D2P: Dad's reading light 2

The globe I picked up for £1 at a lighting shop in Worthing. So, for a total of £11, Dad had a new reading lamp as soon as I could put it together. His hospitalization gave me ample opportunity not only to pick up the globe, but to assemble the light.

 

I unpacked and began, wondering if it would be a shed-saga or closet-comfort style job....

 I found the base and pole an easy screw-in job and proceeded confidently. I soon had the top pole/head screwed in also and was happy to realize it would take less than ten minutes to complete.

I soon had the light completed and then placed it behind Dad's chair ready for him to return from hospital. Now, I just have to wait to see what he thinks of his new reading lamp when he gets home!

Dad's reading light 1

My father has complained for a long time about not being able to read properly. At the age of 88 years, this is hardly surprising. He wears reading glasses and has his eyesight checked annually and glasses ammended if needed. He had a wooden stand reading lamp, but was unable to get the light to shine in the correct position without glaring on the shiny pages of such as garden magazines. One solution was audio books, but Dad still missed reading his magazines.

Dad spotted an ad for reading lights with flexible heads in one of his magazines and decided to get me to investigate on his behalf. I knew they would be over-priced, but obliged. I hinted heavily at checking for flexible reading lamps online. The brochure arrived sporting offers of £30 off - but all lights were a minimum of £250! No, no, NO, I thought!

Sure enough, online investigations allowed Dad to find plenty of lower-priced choices - most in the £30-120 price range. I hinted and encouraged him to opt on a £10 option. He finally agreed and it has arrived! Another self-assembly job on my hands!

The Bed....

I was fed up of my bed. The top mattress was fine, if a little frayed, but it perched upon a smaller mattress below. This was not so fine. 

 

Everynight, the top mattress would slide position and tilt on top of the bottom one. Sometimes I would fall one way, sometimes the other. I often felt I was about to roll right out of the bed. It was simply uncomfy.

 

The remedy was to remove the bottom mattress, revealing my artsy decor'd self-made bed, insert a blanket, and place the main mattress on top of that. 

 

Hopefully this will suffice to allow me not to topple sideways or feel as if I am falling to the floor if I roll over in the night.

 

So far, so good.....

The new cleaning closet - 5

The contents of the cleaning closet could hardly stay on the kitchen floor forever - so as I had begun, I must complete my task within the hour in order to allow enough time to cook lunch.

 

I managed to tug at the cabinet - and thankfully it simply dragged away from the wall. I then had the task of dismantling it - however, I decided to offer it to my father as a patio stand to save myself the trouble. He agreed to have extra shwelving to put pot plants on, and I dragged the dirty thing out into the yard and left it on the patio. This left me a dirty corner to clean, so I cleaned it.

 

This left me the task of bringing the cabinet into position - and filling it up. We then had a shiny new cleaning closet in the kitchen - and 4 spare screws/8 unneeded wooden rawplugs!

The new cleaning closet - 4

I gave it a little nudge - to ensure it was wobble proof - and at this point I assumed I would have the door on in no time and have a perfect piece of furniture - WRONG!

Step 10 of 12 took longer than any other step on the entire sheet. I put the hinges on, screwing them in, only to find that the door was ski-whiff. I unscrewed the hinges, flipped them, and tried again - it did not seem right, still. Finally, after emptying my glass of wine, I found that third time lucky worked for me and I screwed the hinges on the correct way. I then had steps 11 and 12 - simple - to complete - of inserting shelf pins and shelves - and I was finished!

 

YES! This closet looked as good as it did in the advert - unlike our 2011 shed saga! The next task was to await a day when I had at least one hour free. I figured that to rip out the old closet, clean the area, and place the new cabinet in place would take circa an hour - and it would be fatal to leave the job halfdone seeing as the draining board of washing up had to go on top and a meal might overload the sink with dirty dishes if I had not completed my task in time....

I began on a suitable morning by emptying the old cleaning closet.

The new cleaning closet - 3

Here is my solution to the problem - a rubber mallet!

 

Luckily, this whacked in the little metal lumps properly - and did not smudge, break, crack, or otherwise damage the rest of the cabinet - phew! The next job was to insert and screw in the beautiful shiny knob.

 

To do this job, I had to find a different screwdriver. I came back from dad's tool box with an assortment of possible tools...

 

I was now ready for steps 6 & 7 on the instruction sheet - aka half way home. This is where screw-things had to be inserted into little metal pieces and the little metal bits turned to hold the screws in securely. Now, it was NOT the guide that told me this but my own LOGIC, I must add...

 

I soon had the back slotted into place - assuming it went into the grooves that had no labeled purpose correctly, thankfully.

 It finally began to look a bit like it should - with no major hitches so far.