Over the years I’ve learned to keep my cool when working on DIY projects. I’m apt to lose my cool when, despite my best amateur efforts, something doesn’t go as planned. It could be a cut in the wrong place, an unlevel hanging, the wrong screw…
Our mood predisposes us to see the world in a way. With DIY that can mean everything is the target of a hammer!
Saturday I was putting up a shelf in the laundry. Rather than a simple shelf with brackets, I had purchased a floating shelf. After 30 minutes searching in Bunnings, that was all I could find!
Let’s say 5/10 for annoyance.
I collected my tools and started checking for studs and power. Beep! Beep! Beep! Something was wrong. The only 9v battery I could find for the stud finder was old and that was the cause. Ok, off to the supermarket for batteries (and I grabbed replacements for the smoke alarm as well).
5/10 is now 7/10.
Returned home. Measured for the shelf. Put in the plaster sockets. Screwed in the first screw 80% of the way. Did the second. The screw snapped in half. And the third. And the fourth!
11/10 at this point. Despite that I breathed slowly and took my time to resolve it all. Removed 2 of the 3 broken screws. Used some of the stock I had and got the shelf up. It was level right-to-left, but not front-to-back.
Another trip, to a different hardware store - keeping in mind to not let my temper affect my driving - to purchase a bracket to support the bracket.
Here is the final shelf, ready to do what a shelf does. It looks a little wonky in this photo. That’s an artefact of the angle of my camera, not the shelf itself.
