Dynamite's Diary - 4th February 2022

Well, today was pretty awkward. I said in an earlier diary entry that I was desperate for my own bedroom and I thought that today could provide a good start.

Mom pretty much said NO to the idea of redecorating my room at her place when I begged her to do it yesterday. She said that there wasn't enough room to add stuff and it would be too expensive to redo the wallpaper and flooring. Of course, she actually just can't be bothered to change it anyway - she REALLY likes that tacky taco-themed wallpaper she currently has.

So I was left with just trying to come up with a way to set up a new bedroom at Dad's place. I felt he would be more accepting, but when I phoned him about it, he insisted that I didn't touch his tools without his permission and that he helped me out with it. And let's face it, if you've seen his shack, you'll know that he's not the type of person you'd ask to design your own house. In the end, I felt it was best to just do it in secret.

I headed up to his shack early this morning, just before he would have a chance to wake up. I snook inside while he was sleeping and took the tools I needed, being careful not to make any noise. Then after also fetching the paint and wooden planks he stores near the fridge, I went outside again. 

I'm pretty good with DIY normally - I once made a pretty neat birdbox in woodwork class and even made an ironwood shelf to replace Dad's old broken one last year in April. So I thought it would be the same here. But it turns out that making a whole room is a different beast entirely. Every time I tried to put a plank into place, it would just topple over and I'd have to prop it up again.

So I have to line up several planks together and them add another plank to them horizontally and nail it in so they would stay in place. I hit my thumb about three times doing it, which I have NEVER done before on other DIY projects. It was outright swollen by the time I got the first wall half done. Nearly shattered my own nail too (the thumbnail, not the metal nails). That's how finicky the whole process was.

I had to really slam the planks into the ground in order to make them stay in, which wasted a huge chunk of time. Then I had to do the same process I'd done for the bottom half of the first wall with another set of planks, and then attach them to the top somehow. That was even harder. But somehow, I managed to get it done. Even if the finished wall did seem a bit wobbly.

I realized that it was just going to take forever with the rest of the walls, so I decided to simply get on with the painting. That was the part that I'd been looking forward to. Of course, I hadn't really put much thought into it - I just grabbed a can of red paint and started slathering it on the wood. School was going to start soon and if I didn't hurry up, I'd be late. Maybe I could just finish it off as a "preview" wall and then get on with the rest when I got back? And then pretend that someone else took Dad's DIY tools out of his house.

I was clearly in too much of a rush though because I really hit the wood hard with the paintbrush. And then it started toppling over towards the shack. It was like a slo-mo scene in a disaster movie, with me rushing over to stop it from causing any damage and letting up the obligatory big "NOOOO!". No success though - I stepped into the paint can by accident and tripped up, and the planks proceeds to smash through one of Dad's windows.

That crash must have woken Dad up, because he came out about thirty seconds later in his dressing gown whilst I was trying to salvage my mistake. And he had some weird ideas on what caused it initially.

"Urgh, that Steve!" he was grumbling to himself. "Thinks he can come over here and throw one of his goddamn basketballs at my house just to beg for a date with my daughter! Forget about kneecapping him this time, I'm just gonna aim the bullets straight for his head!"

But when he saw that it was me covered in woodchip and paint and standing next to a shoddily made wall, he struggled to restrain his chuckling.

"Hey, we're both on the same boat when it comes to home DIY!" he said. "You want help with that?"

"Yeah, thanks Dad, but...I really need to get washed. And head off to school now."

"Well, I meant that paint bucket you're wearin' on your foot, but sure, I'll help with your bedroom if you want.

"It's nice to offer," I awkwardly chuckled back. "But just help me out with the bucket. As said, I REALLY need to get washed."

So that was why I ended up thirty minutes late to school and received yet another detention. Hey, at least the progress I made was somewhat better than what Dad would have done - he would have just slapped the planks together, used too many nails and superglue and just hope for the best.

Next time, I need to properly plan ahead. Just jumping into things without thinking only leads to disaster, as I learnt too well today. Once I know EXACTLY how I want the room to be, it will all be perfect. That's how it works, right?