A Monkey Could Do It



A most trying time!  We needed bookcases and had spent a lot
of time shopping around for some. It was to cost around $100 to
have one delivered from a furniture store!


I saw some at Target (after hitting all the antique stores) that looked pretty good and it was easier to
order them online (free shipping) than for us to put
two huge boxes in our vehicle.


The acutal introduction on the Target bookcase instruction manual:

Now what?  Don't start sweating over this box of parts.  This will be easy.  We did the work for you.  All you need to do is follow our simple instructions and you'll be on your way to transforming  your room in no time.  Good luck---though we're confident you won't need it.



Clint would sneak by the door and snap pictures and remind me "even a monkey
can do it" and "my twelve year old son assembled it in 20 minutes".

I am here to tell you this monkey pictured here was having a heck of a time!

Okay, Clint, enough of your wisecracks! :~)



How could this be such a difficult job when it looked so easy?  The bookcases looked so simple and plain.  Online there were around 150 reviews on these bookcases. Some reviewers said such things as "even a monkey could do it" and "my twelve year old son put it together in 20 minutes".  I now agree that the instructions were vague.  It took me more than 20 minutes just to clean up the styrofoam "charged" particles and the other packing material.


It didn't help matters that the pre-drilled holes were too large for the wooden dowels that were to be "carefully tapped into place".  The wooden dowels literally fell into the holes. sigh  How was I to know what a "cam bolt" was or even a "cam"?  sigh  At one point I was dreading of giving the news to Clint it was not doable and that we had to return a partcially assembled bookcase back to Target.  SIGH  (I'd made sure we didn't have to mail the 75 lb. boxs back if they didn't work)


Clint did good job of keeping his end of the bargain by "helping" me ... he was to not come near me when I was working on the bookcases.  His method of dealing with any home improvement project is to resort to a ball peen hammer when all else fails.  He is also not allowed to be near any paint inside our house.  Once he knocked over a gallon of paint with a ladder on a carpeted floor!  (Keystone Cops)  It is good I can't help but laugh as I am typing this.  Better than crying. ;~0

Clint "helping" me while I worked on the bookcases.



Time to celebrate!  We lived through
the ordeal and were pleased with the bookcases.