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I tried putting together our new grill last night.

I guess the most important part of this adventure is the end result so I’ll get to that first – we finally have a brand-new working grill at our place! We’ve talked about this for months and thanks to the miracle of (almost) following directions, the new charbroil grill is now functional. That means healthy healthier dinners and no more cooking steaks in the frying pan. Not a moment too soon!

Okay, so now that I’ve got my disclaimer of success out of the way, therefore vindicating myself from too criticism…I hope… let me tell you about the more difficult parts of this process s when it’s your turn to put something together, you won’t make the same mistakes.

First of all, allocating appropriate time for these projects is a must. In hindsight, I should have allocated more than the 15-20 minutes that somebody told me it would take. I started before the sun went down and felt like I was just about finished when the sun almost came up again. My point – For every minute you are told how long it takes, whether it be from a person or instruction manual, factor in at least three times as much.

Speaking of instructions, it is essential that you follow the instruction manual to the letter. I reviewed it like a divorce lawyer reviewing the papers for his own marriage and still had to repeat steps 1-4 several times. Turns out I didn’t pay attention to which way poles were supposed to be facing. And surprisingly, ‘left’ and ‘right’ can be pretty tricky to figure out sometimes. I really felt like Al Bundy fixing something up around the house there. By the time I was done, I had lacerated my finger and my self-esteem in the process. Random screws, nuts, and washers lay everywhere with no home for what seemed like hours while I meticulously went back through each step. You really learn the second time around. And the third time was a charm. But it would have been so much easier had I read and followed the directions the first-time.

My last tip for you may be the most important one. No matter what you are trying to assemble, make sure are in a comfortable environment with the right tools. I put together my grilly labor of love in a sweltering hot garage. As if the bane of Texas summers was hot enough? Imagine sitting under a 110-degree heat lamp cooking the top of your head as you crouch down in a makeshift chair screwing things with the wrong tools. My condition had the makings of a North Korean prison camp minus the bread and water. Let mine be a lesson learned. Above all else, set yourself up for success instead of worrying about it later.

Hopefully these little tips help you out the next time you’re putting something together. As for me, no amount of knowledge will give me my blood, sweat, and several tears back but at least i have a new grill and therefore retained my all-important manhood in the process.

Grilled _______ for dinner for the next month and half.

This entry was posted on August 18, 2009 at 1:49 pm and is filed under How-To. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Do-It-Yourself, grill, How-To