aka Lucy Stewart Extraordinaire: Labor of luv part 2 The Doors

Buh bye summer, hello indoor projects!

I'm not gonna lie, I really enjoyed spending my weekends lounging in the pool soaking up the sun (in a responsible, plenty of sunscreen kinda way). But as August was winding down, I found myself looking forward to closing the pool. Does that seem strange to you? Allow me to explain my seasonal investment belief: If I buy something that can only be used for a fraction of the year, I expect that it will be in use frequently during its eligibility. I gotta get the most bang for my buck, so if my pool was open - I was in it as much as possible. (I know you are probably feeling pity for me right about now and yes, my toes did get all wrinkly.)

But I have a punch list of items I've been waiting to start on. So, as the pool was draining and summer was leaving; I was ready to take a bite out of my to-do list.

First up!
The Doors. Shower doors to be specific. If you don't know the best way to clean them, allow me to divulge my cleaning secret. Remove them. Yep, take them out. Especially if your house was built in the 70's. I came up with this little plan a few weeks ago when I was replacing the shower curtain in the girls' bathroom. Mostly because I had a spare curtain that was somewhat gender neutral (if you consider polka dots to be sorta masculine) and I decided to get a tension curtain rod and just hang the curtain to cover the doors. That way we wouldn’t have to see the shower and its hideousness. It would also be like a magic trick. Ricky gets used to seeing the curtain, but then one day he will open curtain and the doors would be gone. Viola!

All I needed was a tool of some sort. I imagined a scraper thingy. I don't know if I thought I would just need to scrape the frame out or something, but that's what I had in my mind and that was enough to hatch the plan.

Timing: Ricky decided to take the hyper child to McDonalds for lunch and I sprang (that's past tense for spring) into action. Took the curtain down, easy peasy - remember it's just a tension rod and even Lucy can handle that! I see that the frame of the shower has screws and think maybe that means I will unscrew it and it will just like fall right down or something. Wrong. Screws out, frame still in place and that scraper tool doesn't seem to be much help. Stop! Hammer time. Yes I did that because I had a stroke of genius - I will just hit the frame with the hammer! I'm pretty sure I've seen that done on TV before and if not, it will be loads of fun, right?

Now, let me pause for a moment to talk about safety. I had Lasik the week before and wasn't in the mood to lose an eyeball, but I don't have any safety goggles. (Remember I'm new to the DIY world) However, I had the sleep goggles that they give after Lasik, so they were ordered to perform as dual purpose goggles and they stepped up to the challenge.

I started swinging like a construction goddess and believe it or not, it worked. (It's appropriate to insert all the chest bumps, high fives and knuckles here) Unfortunately, I couldn't lift the thing alone. I mean on a normal day, I probably could have (shaking my head no), but not this day - after all, I did run a 5K race that morning and I'm sure I lost some electrolytes that prevented me from lifting it.

Good thing my teenage daughter aka Ethel of this project was home to help. She's pretty accustomed to my project timing issue and was the perfect accomplice.

We lifted and carried it out to the garage, because that's my magical dumping ground. Isn't your garage magic? Mine is, or maybe I just don't see it once I put it out there. Either way, that was the new home for the doors of doom.

Before

After!

Accomplices:

Scraper thing. Didn't do much, but I guess he tried. A for effort, pal.

My little friend. Go on & say hello.

aka Ethel. Love this girl :)

I asked Ethel to take a picture of me (and make sure to only get the top half of my arm and not the old lady hangy down flab) that would make me look super strong. I was going for a certain look: