We all have those five minute jobs that grow legs occasionally, don’t we?

I had one yesterday.  All I had to do was call the local log man to request a delivery of logs.  And it turned out he had a delivery near by and could come out to me around 2pm.  And that was great.  I figured would probably only take 20 mins – 40 minutes maximum for me to get them stacked into the storage space under the house, then I could get on with All The Work Things.  Not quite five minutes, but I could make that work.

But as I ate my lunch and thought it through a bit more, I remembered Mr R had said we needed to empty the storage space under the house before we got logs delivered as it was currently full of all the things we’d dumped there over the last year, including a large chair, numerous part filled pots of paint, all our camping suff and some floorboards.  The logs were due to arrive in an hour – I had an hour to sort it.  So Percy and I rushed around the side of the house (one of us very excited that this could mean a bit of ball throwing time) and opened the under house doors.

Only I didn’t, because they were stuck shut.  I tried to use the key as a lever: nothing.  I got a knife from the house to use as a crowbar.  I bent the knife.  I got a second knife and tried to use both together:  Nothing.  I video called Mr R in London to show demonstrate the door issue and ask for suggestions, even though I then shot all suggestions down in flames (because clearly on some level this was at least partly his fault, and by this time I was hot and grumpy).  But I didn’t need Mr R’s suggestions; it turned out I just needed my lovely next door neighbour’s window cleaner who appeared like a giant bearded fairy and asked if he could help.  Obviously he just pulled on the key a tiny bit and the door just popped open (clearly, I’d done all the groundwork required).

I managed to remove / reorganise all the insides sufficiently so that when the log man arrived with the giant back of logs (around 1/4 tonne.  It wasn’t a Tesco bag for life – we’re talking a lot of logs), and we managed the get the wheely thing corrying the giant bag of logs down the drive, I had enough room to carry out my 20-40 minutes job which so far had taken and hour.  I stacked hard and fast and was very proud until I tried to close the door.  Not a chance.  Especially as the window cleaner had finished ages ago.

I think what had happened is that the doors had expanded slightly since they’s had three coats of paint added to then (rather expertly, I might add, by smaller Stepson).  I requested advice from Mr R:

(I’m not allowed to use power tools with cords unsupervised ever since I hedge trimmed through the hedge trimmer power cord.)

I found some sand paper.  I fixed a bit.

I realised the job was way bigger.

Obviously the electric sander had no instructions, so Percy and I examined it, had a think about what you might have to do and…

…well lets just say I might have missed my vocation as a power sander extraordinaire 😁

The power lead is intact.

I am intact.

I sanded nothing I didn’t mean to (mostly)

We now have cupboards that close. And open (without the need of a window cleaner).

And my five minute job only ended up taking 2.5 hours…🤷‍♀️