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As I couldn't afford to buy Daina things to show her my appreciation
for the support she had been giving me over the past few years, I
offered to apply my skills. She decided to get her first PC computer
and I helped her shop around until we found the best pre-made fit for
her needs and cost level. Getting it to her home, I put the
components together on a small desk she had in her guest room and
booted-up the computer and spent a little time reviewing its bios
settings and pre-installed software. I then pared it down to what
she needed and then gave her a copy of my original check book
program, since expense tracking was one of the things she wanted to
use it for, as well as preparing her quarterly student reports.
I guided her as she used the word processing software for the first
time to prepare her next set of reports. When it came time to print
them up she had a ratty photo copy of a poor photo copy of a school
letter head page. Seeing this, I went home and created a new school
letter head form for her with a group of mountains in the background
using my desktop publishing skills. For her next set of student
reports, the new letter head sheets made them stand out and look more
professional.
As she would have handyman tasks at her condo from time to time, I
would help when I could, such as installing a ceiling fan for her
after she had seen the two I put into my own apartment. As I worked
on it, I entertained her with my ability to mimic various music
artists I liked and sang various songs in their voices. She enjoyed
it and was impressed by my ability to change the sound of my voice,
even for singing. Given her positive feedback, I took up the habit
of occasionally leaving hoax messages on her answering machine to see
if I could fool her with a new voice or accent I'd worked out.
She asked if I could make her an exercise step for her routine at
home and, as I hadn't a clue what an exercise step was, she
explained to me that it had to be steady as she would be constantly
stepping up and down it. I realized it was more of a little platform
than a stair type of step or foot stool and she paid for some scrap
particle board at the local hardware store and I measured and cut it
into three pieces by hand, two thin strips I crossed & mounted
corner to corner on the underside of the square main piece. It was
the height Daina wanted and very stable. She was very appreciative
and the next time I was at her condo, I noticed that she had a
collection of spices and jars of base ingredients inconveniently
stuffed into a cabinet where she would have to pull most, if not
everything, out to find what she was looking for each time. I saw
she had an empty patch of wall at the end of her kitchen and offered
to custom craft a 'spice rack' for her. She was willing to see what
I could craft up but wasn't sure she would use it if she didn't like
the look. More as a box of shelves, I measured the various sizes of
her items to place on it and decided to make it tapered so the large
jars would fit on the deep bottom shelf and the rest would become
less deep until the final shelf would hold the smallest spice
bottles. As with the step, I hand cut pine boards and then assembled
them, this time with wooden dowels rather than screws so there
wouldn't be any unsightly screw heads. Showing it to her and how I
could secure it to her kitchen wall with the mounting brackets hidden
from view, she agreed and it was soon in place with the jars and
spices stacked in their new home and Daina had a new portion of a
cabinet cleared out and available for other uses.
With her enthusiasm for these two projects, I looked around her
kitchen to see if there was anything else I could do for her. She
only had a limited amount of counter space and a large portion of it
was taken up by her microwave oven. I noted an odd part of her
kitchen where there was a row of high cabinets that spanned over her
refrigerator, across a bare portion of wall until they spanned over
the open area sink dividing her kitchen from the rest of the living
space. I said I could build a suspended shelf that would fit under
the bare wall portion of that cabinet span next to the refrigerator
and she could place her microwave into it, clearing counter space.
For Daina this was one project too far and she declined.
Assuming she feared it would be made out of particle board or the
such, I assured her I could get quality wood and custom stain it to
match the cabinets so once installed it would look like a natural
part of them. But the answer was
''No.''
Still, she had a birthday coming up and I did have a few pennies
saved away. Assuming her refusal of the project was based on her
not having confidence in my ability, I decided to go ahead and create
the microwave shelf at my apartment, trim it, and stain it. It would
be suspended by two side pieces that would slide up between small
mounting gaps between two of the high cabinets with bolts crossing
between the cabinet insides for support. On the nights I was over to
her place for television shows or playing card or board games, she
would often use the restroom before she'd drive me home for the
night. I took this moment of time to pull out the tape measure in my
pocket and plot the area where the shelf would be placed, and later
bring stain sample slips to match against the existing cabinets to
insure my work would match. As I'd hear her hand grasping the
bathroom door knob, I'd quickly stuff these back into my pants
pockets and act as if I had just been standing there doing nothing
while she was busy.
When she would come over to my place, I would furtively scoot the
pieces of wood and trim from my living room into my bedroom and pull
the door to, so she wouldn't see the work in progress and misjudge
the half completed shelf. And then it was done and I asked to
borrow Daina's car on her birthday when she was working as I needed
'to run an errand'. In reality I placed the completed parts of the
microwave shelf into the back seat of her car and brought them to her
condo as, since her house key was on the car key ring, I was able to
bring in the pieces and compression fit them into place. Not
yet mounted with the securing bolts I wouldn't trust it to hold the
actual weight of the microwave, but I wanted to let Daina see the
finished product and approve the final step of drilling the holes for
the bolts. If for any reason before that step she still didn't want
the microwave shelf, I could simply pull it out of it's place hanging
under the cabinets and take it home, leaving no trace it had
temporarily hung there. After I picked Daina up at work, we first
went to her place so she could change before we went out to eat for
the evening and I settled on her living area couch and waited for her
to notice the shelf. After changing her clothes, she briefly
puttered in the kitchen for a bit and then was ready to leave.
She saw my big smile and asked if there was a makeup blemish or
something on her face. In reality it was the fact that the
microwave shelf had blended in so well with the existing cabinetry
that she hadn't noticed it when she went in. But instead of
telling her this, I lead her back into the kitchen while she looked
at me and I asked her if she noticed anything different. At first
she thought with me, but then I clarified 'the kitchen'. She
glanced around and then suddenly gave a yelp. She briefly covered
her mouth from the involuntary sound and then as she realized what it
was she said, ''I told you not to.''
Before any anger could develop, I went up to the suspended 'U' shaped
shelf assembly and pulled it out of its place between the cabinets to
once again reveal that nothing permanent had been done, yet,
and she could still have that space in her kitchen just as it had
been. But now she could see it as it would look if permanently
mounted and I slipped it back into place. She eyed it for a while
and said she'd think about it during dinner. When we got back she
had me take it out again, and then put it back in place. She said
she wanted to see the microwave oven in it before she would make her
final decision, but without the supporting bolts, I instead offered
to hold the shelving in place as she slid the microwave into the
space herself and stand back for another look. She was warming up to
the idea but still wasn't convinced and so I noted that the
supporting bolt heads would be hidden in the cabinets and so
what I could do was mount it for a week or two and if she still
didn't like it, I could remove it and the only thing left over would
be some holes in between the interior sides of the cabinets that I
could cover over with some faux wood grain patches.
Mustering up her courage, she agreed to let me drill the holes and
physically mount the shelf in place. Then I slipped the microwave in
and plugged it into the spare outlet behind the refrigerator. She
tried the microwave to make sure it worked and noted it was easier to
program, now, with the display closer to eye level. But she still
wasn't sold on it...
The following week she felt the need to tell me, after days of having
more free counter space, and a spare outlet with the microwave being
out of the way, she had fallen in love with the shelf...! Hearing
that, I was thrilled. When her friends and coworkers visited in
the subsequent weeks and months she would point it out to them and
eagerly compliment me and they in turn would appreciate it and she
would come back to my apartment to share this news with me.
A year later she was still tickled with it and while it had been a
gift for her birthday, a single day of a year, it had given her
happiness for many more days than just that.
And reflecting on it as I type this, that success and her
appreciation of it has tickled me more than most any other project
I've ever done these decades since.
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