Trying to improve the homestead is one of the more forceful examples that life is not what you think. We talked ourselves into believing we were just cleaning house, putting things back in the storage closet. Now this storage closet (dubbed Fort Knox) has half the storage capacity that it used to because the new electric hot water heater (dubbed Jabba the Hut) needs an immense amount of fire walled, fire doored space. We were (I was) kidding ourselves that it would all so easily pop back in there. The brain coerces you into believing it should or maybe if we clean around the dryer, we can use that area. Oh look at all this lint, our dryer vent isn't even connected and apparently, judging from the quantity of lint, it hasn't been connected for at least the past five years we have lived here. Hmm, all is not what I thought it was going to be.
We took this in with the slow Sunday absorption that makes it bearable, we had delayed this too long and even as Greg got a splinter in his foot, we decided to make the best of it all. Yes, even though chocolate was needed, we held firm to our responsibilities. Thinking that our priority was to get the shelving project moving and bringing in the dryer vent as a minor little additional co-project.
Now when an artist/carpenter goes to task making a shelf system, things get interesting. There is the drawing, the cut list, the car/truck rental (ok a truck is not available, we'll get the Scion XB bread box down the street), the zooming over the hill to borrow the scene shops magic cutting tools, the zooming back to return the car in time, the drilling and clamping, the resizing the...oh it is almost 8:30pm, time to eat moment, when you realize the day is done and the "let's clean the house on Sunday" project you envisioned finally completing has not even started. And the dryer is unhooked, tomorrow is Monday and there is wet laundry.
We do what sensible people do, we eat dinner, partially clean up the dishes and go to bed.
So now it is Monday, I need my laundry. Soon. After a small re-visit on the situation, we decide the elbow piece is too big and would push the dryer into the hallway. I go back to the store, smartly returning it to find the only other alternative costs 5 times as much. Well then, I say, this has to work. I once again wish my shopping gene wasn't the opposite of Greg's as I always seem to attract the most expensive option.
I decide I will take care of the dryer vent all by myself - I have this really expensive dryer vent part after all, right? I get to learn all about aluminium hosing and aluminium tape. Cool Stuff, you don't really understand why they make things the way they do until you get your hands on them. Sometimes even then, it is a mystery. But for the basics (ever handled aluminum dryer vent hosing?) there are reasons.
It ends up being a typical home improvement project, but luckily, with a happy ending (so far). Much cutting of aluminium hose to fit, but wait, it collapses! How Handy! (oops it is sharp too). Yes, the co-project even got to the "don't look at me" part of home improvement, jagged pieces of aluminum, much crumpled "oops that didn't work" tape as I realize you don't pull the paper liner off the tape before you put it on, but as you put it on - they figured this out just for you, to make it easier and less wasteful to get around those dusty tight spaces - wow - light bulb flash! And much re-fitting and re-doing. At last, only an hour later, I have it connected and am drying laundry. I celebrate by finishing the set up for an overnight pot of beans and take a bath.
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