Scope Creep

In application development we have a term called "scope creep" that refers to the slight, almost unnoticable expansion of a project. Erin and I experienced "scope creep" today.

I convinced Erin that I really needed the weed-whacker and the blower vac. We decided that I could use the money I earned working for Joe in February to get the equipment. Well, we went to Lowe's Home Improvement to purchase the tools I wanted and get some paint so Erin could stencil the nursery. We also wanted to get some TurfBuilder with Weed Control to put on the lawn.

We picked up the weed whacker and the blower. Amazingly enough, located right next to the tools were ClosetMaid products to hang the tools on the wall. Now, our garage is a mess and we have been talking for just under two years about organizing it. We decided to pick up the hangers so that the tools would be off the floor and not contribute to the mess. We then walked by the entire ClosetMaid Garage display and saw the shelves and other hooks. We decided, since we were there and were going to hang up the tools, we might as well get a couple of shelves, a couple of ladder hooks, and other accessories and do the whole garage.

I then remembered that my drill had burned out and we would need a new one to hang all of the stuff up. So we went and picked up a drill. This prompted Erin to remember that she wanted to hang a flag out on the brick column so I had to go get some lead anchors and a masonry bit. I then remembered the TurfBuilder, so we walked way back to the other side of the store to get it. Of course, we found it, but needed a broadcast spreader to distribute it on the lawn.

Finally, an hour and $450 later...we walked out of Lowe's and went home.

Now, we just had to put up the shelves and organize and clean up the garage. We pulled Erin's car out of the garage and moved all the junk to the center of the garage. Prior to having the very nifty shelves, we had an old coffee table with a plastic set of shelves setting on top of it with all the junk. Well, I proceeded to hang the new shelving unit in the same place. This consists of installing a horizontal bar in the wall with screws. This bar should go into studs...however, we were on a short wall and the studs were not they typical 16" apart. The bar only had holes every 8" and I could only line one of the holes up with a stud. I used wall anchors for the other 4 screws because we were not going to be putting 600lbs on the shelves anyway. After the bar went up, then 5 other bars, called standards, drop vertically down from the horizontal bar. These contain the slots to put the shelves. I attached them to wall by 2 screws each using wall anchors. We then placed the shelves brackets onto the standards and hooked the shelves onto the brackets. The shelves did not fit exactly right, so I had to cut some wires away to make them fit. We got two 6' shelves up and Erin started putting stuff on it while I went to go hang some of the other organization equipment we had purchased.

Well...one of the the things that Erin found was a box. She was about to put it on the shelf and I said, "There is no need to put that on the shelf, it goes in the attic." We then looked it over where our attic pulls out and noticed that we would not be able to un-fold the ladder because the shelves we had just put up were in the way. DOH!!!!!!

After much discussion, it was decided to take the shelves down and put the entire set-up on another wall. We took everything back off the shelves. Dismounted all of the hardware and moved to another wall. However, it was ok because the other wall did have studs in all the right places and I was able to mount the horizontal bar and all of the standards into studs. We re-hung everything and put the shelves back on and loaded them up with garage junk. I then installed the tool holder, the hose holder, the ladder brackets and a few other items. I stopped before putting up the weed whacker holder and the blower holder.

We left the house at 1:45 to go to Lowes...I stopped and cleaned everything up at 9:00 PM. Man, am I exhausted.