Post by shabbychick on Sept 18, 2016 9:04:24 GMT -8
Do you ever have one of those experiences where what you thought was going to be a simple two-hour makeover turned into a nightmare? I have one of those going right now. I had a new washer and dryer delivered yesterday. I'm not wild about them, anyway. They were the least expensive I could get over the Labor Day weekend, and the washer is top loading instead of front loading because the front loaders were too deep to fit in my shallow laundry closet. So that was disappointment number one. I had really had my heart set on a front loader. But my old washer was about to give up the ghost, so I had to get something. And I guess it's at least nice to have something new. The others were refurbished when I bought them 11 years ago, so they've done their duty. But as long as I had them pulled out of the closet and ready to go away, I decided to repaint the interior of the closet since it was just a dingy white. The only storage in that closet is a wire shelf that was in there when I bought the place. I needed to take it down to paint. It's one of those that has all the little plastic bits on the back wall that you snap the back into, two plastic pocket things on the side that you drop the front part into, and a flat rod that sticks out from the wall and braces the front. The rod wouldn't unscrew from the wall so I had to paint around it as well as around all the other little bits. The paint I had on hand was orange, and I had used it on some furniture and liked it, so I decided to use it. However, on the wall it looks awful. It's a dark burnt orange rather than the cheery "marigold petals" it calls itself and looks like on furniture. Plus the appliances were being delivered in a few hours and I had to just get the painting done. It required three coats as dark colors often do to avoid the splotchiness. So, that got done not a moment too soon. But when I tried to put the shelf back up, the bracing rod fell entirely off the wall and left behind a big hole in the freshly painted wall and no way to put it back up in the same spot. And trying to jockey that longish, awkward shelf myself caused me to put several dings on the side wall that later had to be touched up. So now I cannot put the wire shelf back up, and that was the only storage in my pitiful little laundry closet.
Then I decided, to hell with it, I'll just take off all the attachments and have someone come and put up a wooden shelf. Except now the pocket pieces don't want to come off the wall at all, and no amount of turning them with the screwdriver backs out the screws in their anchors. Ugh. I don't have time right now to mess with it anymore. I have lessons to write for work and a research paper to research and write. And I still hate the color of the wall, but at least now there is no place to even put a lamp in there, so I can't even see how ugly it is. I managed to spend all day yesterday just making a bad situation worse.
I have to pay off a few other necessary home improvement expenses now, but as soon as I can afford it, I'm just going to pay someone to come in and repaint the whole closet, add nice wooden shelving, and maybe put in one of those metal dryer boxes that creates a void in the back wall to allow the dryer to be pushed back closer to the wall and repositioned. I've reached my DIY limit for awhile.
I guess there are just some things that are better left to professionals.
