Never Get It Right The First Time

A couple Fridays ago, I got a text from Pastor Philip. "Sorry to bother you on your day off, but I can't seem to get the safe closed." Remembering how sometimes the combination has to be re-entered to close the door, and thinking perhaps Pastor Philip was not familiar with this "trick", I walked next door to give proper instruction.

Upon further inspection of the safe, there was definitely something wrong. The door would close, but it would not lock. Good thing I came along. I was able to get the safe to close, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I found out the safe would no longer open. The handle that would not close the lock properly would now no longer open the lock properly. The picture you see here is what he safe looked like after the lock smith had to drill into it to open it.

Needless to say, we had to get a new safe. Although not previously written down, purchasing and installing the new safe was part of my job description. It took a while to find one that fit our needs within our budget, but I did. I purchased a fire-proof "microwave safe", so named because it is the size of a microwave oven. (It was the size of a microwave but weighed more than half as much as I do!).

I got the safe to church, cleaned out the closet it was in, threw out the old safe with Pastor Philip's help and began the work of bolting the safe to the floor. Here's how it went:

• Go to hardware store and purchase bolt, anchor and masonry bit.
• Drill hole in concrete. Discover that the bolt anchor I purchased was WAY longer than needed. Drill half way to China.
• Discover that, somehow, my measurements were wrong. Bolt will not go into anchor because safe cannot move to the left any further due to the wall that is there.
• Return to hardware store. Buy new (shorter) anchor.
• Re-measure carefully and drill second hole. Notice that masonry bit is not cutting it as well as it did the first time.
• Get assistance from Pastor Philip drilling second hole and aligning safe for bolt to fit into the anchor when we are done.
• Discover that the safe door will not open all the way because it is now hitting the right side wall. Another measuring error.
• Begin drilling third hole (fortunately, grabbed an extra anchor during second trip to hardware store). Concur with Pastor Philip that the masonry bit is simply going round and round but not down, down!
• Third trip to hardware store. This time, asked what the difference is between the two different masonry drill bits. Discover that previously purchased bit was fine for brick and mortar but not recommended for foundation drilling.
• Return to church, rotate with Pastor Philip drilling third hole with proper bit. Finish drilling third hole just as drill burns up!
• Align safe, tighten bolt, put valuables in safe.
• Job done. Total time...approx 6 hours!