured back when a “double bed”
was about 56 inches wide.
But then the mattress manufacturers decided to skimp on a few inches,
and rename the “double” to a “full”, while simultaneously introducing
the “queen” which was a few inches wider than the “double” was.
The upshot of this was that the headboard no longer matched any
bed frame available. I put
up with it for a while, then the headboard got tossed.
This left the dresser and the bedside table.
Then I got a new bed, in a Queen size, with a base that lifted it up and
down as I liked. Suddenly,
the little table was not sufficient.
In fact, it was barely 25 inches high, while beds have been
getting higher and higher.
Also, the whole table was only 20 inches wide by 15 deep.
I needed something larger.
Enter a number of online sellers who offer lots of furniture for people
to buy and assemble themselves.
Some of them even offer to do the assembly for you, at a price,
of course. I’m more of a Do
It Yourself (DIY) sort of person, so I just ordered the table based on
the picture and description.
A few days later, a large cardboard box showed up on my front doorstep.
All 40 pounds of it.
Getting it over the threshold was the first challenge.
Once that was accomplished, I decided to wait a few days before
tackling the assembly part.
It’s interesting how something that comes inside a single cardboard box
can suddenly take up three times as much space once you get it all
outside the box. There were
three shelves, four legs and a whole LOT of screws with washers and hex
bolts, and an adorable little wrench.
And instructions.
Actually, there were no instructions in words.
Rather a set of illustrations with letters (“A”, “B”, “C”, etc.)
pointing in various directions.
Most of which were self-explanatory.
The rest of which seemed to be mostly wishful thinking.
I started by placing the top shelf face-down on top of the bed.
After all, if the table was going to be in the bedroom, why
assemble it in the living room, then drag all 40 pounds of it down the
hallway? Also, the bed top
meant less bending and far less going down on the floor and getting back
up again.
According to the illustrations, the idea was to fasten two of the legs
to the back of the top shelf.
Two very large screws were already imbedded in the legs exactly
where they should match up with the back edge of the shelf.
Which they did. All I
had to do was attach a hex bolt, with washer, to the screw and use the
little wrench to tighten it.
So far, so good.
Next, lay the legs down on the bed so I could fit the two additional
shelves into the cutouts in the legs.
Then attach the legs to the shelves with the supplied screws,
washers and hex bolts, using the little wrench.
The only problem was that everything fit together so perfectly
that there was very little room for my little fingers to fit said hex
bolts onto said screws. The
same goes for having room to maneuver the little wrench.
Nevertheless, I succeeded.
The only thing left to do was turn the whole thing over and attach the
last two legs. In no time I
had a completely new bedside table ready to go.
It fits right next to the bed, with plenty of room for many, many
items. It even has a kind of
railing around the back to prevent things from accidentally falling down
behind it.
The “semi-antique” table is now sitting in the “back bedroom” (also
known as The Really Big Closet) until such time as I move it out to the
dumpster. It’s not even
worth donating to a charity.
And the whole thing took less than a mere four-to-five hours to accomplish!
And sore fingers from all those hex bolts and the wrench.
But that cleared up in time to spend the rest of the evening
working on my latest crochet project.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |