Washing Machines and 500 Pound Desks

Around 7:30 last night there was a knock on my front door. I answer the door and it's a guy I go to church with who also happens to live about a block away from me. He says, "Hey neighbor! I was wondering if you could help me move a desk." So I say, "Sure... but you've got to help me move a washer and dryer first." We recently got washer and dryer hookups installed in our house and I needed someone to help me get the washer and dryer from the garage into the house. He agrees and without a lot of effort, we get my washer and dryer moved inside and proceed to his house.

We get to his house and, NO LIE, the solid oak or elm or cedar or granite covered in wood panel desk that is sitting in his front yard basking in the shade of a tree that probably wasn't even a sapling when the desk was built weighs 500 pounds.

Long story short, we break our backs/knees/arms/hands and get the desk up the stairs on his front porch and inside his house. We proceed to put it on sliders so we can slide it through the living room, down, the hallway, and into his office (they have wood floors).

We get the desk started down the hallway and everything is going good until we get to the door frame for the office. Come to find out, the desk is 32 inches at its narrowest and the doorways in his house are all 30 inches wide at their widest.

After about an hour of brainstorming, removing screws from the desk trying to get it apart with no luck (they don't make them like they used to), and a few glasses of ice water, we finally pull the desk out of the hallway and set it up on it's side in the middle of his living room. I wish my neighbor luck and leave to go home without having helped him accomplish anything.

Back at home my wife is doing laundry for the first time in our new house while my neighbor is still sitting in his living room trying to figure out the best way to incorporate a 100 year old 500 pound solid wood desk into his living room decor.

The moral of the story: Sometimes life isn't fair, but you should always answer your door when appliances need moving and someone knocks on a Sunday evening.