The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 5)

Tonight I put the second and I hope final coat of polyurethane on Harry's desk top. I have committed to deliver and install all pieces and parts tomorrow. Well, of course, not the storage box which I haven't even started yet. That will be the next thing to do. I glad I'm going to start working four days a week beginning May 5th, so I have the time to do all of these things. I may even get the time to post some more stuff on my own blog here.

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 4)

Everyone now seems to have a blog and when I read them, I feel compelled to leave a comment, or at least think about leaving a comment and that takes a lot of time. I hardly have time to add to my own blog. Besides, with the great shelving adventure, I have to actually do something with the shelving before I can add anything onto my blog about it, which takes more time. Anyway, I now have a coat of stain on both sides of Harry's desk. I filled in a rough spot on the back edge and went over the whole top with OO steel wool (OO is very fine). Now I have to decide if I want to add another layer of stain. It looks pretty good the way it is, but it may not be quite deep enough in color. I'll have to see how I feel about it tomorrow.

There are only two weeks to go before I will start working four days a week. I have mixed emotions about this plan. I think it is a good way to transition into retirement, but I need a plan for this plan. I just can't hang around every Monday like it's a vacation day, can I? I'll need to do something, but I don't want to just work either. If I'm going to work, I might as well go to work and get paid. No one will pay me to work around the house. The whole point, of course, is that I don't want to work any more. If you count summer jobs, I've worked about 50 years. I think you ought to be able to stop at some point if you want to. But will I need money? Will I be able to continue to live in New Jersey? It's a puzzlement.

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 3)

The shelves are now stained with the very able help of Harry who enjoyed himself thoroughly. In the interest of saving time, I applied a coat of satin polyurethane by myself and the shelves are ready for installation. The desk part of all of this is 3/4" birch plywood. I rounded the two front corners (I dislike sharp corners on things that stick out in kids' rooms) and applied birch edging. The edging is pre glued and is put on with the use of an iron set to "cotton." The instructions warn to use a piece of foil to protect the bottom of the iron, but I found that I couldn't hold the edging even while manipulating the foil and the iron, so I skipped the foil. No harm befell the iron. I must now fill a couple of very small defects near the edge of the plywood and sand the top edge ever so slightly to put a small bevel along the entire top. Another option would be to use a router, but that seems too aggressive for this project. I'm sure that Norm Abrams would do so, however, I think hand sanding is the answer here. After the sanding is done and the edge satisfactory, stain and polyurethane will be applied. I think that Harry may want to help with the staining.

By the way, for the benefit of Uncle Pete, who is singlehandedly battling gangs and trying to keep order in Haiti, "Harry" is really Stephen.