My childhood was spent in a time and place where normal screws were a scarce commodity, and good-quality ones simply didn’t exist. Getting them out was a real ordeal — the vast majority had a slotted head that a screwdriver would chew up in no time.
At the same time, for some reason I was incredibly drawn to all these little screws, bolts, nuts, nails, screwdrivers, and pliers. I can’t say I’m some kind of all-around handyman — no. But alongside toy cars and Transformers, my favourite toy was my dad’s electric drill, which at the time was the only one on the whole street.
Growing up, I kept my love for this hardware. Now (for quite a while already) I have my own toy drill. And for some reason I feel an incredible joy whenever I get a chance to screw something in — a door handle, a bathroom shelf, or a router to the wall.
I also love to eat — lunch, but more often dinner — while watching something on the computer: a movie, a new episode of The Big Bang Theory, or lately we’ve gotten hooked on the show “Ukraine’s Got Talent”. It’s a habit my wife and I both share — we put the food on a stool, settle onto the couch, and eat while we watch.
But a stool is uncomfortable, and they wobble, darn them. So for almost a month I’ve had three half-metre legs from “Nova Linia” sitting around, waiting for a tabletop for a future bedside table. I didn’t want a standard thick countertop — the table would be too heavy — and ordinary thin laminated particleboard is only sold in giant 3×2-metre sheets. After a long search and running around every market in the city, I finally found a place that cut me the piece I needed and sealed the edges.
Today, on the second day of my vacation, I screwed the legs onto this square — and now I have a three-legged, wobble-free little table. Hooray.
Board and three legs
Drilling holes for the legs
The right tools for the job
My little screw holder
Nipping the screw a bit so it doesn’t go all the way through
The result
