Oh, how I wish I'd have taken pictures of the desk move. On Saturday I got myself into a predicament not all that different from the lawn mower incident (Oh nostalgia - my very first blog entry!). I'd inherited a refrigerator from my aunt earlier in the week, and went downstairs to spray it out & clean it. I sprayed some spray in it, and decided to let it 'soak'.
In the meantime, I thought I'd move a desk upstairs. It was given to me as a birthday gift in August, and I'd yet to move it upstairs to the spare room. I ran up and moved the wing chair that lived in the hole I intended to move the desk into. Back downstairs to move it. I tried to lift and realized it was much heaver than I'd anticipated, but this would not deter me.
I pushed it over to the staircase. Now I am not talking about a nice carpeted regular staircase - this is a cliche basement staircase: narrow, and STEEP (This would have been another useful thing to photograph). I tried lifting the desk up and walking it up the stairs but that wasn't working. The staircase was too steep to do it that way.
I decided that if I flipped it over it would be easier to slide the surface up the stairs. I didn't want to mess the surface up, though, so I found some flannel shirts and buttoned them around it. I started to slide it up and that wouldn't work. I found my way around it and had a little bit more luck pulling it up. The grade of the stairs was still an issue - it was making it HEAVY, not the easy task I'd envisioned.
After realizing that if I pulled the desk up high enough to go up another stair my legs were stuck, I had to do it sitting down. Stair by painful stair I got it going up. I had to lift my ass up each stair with my elbows and the wall, as it was the only way I could go anywhere without dropping the desk. I got pretty near the top and my hands were all sweaty and I was about to lose the desk. One more step.
Got it! Now just one last burst of energy to pull the desk up to the landing! ...except a drawer fell open and now I can't pull it past the bathroom floor/garage ceiling. FFFFUUUU---
At this point, I don't have enough fight left in me to do anything but drop it. I start to guide it down the stairs as slowly as possible when I realize it is going to take me with it. Palms sweaty, I am frantically searching for an option other than watching the desk crash to the basement floor. Finally I got it wedged in the staircase by shaking it until a drawer falls all the way open and catches on the railing.
I'm gasping for air, and when I stand up my legs and arms are weak. I can't help but wonder how I've gotten myself into yet another one of these situations. I go find some work gloves and some water and take a 20-minute breather.
Work gloves in hand, I take some painters' tape and tape the 2 drawers I can reach. I'm still not sure how I'll get the third drawer closed (the one I opened to hold it up), but a restored sense of confidence has me tugging again...
I got it all figured out, and even finagled the last drawer shut. I jerk with all my might and the desk pretty much doesn't want to fit through the oddly-narrow doorway of the stairs. I forced it. There was no other option.
So finally, I got the desk upstairs. I got it where it needed to be and then proceeded to scrape all of the visible paint off of it (paint from the doorway). Anyway, it looks great now - wish I had a picture of that to put here too!
Long story short, I didn't take a picture on Saturday. Daaaammit.
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