it was the best of times...

...and it was the worst of times.

the box lied to us - this was neither fast nor easy. nor installed at this point.

i am referring to the last piece of our renovation project operation kill the pepto. our desire to remove the last remaining pepto bismol pink walls that coated our master bedroom and bath suite led to the last three and a half-months of painting, scraping and tearing out floors, fixing the closet so it can actually be used as a closet. (although it still can't hold all my shoes. crikey!)

we ripped up brown nasty carpet and replaced with new, puppy-approved carpet. we brought home two samples and let the girls choose -- of course they friggin' pick the expensive one.

we painted the walls a cool, silky ralph lauren metallic silver, which accentuated the room's size and contrasted nicely with our rich mahogany furniture and the velvety merlot hued-wall behind our bed. we painted the bathroom is slate blues, crisp whites and chose a brazilian cherry laminate floor for the closet, hallway and bathroom.

that's where it gets tricky.

neither of us are too shabby when it comes to the world of tools. my husband comes from a family of carpenters and skilled tradesmen, and even worked himself as an electrician after college and before he could step up into the white-collared world of eletrical engineer. i spent many years working in a frame shop where i learned to swing a hammer, work with sheets of glass and use tools like a pro.

so when this box of fake wood -- stick slot A into slot B -- fcuking refused to work for us, well, we had a problem with that. for a box with a total of 6 directions and directions in which both of us with our advanced degrees read numerous times, we could not fcukin figure out what we were doing wrong.

we got to the point were we almost decided to shave off the edges and nail the thing to the floor. we had reached a critical milestone -- our project could not proceed without a floor. we cursed, we screamed, we almost cried. we decided we needed to walk away.

when we came back the next night, we were inspired with a new vigor. it was going happen we could feel it. and it did. we missed the step where you unwrap the materials to allow them to acclimate to the room's temperature for at least 24 hours before attempting to install.

it seems my little habit of not unwrapping things has once again bit me in the ass.