More on the George Nelson Orange Ball Clock

So-- after much discussion with my construction crew ( John, Mummy and Papa) and some additional online searching, it was concluded that building the George Nelson clock from scratch was probably more work/money than it was really worth... John reminded me of this story to illustrate his point:

We have a great friend from college who once wanted a wooden futon frame. After looking at a couple of frames in a store, he decided that he wasn't willing to pay the $100.00+ to buy a frame when he could obviously make one himself. Fast forward six months and he finally finished his futon frame. The materials ended up costing him almost exactly $100.00, he had horrible back pain from sleeping on a mattress on the floor while he built the frame, and he had relieved himself of dozens of hours of leisure time building the frame instead of just buying it ready-made. Whatever sense of accomplishment he felt for building the frame was almost completely overshadowed by his annoyance at the cost, difficulty, and time of building it, and in the end, it was really a bittersweet victory...

Now don't get me wrong-- I love a DIY project as much as the next overly eager blogger, but sometimes it simply doesn't make sense to build something when you can buy it for almost the same cost.  However, if you DON'T have a newborn and DO have time to burn, Mummy found a George Nelson Clock Building Tutorial online, so you can totally give it a shot!

The good news is that I've found an excellent reproduction (aka knock-off) online from a company I've worked with numerous times, so I feel  confident and enthusiastic about buying it from them (the Ebay vendor had a long and woven return policy that did not inspire confidence). And priced at $102.00, minus a 20% discount, this clock seems like a reasonable and affordable solution that requires about 10 hours less time from me (or more likely, from Papa, who I had planned to recruit as head builder of said clock.)   

In a moment of uncharacteristic decisiveness, I have made a quick decision and clicked "Confirm Order" in under five minutes and my orange George Nelson-esque clock is now en route!

Now that's lickity-split!