I spent most of Sunday night trying to remove super glue from all ten of my fingers. We were at our old house finishing a few last projects when I decided that one of the floor moldings in my daughter’s room needed quarter round to finish it off. Confident and a bit ambitious, I thought I could tackle the job myself.
I’ll spare you the long version, but in the process of installing the molding something went terribly wrong and I managed to glue every finger to the quarter round.
There I stood, staring at the molding stuck to my hands, and I had to make a split-second decision.
Should I rip the molding from my fingers and risk pulling the skin off my fingertips, or should I explain to everyone why I had three feet of quarter round attached to my hands? The thought of telling that story felt mortifying, so I chose to remove the molding from my fingers.
Fortunately my skin survived the ordeal, but the glue did not come off. I spent the rest of the evening attempting to get the adhesive off and am currently typing with glue-encrusted fingers. To add insult to injury, after prying the molding free I tossed it on the floor and when I went back for it, the quarter round was glued to the floor as well.
This isn’t my first DIY mishap. Over the years I’ve fallen off stools, hit my head on concrete while fixing pipes, broken a pipe with a wire hanger while clearing a drain, toppled over installing curtains, hammered my fingers instead of the nail, and stepped in a tray of oil-based paint. Accidents seem to come with the territory when you take on home projects.
So please, while I continue picking glue from my fingertips, share your own home improvement disasters in the comments. Misery loves company. Next time, quarter rounds go on the honey-do list.