In Through The Small Door

ok, so we've got the giant desk down through the bulkhead into the basement corridor leading to our apartment (with Paul's help), and Barb & i have now slid/pulled/pushed the behemoth all the way down to our doorway.

but it looks too big to fit through (or rather the doorway is too small); the desk has four short carved legs on the corners, but it also has two additional legs in the middle for extra support.

and despite all kinds of wiggling, jiggling, and other spatial niggling, it simply cannot fit through the doorway! (even with the door taken off the hinges) we can get it in past the outer legs, but not the inner.

i really don't want to lose those extra legs in the middle of the desk; but they're the only things preventing the desk moving through the doorway. so i take out the screws that seem to be holding the extra legs in place, but the legs still don't budge. maybe they're glued in. my wife has gone upstairs by now; she maybe doesn't want to watch the coming emergency surgery.

i'd hate to have to saw off those legs and then later have to try to reattach them, but i see little other choice. where's our hand saw? in the end i resort to the last refuge of the frustrated man -- i give one leg a good solid thump; maybe i can knock the damned things loose.

and it does give a tiny little bit. i thump it again. again, a little movement; but the whole inside lower edge of the chair-hole also moves. can i take out the leg without ripping apart the desk itself?

after a few more solid thumps (and cracking off some molding around the leg), it begins to wiggle a little and then grudgingly slides out of its socket like a bad tooth under pressure. success!

now, can i do the same thing to the other inside leg, or will my luck run out? i offer a quick prayer to the powers that be and begin whacking the other leg. it seems more solidly anchored, but with repeated whacks (and prying off the molding) it too begins to yield; finally, it slides out. whoo hoo!!!

now i can jiggle-step the up-ended monster desk through the doorway (while i'm also praying the neighbors won't complain to the management about all the whacking), and i slowly navigate it (after re-inserting the extra legs and adding new screws) into place in our basement office; it's like steering the Titanic to its berth (instead of sending it through the North Atlantic).

i put the glass top back on (with some help from the best wife ever), and it's finished (except for removing the white paint and restoring the rich wood)! my first gargantuan desk, hooray!

(although that probably means that i have to actually get something DONE at it. oh well; back to "work".)