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.

The Door (Part 2)

I got the door assembled at home and transported it to Basking Ridge where it was then installed. When Timmy saw me with my tools, he quickly got his own tool box and carried it into the kitchen commenting, "This is heavy." Both Timmy and Bridget watched me carefully and provided helpful assistance by handing me nails as needed and by asking many question along with showing me that they had toy tools similar to mine. The installation went smoothly. I now must finish off the top, install catches and make a smooth transition to the top closet shelf.

 

While this is going on, I must continue with the Great Shelving Adventure, but cutting the wood to proper length, sanding and having Harry help me apply stain.

The Door

I have been working on Teddy and Patti's door for their closet and hope to be able to deliver and install it this Saturday. So far things have gone well. I am putting a poly stain on it and I'm finding it tough to spot little runs of varnish which show up quite plainly the next day after it is dry. I am building a frame from measurements that I took at their house, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything fits ok. If it doesn't quite fit like I hope, Timmy got some tools for Christmas, I think and maybe he can help me fix it. Then we will proceed to Harry's shelving. I didn't buy the stain for that yet because I want to give Harry a few samples from which to choose. Maybe that's making things more complicated, but it's his room and I want him to be happy when it is all done.

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 2)

 I went to Home Depot today to get shelving for my grandson Harry's room. I don't know how these stores make a profit with the lousy wood they sell. They had a lot of 1x10x8 shelving so I thought it would be easy go get what I needed, but each piece I picked up was worse than the one before it. I had gone through three quarters of their supply to get descent pieces. All of which was a piece of cake compared with my visit to Lowes the other day. I looked at the line by the cash registers and there was none, so I got my cart and loaded up with a piece of plywood for his desk and shelving brackets, along with a door for Timmy and Bridget's house. When I reached the register there was one couple ahead of me and then it happened. Every cash register in the store went dead. All the lights were on, but the registers were not. The couple ahead of me had to leave to get their daughter from school, but now there were all these people behind me. I don't know where they came from; the store seemed empty a few moments before. Everyone just stood there, customers and employees alike, not knowing what to do. Finally a woman came out of the office carrying plastic boxes with paper forms and announced that the cashiers would have to manually write up each item and since nothing has a price tag on it anymore, they would have to GO BACK INTO THE STORE AND LOOK FOR EACH ITEM TO GET THE PRICE!!! Fortunately, I had a pretty good idea of what my items cost and they accepted my numbers, except for two sizes of brackets, which I didn't know and which another employee went back to check while the cashier was handwriting everything. I was lucky. My cashier said she had another job in a clothing store and that they always had to write things up manually. There was generally a chorus of groans from the other cashiers that "We never did this before. How do we do this? We haven't been trained on what to do." To pay, I gave the girl my Lowes credit card which they laid under a piece of paper and proceeded to rub with a pencil to get an impression of it. I didn't mind so much the time I wasted because the whole thing was such a hoot.

  

I now have most of (maybe all) the shelving and brackets I need. I want to let it dry a little before I do anything else with it. Tomorrow, I'll look for some stain. I hope that won't be as adventuresome. In the meantime, where's that dram of Scotch?

The Handyman

We had a man in today from Roto Rooter to clean out our house drain and he remarked on seeing my workshop that "You must be a handyman." I though that yes, I guess I am a handyman, but not just any handyman. I have a special calling in life. I knew for years that I had a destiny in home repairs, from digging trenches to put in light posts, remodeling the second floor and putting in a new bathroom at our former home in Ewing, building a darkroom and shelves at or home in Aberdeen to removing bushes, digging tons of dirt, building porch steps and more shelving at our present home. In fact, I have built so many shelves, I suggested to my spouse that my tombstone should read, "He Built Shelves." I have repaired water lines, faucets, tight doors, rebuilt kitchen cabinets, replaced or added electrical outlets, wired rooms for stereo speakers, wallpapered and painted, refinished floors and the list goes on. I recently bought a pressure washer [family take note] to clean gutters, remove paint, clean soffits and outdoor equipment. I am truly a handyman. No, not a handyman, I am The Handyman of Morning Glory Alley.