Crib Construction: A Man Home Alone.

Colors. Toys. Registry. Books. Baby talk. Yeah yeah. It's about time for some man perspective. Drills. Wood. Instructions not being used. Hardware. Confusion. Re-drilling. Hammering. Unhammering? The real stuff behind a baby's upbringing. Mr. build it Wright is here.

Okay, so when we ordered our crib it was supposed to take 5-7 weeks. Perfect! We would order it early so by the time it came we would have a perfect little place carved out for it, including a finished furniture layout for the room and a small but ample quarantined construction zone. Most importantly this would give me time to study and take my last architect licensing exam. 

ONE week later a 6 foot long 1 ton box is sitting at our door. No layout. No quarantine. Just a lot of heavy (and somehow really dirty) cardboard. Ironically, that moment might be the only time we weren't actually stoked to receive a package early! We then had to find a temporary home for all that pre-assembled goodness somewhere in the not-quite-yet soon-to-be-nursery. So we decided that it would be best just cover it in plastic and prop it up against the closet for a few weeks while I finished studying for my exam. I would wait to get into the day labor assembly business once all the studying was over. That was a Friday and I had the day off to study. Dawn left for work while I opened the dreaded 2,300 page book on electrical and mechanical systems. Fun.

It only took me 5 minutes of starring at that dang box before I happily closed the equally as heavy book I wasn't reading so I could unwrap that temptress of wood and bolts and get to constructing. It was like I was building my baby's first house, which is soo much better than studying! Learn by doing right?! :-) Best of all, it would make a great surprise for Dawn as I had totally convinced  her (but not myself) that I really needed to study before I could get to playing house.

Let me just say, IKEA has spoiled me. Big time. When their instructions say screw a bolt into Part A then there is always a part neatly labeled 'A'. These parts had no labels. This instruction book needed an instruction book. Anyway, I don't need to take you through the drilling, hammering, yelling, eating, re-drilling, man-home-alone assembly process - I'll let the pictures do that. So here you go, our crib before and after:

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, we had a success: a perfectly constructed crib and a more than surprised wife! The furniture layout was in full effect and 1 ton of why-so-much-cardboard was on its way to the local recycling center. Only one week to ship and one day to assemble - not bad! Now we just need a baby! ;-)