When we left our heroine, (that would be me for those just joining us - go here to read Part I) she was standing on the very precipice of her ethics (or would that be morals?) staring into the abyss of wanton materialism all dressed up in its best holiday bib and tucker!
So I drove out into the hellish traffic and faced all the maniacs.
I felt a little bit like a vegetarian eating a cheese sandwich. Not quite sinning, really, but certainly approaching a line....
And then we went into Michael's.
In less than 30 seconds I turned into a raging carnivore on a feeding frenzy.
Ethics? Out the window! Morals? What are those? Principles? Fuggedaboutit!
And what brought me to this looooowly state?
Michael's was selling white pressboard storage units at 50% off.
AND we had a coupon that let you take an additional 25% off of your ENTIRE PURCHASE.
Needless to say, units that are normally $30 were now only $10. And I had a storage monkey on my back. AND I JUST COULDN'T RESIST ITS SIREN'S SONG!!!
I had $100 Christmas money from my dad, (he sent it with my mom the day before since he, too, opted to stay in Evansville) and I always get $50 from my inlaws. I also had almost $150 left in my renovation budget (for those of you who remember when I turned a portion of our wretched attic into a studio space the summer before last).
So I had plenty of buying power.
I had enough buying power, in fact, to turn both my mother and my child into pack mules, insisting they both get carts and stop that complaining or I'd abandon them in Best Buy. Oh, I had no shame! I morphed into the Pablo Escobar of crafting. (Had I donned a white suit and lit up a Havana I might possibly have attracted the attention of Homeland Security.)
I bought 20 square units, 2 paper-holding units, a desk organizer unit and 2 shelving units. (It's a testament to my superior Tetris skills that I was able to make all of this fit into our Toyota without having to strap my mother onto the roof.)
Although it was touch and go there for a few minutes.
And now we're getting to what I've been doing for the last two weeks.
I've been assembling storage units, of course!
Which takes awhile because we're talking about assembling more than 25 units - most of which have drawers that also have to be assembled. I have screwed in no less than 600 screws (a conservative estimate).
All I can say is Thank you, God, for giving us the sense to invent power drills.
I assembled all but the two larger shelving units by myself because they were too big for me to handle easily. Spouse very nicely hauled all of them upstairs for me because they weigh a ton (real wood would be lighter). It was the least he could do, though, considering. (That man has no idea how lucky he is to be married to a woman who embraces power tools!)
However, it doesn't end there. Oh, no! Since this was a spur-of-the-moment decision, (or My Own Personal Fall, if you will) I was not prepared for an influx of cabinetry. The room that houses my little atelier has a second half and is, as I've stated before, A Mess filled with Piles of Shame. As is the guest room - ha! - located across the hall. (The guest room resembles something out of one of those shows about horders.) The wiser course (of course) would be to clean out the two rooms first and then move in all the storage units. But you don't get to prepare when you make a spur-of-the-moment decision like this one.
So I basically was forced to box up a lot of books, etc, and then attack one pile at a time, maneuvering, stacking, etc within a 3-foot-square area so I could make room for a storage unit. Often I had to move some previously created stacks to a new position so I could maneuver something, and then move the stacks/boxes back. Oh, it's been such great fun!
Having a root canal runs a close second.
And then I got all anal about it and insisted on organizing as I went - right down to installing the proper library labels on the front of all 56 drawers (that takes awhile, I'm here to tell ya)!
I am pleased to say that, as of last night, I have almost got the whole room shaped up. There are about eight UHaul boxes filled with books, office supplies, etc that will need permanent homes (preferrably at somebody else's home). And, of course, the walls on that half of the room still need to be painted, trim needs to be installed, etc, etc. But ugly walls can be addressed easily now that I can actually get to them.
The guest room, however, is another story....
I'll see if I can't post some pictures tomorrow.