Tuesday, February 26, 2008

chicks with tools

My inlaws came over to help this past Sunday. Dad, Mom and Sis. Dad and W2 worked on framing the closet and bathroom in what will one day be our bedroom. Mom, Sis and I worked on cleaning up (cuz that's what women folk do, dontcha know?) in, what will be our bedroom, then down to the apartment to clean that up as well. Sis, is an avid cleaner. She loves it. Lives for it. Great...go ahead and clean!! So when we finished our assigned projects she moved on to using our beloved Dyson to vacuum any and all available surfaces in our home. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you dear sis! Not that I don't vacuum, but I will admit to losing sight of the mundane day to day chores of keeping a house, when we are constantly traipsing up and down stairs with muddy boots, lugging 2 x 4's, sheets of sheetrock and plywood and what not...every day cleaning has gotten lost in the midst...I'll admit. So I totally appreciated her love of cleaning and her willingness to apply it to our home.

While Sis was vacuuming, Mom and I tackled flipping the mattress on our bed. W2 and I both suffer from bad backs. We suffer more because we are about 2 years past the point of needing a new mattress. But new mattresses cost money and any and all money we have or have access to, goes to the house...not a new mattress. One day there will money for that. That day is not today. So I rely on all sorts of tricks to make our mattress last until that time. One of which is flipping it periodically.

For any of you readers who have not slept on a mattress well past it's prime, let me describe our sleeping situation. W2 and I are not small people. There is therefore a crater in the middle of our mattress, where we have slept most often. This crater does it's best to claim our bodies throughout the night. Regardless of anchoring a leg over the side of the bed, using pillows to prevent the slide, hanging on for dear life, I find myself solidly in the middle of the crater come morning. W2 claims I hog the bed. I claim I want to be closer to him ;) Regardless of what we claim, the truth of the matter is we end up like a pile of puppies in the middle of the crater with our backs twisting and contorting in our efforts to stay on the edge. It is our nightly routine. This quest, if you will.

I am sick of the quest! So I decide that I am not only going to flip the mattress but I'm going to put one of the many sheets of plywood we have between the mattress and boxspring. So Mom and I strip the bed and stand the mattress up on end, she has to stand in front of it to stop it from falling down. While I run down to the garage, grabbing Sis along the way to get the plywood. Sis, not so handy, but as I've mentioned, willing to help. So we get the 8' sheet of plywood in the house, after moving a refrigerator and a piece of cabinetry we are able to navigate the plywood up the stairs. At the top of the stairs there is more navigating to do in order to get it into the bedroom, but we're determined, and where there's a will, there's a way. In it goes!

We get it to the bed and flop it down and....it's too big. A king size bed is not 8' long (But wouldn't it be great if it were?!) I am a determined woman. I am rehab warrior #1. I will not be defeated by this size discrepancy. I march my happy ass into the addition, where W2 and Dad are working, to get the sawzall! I tell W2 not to worry when I am questioned about what I am doing, and I march my happy ass back into the bedroom. I proceed to saw the plywood, where it lay, propped on the foot board and the boxspring. I saw while my mother and sister in law plug their ears. I saw until the damn battery quits. In the middle of the board.

But I am not dissuaded from my quest. NO! I run downstairs and get our batttery operated circular saw to finish the job. By this time W2 has come into the bedroom to see what the hell I am doing. His dad asked him where he was going and his reply was "W1 was just in here to retrieve a saw, I now hear saw sounds coming from our bedroom, don't you think I should go see what she is sawing?" W2's dad thought he had a good point!

I use the circular saw from the other side of the board planning to meet the line. I'm sure you can imagine where this is going. It doesn't match. But I learn that it doesn't match because the battery in the cirular saw ALSO DIES!! I am cursed with poorly charged batteries. We have two rechargers but apparently we've fallen behind in keeping our four batteries charged. As you can also imagine, I'm not giving up. So I kick the board, breaking it in two, and lay it down. Of course this doesn't cover the entire mattress so I must continue to switch back and forth between the two saws and piece together the remainder of the plywood in order to create an even surface. But I prevailed. I am the master of those damn power tools. I can complete a project on my own.

Sis vacuums up all the sawdust. Mom, Sis and I then flip the mattress, put it down, and make the bed. I then flopped down on it to see if it was all worth it.

I couldn't tell! Can you believe that!?

It's been two nights since then and it is better, but boy was that disappointing in terms of instant gratification!

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