girlofprey

Well, it turns out my drawers - that I bought more than a month ago - are more DIY than I imagined. Given that I really thought they'd be delivered assembled, I'm really quite pissed off. I got a range of advice on the subject - I figured 'oh, well if it's do-it-yourself and they don't even tell you, it can't be that difficult, just needs assembling'. Another guy told me, "oh, that'll take a whole day" when I told him. My dad, the other day, said I could probably put it all together with an alan key. So I confidently started tonight, thinking I'd just go til midnight and get it all put together. I was going to do it earlier today, but our sink clogged/burst, and I decided to put off dragging things out of the garage until people were done in the kitchen. Still I thought I might get somewhere. But no. It turns out the drawer parts do not just slide together, as I was hoping, and they don't have any guideholes for the screws, which I was genuinely expecting. They're the kind of 'assembly required' where you put a screw into a single hole in one piece, hold it against a different piece, and then just screw straight into the wood. And just hope it doesn't go in wonky, and you're doing it in the right place. While also trying to hold all the pieces together, at right angles to each other. No wonder you need two people for it. I put together one single drawer, while the drawer itself seems pretty square, whether it'll squarely go into it's drawer-hole (assuming I put the body of the drawers together correctly), I don't know. And won't know until considerably more building has been done.

And I don't super have faith in the build or instructions now, the instructions told me I'd need a Phillips head screwdriver and a hammer, and when I got the screws out I could see a bunch of them were just one line straight across the head, which a Phillips-head won't help you with. I went down to get a second screwdriver when I needed one, complained to my parents for a while about the build, and then my dad came upstairs and looked at it, and agreed with me it was bullshit. And that my one drawer might well be a bit wonky.

And I'm just really annoyed I guess, because I genuinely just thought I was buying some drawers, that they would be delivered built and I'd just have to put them in a good place. I guess I didn't read the manufacturer's website thoroughly enough - I try not to, given the OCD, frankly - but I read everything I thought looked important, and I really felt like they would make a big deal of it, in GIANT NOTICEABLE LETTERS, if every piece of furniture was do-it-yourself and needed masses of assembly. There wasn't even an offer for someone from the company to assemble it for you, for an extra fee, as far as I recall. What if I lived alone? Or they had a disabled customer who couldn't really handle unexpected DIY projects. I feel really let down. Maybe I'm just being demanding, because I'm annoyed, but I really feel like that was pertinent information, and they should have made it very clear. I wasn't buying from Ikea. Is everywhere just flatpack nowadays? Just annoyingly complicated flatpack?

So I'm disappointed. I was really hoping the drawers - which, again, I wasn't expecting to be a job at all - would be a quick job and I could get them done before the chair comes (finally) next Saturday. Instead I'm going to have to arrange with dad for when he has time to do it with me, and I didn't want to give him extra work anyway, and also we might argue while doing it because we do, and sdjaslkjlk. What a let down. A very disappointing night. And now my back hurts anyway. And I can't just go get a glass of water even when I'm thirsty, because the tap's still broken and we have to fiddle about with the bathroom tap to drink. Who knows when that'll be fixed, either some payment from or more work for dad I guess. And storm Ciara came through and flooded a local town, and my work train goes through that town, and I don't know if it's going to affect my commute tomorrow.

>:(

Well.

For anyone who's been following my ongoing Netbook drama, yesterday my dad apparently had some trouble connecting our phone to our modem, or his phone, or something. So he called up BT and did some things and reset the router and eventually got his phone back online, and he suggested to me to today that since the router's been reset my Netbook might work now. I tried it tonight, and it connects! Privately I'm vindicated that it was actually something to do with the router and not because "Netbooks are too old for up-to-date WiFi networks", but mostly I'm just glad it's all worked out, and happy I probably won't have to call BT to try to troubleshoot the problem. And I hope it continues, naturally. Right now the Netbook is sat on a DVD case vainly trying to update every programme on it at once, as I suspected it would. At the moment it's my internet security it's trying to update - progress is at 0%. But at least it's connected! Woo hoo!

On the downside, I have a bit of fingernail caught between my teeth, and I can't get it out and it's really annoying me. Boo.

Also today I assembled a DVD storage unit (which I was delighted to find all my games fitted into - I don't even have 50 yet), and a CD storage unit because they came together in the same box. Mostly I've decided that flat-pack furniture is bollocks, and even if it only cost £20 for both they should just make it better. The holes did not line up with the other holes, I had to make the screws fit with brute violence. But I did finish them, and they both look pretty swanky. The kit came complete with 'screw covers' for the top screws, which I now realise are to cover up the scars and destruction you have to cause just to get the damn things to screw together. At least it makes me feel better that the bookcase I put together a few years ago - and which is still encasing books - ended up a little wonky. I assumed it was because I didn't have much experience, or a spirit level, or a magic penis, but no, it's just because DIY flatpack furniture is a bit shit. Anyway. I have put all my games into the DVD tower thing so I don't have to keep them in a stack that falls over easily, and at some point I will put some of my CDs in the CD tower, so I don't have to keep them in boxes anymore and can get them out with the greatest of ease. Hurrah.

Also, ( Coronation Street, contains some huge definite and possible spoilers for Tina )