One of Those Days ...

You know how some days are just the wrong days to try certain things?

To wit:

I couldn't find our air filters at Wally World and had to go to Auto Zone instead (meaning more $$ spent than planned).

Yesterday we bought new cover plates for light switches and receptacles in the living room, which included one unfinished wood blank for the old cable jack in the decorative wood accent wall behind the TV. So I decided to stain the blank before I started on the cover plates upstairs.

I got out the can of stain which has been sitting on my workbench for two years. Lo and behold, it's "sun-kissed walnut". Not "honey oak" at all. Not sure how we missed that, although I do recall we were a bit overwhelmed by all the choices at the store when we bought it.

Then, while stirring it in hopes that it might be "sun-kissed" enough to work, it sloshed over on the newspaper and garage floor. I cleaned that up as best I could; it's not like a bit o' tint on the concrete will matter. But regarding the wood tint: alas, the stain is much too brown, even applied lightly. We'll have to get a different shade and try again.

So I cleaned the brush and stirrer, and headed up to the living room. Of course I had three cats standing on top of, in front of, and/or sniffing everything I wanted to touch/move/pick up/adjust. I spent more time moving cats than getting anything done.

So in the last hour, I've spent more money than I planned, spilled and cleaned up wood tint, and replaced exactly two (count 'em, two) cover plates.

Update: once the cats got used to me bustling around the room, and decided to take a nap, I finished the remainder in about 20 minutes.

At least the cats are enjoying me being home.

Murphy's Law is in Full Force Today...

I had one job for today: Swap doorknobs from master bathroom (on-suite) to Older Daughter's bedroom so that she can have a locking knob. Previous owners had placed a closet knob on that door, which of course doesn't lock.

Procedure:

a. Remove our knob and go down the hall to her room.
b. Remove her doorknob and install ours in its place.
c. Go back to our room. Reinstall her doorknob on our bathroom door, only to discover that - somewhere in the process - a piece had disappeared. The loss of said piece, the collar which grips the square shaft, prevents the inside knob from turning the latch, thereby neatly trapping the occupant (either me or my wife, usually me) in the bathroom.
d. Grab a flashlight and turn the master bathroom, hallway and her room upside down. The missing piece apparently fell into a black hole, nevermore to be seen again. Or perhaps it was a temporal rift, from whence the little piece of stamped metal will reappear a few years from now.
e. Go to WalMart and buy a replacement knob ($12).
f. Bring it home and begin replacement. Discover that the new knob is different from our existing hardware, and would require inletting on the solid wood bathroom door. I wasn't in the mood for it today, so ...
g. Go to different store, farther away, and buy another knob ($16).
h. Bring home & install.

Should have been a simple & easy 10-minute job. Four screws, easy-peasy, right?

Actual elapsed time to swab two doorknobs: 2 hours.