The Young Have Strength, the Old Have Cash

Susan

Nov 13

The stages of life are a series of polar opposites. The young are strong. The old are at their wealthiest. The young can't afford stuff but are strong enough to lift it. The old can't lift it, but they have the cash to buy things. This is how I got my new bathroom vanity installed last week.

I'd gotten sucked into the hype of Way Day, when Wayfair had their items marked down. I found a black bathroom vanity with a white marble top, to replace a white pedestal sink in a white bathroom with white beadboard walls halfway up and a white tile floor. The pedestal sink had served me well for 17 years, except for the lack of storage. To handle that, I'd bought a thrift store stand with a woven reed front and had spray-painted it black. Then, every time I went to my little beach house, I'd pull a cardboard box, filled with my hygiene stuff out of the linen closet, set it on the painted thrift-store stand and carry on.

Wayfair delivered the huge box on a Saturday. I'd left special instructions to have them leave it on the covered porch. I even called Wayfair to explain that it was going to rain and it needed to be put on the porch. The woman kept reading from her script that said, "If it's raining, they will put it on the porch."

It didn't rain on Saturday, but rain was predicted for two days later. I called my neighbor and she said they left it in the yard on the sidewalk. She threw a tarp over the box and weighted it down with river rocks. Four days later I arrived at my house and opened the box. It said 150 lbs. on the outside.

The marble top was glued to the stand. Usually it would've been separate, which would've made the vanity lighter to carry up three steps and down a long hall to the bathroom. My neighbor, Ed, expressed interest in doing the job, which Wayfair had farmed out to Angie.com. I was much happier having my handy neighbor do it and pay him the $200 instead of a stranger.

Ed, who is in his seventies, had a tweak in his back. I suggested we borrow a construction guy from across the street. One guy was on the roof, but another guy was doing gopher work, clean-up stuff, so I introduced myself and asked if we could borrow him for 5 minutes. Ed was just coming down his driveway with a large dolly.

"Oh look," I said, "a twenty-dollar bill."

I handed the young guy the money and he said thanks and slipped it into his pocket.

The three of us walked back to my front yard, where Ed and Construction dude discussed how they were going to lift the box.

Meanwhile, I was back inside, going, "Crap! I have to move that, and that, and that!"

I cleared out the twenty-foot-long narrow hallway so that they could bring in the huge heavy box.

They wrangled it into my bathroom, and Ed came back the next day and installed it. I got down on hands and knees and dusted the hallway's hardwood floor on either side of my long rug runners. Lots of dust.

Ed's back was saved, my back was saved, and the young guy made twenty bucks for ten minutes of his time and strength. It was a win-win.

I love my new vanity. Now I need a new rug.