The boy who can

Yesterday Mark came to my classroom after the students had left to assemble the set of drawers I had purchased.  I have a bookshelf that is in its last stages of life and I decided to switch it out for a set of drawers.  Hidden storage is my love language. 

So is Mark.

It wasn't an IKEA piece, which Mark and I regretted.  It was a made in China/ordered from Amazon situation and let me tell you, the Swedes have the Chinese beat in ready to assemble furniture!

We screwed in a million (give or take) tiny screws and I hadn't brought a drill, which would have been smart, but I had two screwdrivers and Mark let me use the better one, which was nice of him.  As we were assembling the tracks the drawers go on, Mark said, "I'm not sure this is right."

I looked at the illustration.  "Yes, it is," I said.

We assembled the top and the bottom.

Mark said, "I don't think this is right."

I said, "Yes, it is."  (I was starting to think it was a good thing I was there to guide the ship.)

We finally finished assembling the drawers and they slid in, but in a very wonky fashion.

Mark said, "I think we made a mistake."

I said, "It's just cheap.  This is how it is."

Mark stooped down and looked at it.

"It's wrong," he said.  He showed me the error of our ways and I realized I should have listened to him all along.

He looked at it for a few minutes and said, "OK, I can fix it."  

He flipped it upside down and quickly removed the parts he needed to (he used a magnet to pull out those little metal things that twist over screws--there may be a technical term but I don't know it).  He zipped along and soon it was correct.

My trouble is that I was looking at the not so fabulous pictures and Mark's trouble was that he was listening to me.

We were following the directions/pictures one at a time, but Mark was looking at it holistically because he understands stuff like that and I don't.  Next time I will listen to him!

I was so grateful to him, I went to Jamie's office (she was still there too at 5:00 PM) and got him a soda out of her fridge.

This picture is from March 2014.

All those years that Mark's bedroom floor was like this have ended up paying off.