some assembly required

at our previous apartment, we were blessed with an extremely large patio/deck area.  one of our first purchases was a gas grill.  numerous cookouts and get togethers were a must with the outside area we had!  so, easy enough, g went to the local hardware store to purchase a grill.  it came in a box and assembly was required.  it's a grill, how hard could it be!?  luckily i was not home or even in the same time zone as the nightmare assembly occurred.  apparently, from what i was told, it was quite difficult with many parts.  i had my doubts about the method of assembly, but i accepted g's frustrations.  well, when the grill was nearly put together, g noticed a part was missing.  he returned the mostly assembled grill and exchanged it for one that they would assemble.  upon getting that home, it was still not assembled properly.  extremely frustrated and just wanting the ability to grill, g demanded that this one was picked up and a new one would be delivered.  and though we finally had a grill, there was something always askew about the grill.  but the most important part was that it worked.

when we bought our condo, we unfortunately knew that our grill would never fit on our outdoor/back staircase.  we resigned ourselves to the fact that we may have to turn back to our old friend, 'george foreman'.  though some of our neighbors had small grills out their back door, we weren't sure if we'd have the proper space for a grill of our own.  we really missed having a grill, so we started to look at various grills.  a couple months ago, we discovered a small gas grill that would be perfect for the space we have.  we attempted to get it a few weeks ago, but they were out of stock.  g was totally on board for getting a grill, but said that he would not help assemble the grill and preferred to not be around for the assembly.  last week, the weather was gorgeous and it was the perfect evening for grilling...and g was out of town.  perfect.  i purchased the grill, brought it home and opened up the box of its contents.

there truly are A LOT of pieces that go into the assembly of a seemingly simple gas grill.  so, i sat down on the kitchen floor with the instruction book, a standard philips screwdriver, and a wine chilling in the fridge on back-up.  step by step the assembly took shape.  though it was a bit time consuming, i began to think, "this isn't so bad."  the base was assembled and it was quite sturdy.

after the base was put together, it was time to put the "firebox" together.  everything was going well until i was to attach the box to the base.  everything matched up perfectly except the holes on the top of the base didn't quite line up.  "maybe i have to push in on the sides a bit?" i thought to myself.  i quickly realized that wasn't going to work.  i took a step back to look at it and then i realized...the top of each side of the legs is on the wrong side.  DAMMIT!  i took a deep breath (and a swig of wine) and started unscrewing the necessary parts, hoping to minimize the dismantling of the grill.  after a minor 20 minute road block, i was back on track with the directions and putting the final steps in place.

though it was nearly 9pm, it was time to start grilling dinner!  it was definitely worth the wait, though!  now let the summer grilling begin!!