It could have been much worse...

Just for clarification on the image used for this post, I am not 40 years old, but I was an idiot today.....Allow me the opportunity to explain myself. So, the other day, I went to Costco and was amazed that they had much of their spring inventory on display. Things like fertilizer, grass seed, patio sets, gardening tools, etc. I made the mistake of not buying a compost bin from there last year because I thought they would still have that item at the end of the season. Well, they didn't and my dreams of composting would be dashed for 2005 although my garden produced very well sans as much compost as I would have wanted to add. Anyway, I told myself that would not happen two years in a row. They happened to have a compost bin there for $38! Man, I was all over that deal. The ones I researched online were at least $80 and above. I bought it two weeks ago and decided to put it together this afternoon. It's so funny to me how some items come with the most basic of directions and the item ends up taking 10X as long to put together than what you may think....I needed like 4 extra hands for this stupid thing! Sheesh...It had two base pieces that just clipped together with a type of tongue and groove system and then it had the four sides that you had to line up PERFECTLY with another type of tongue and groove system, but there was absolutely no room for error.....I dropped the first two sides a few times because I was concerned that I might snap a portion of the plastic. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed and started to regret the purchase, but I keep reassuring myself that I made the right choice and $38 was well spent. I am not kidding when I say this thing took me just over an hour to put together. Frankly, I am quite embarrassed to admit that, but as I said before, I needed more hands to stabilize this thing as I was clipping in the pieces.....Sheesh!! Ok, so I get all four sides clipped and then I flip the thing over to put the base on. There were no tools required for putting this thing together. It came with these small, plastic screws that held the base on to the sides and four plastic squares that hold the sides in place on the top corners. Not a bad system. It held fine. Did I mention this bin is a tapered cube? Well, it is. It has a wider base than the top. I flipped it right side up and locked in the top door. It has hinges and a handle to lock it into place when not putting anything inside or turning the compost. Mission Accomplished.........I thought. I did not mention this before, but I put this thing together in my basement. It’s not the smallest bin either; it can hold 115 gallons of compost. It's light since it is made out of recycled plastic. I picked it up and started up the stairs. It was fine until I reached the top and managed to NOT get through the doorway. Oh snap!!! The top fit, but the base (it's a tapered cube, remember) was too wide to fit through the doorway!!! I was definitely NOT going to take this stupid thing apart and spend another hour painstakingly clipping everything back outside...NO WAY, NO HOW!!! So, I walk it back downstairs and come upstairs and take the door off the hinges at the top of the stairs. I run back downstairs and grab the bin and it DOES fit this time...BARELY, though...
In fact, I have another project for myself now...I happen to scrap the wooden railing that goes from up to downstairs and slightly chip it and I will end up replacing the railing for the stairs because of it. Well, maybe I will just restain it because I don't like how it looks now thanks to me being an idiot and not measuring the doorway and trying to fit a watermelon through an opening the size of a lemon…..Anyway, I get up stairs and then realize that I would have to take it through the sliding glass door in the back of the house. Should fit without any problems, right? WRONG AGAIN!!! Man, I was pissed at this point! I break out the elusive tape measure and measure the base of the bin and then the FRONT door of the house. Sure enough, I can fit through there with a half inch to spare on each side....Fine, but I have to pop the pins out of the pistons (top and bottom) so that the storm door would open beyond the hinges and allow another 1-2" for me to walk this bin through..........Wheew!! It worked!!!

I am sure I could have spared all the details of this post and just said, measure with a tape and don't assume because you know what they say about people who ASSuME, right?