The bookcase update

I thought I'd post you guys an update on the bookshelves that I've been working on. This weekend my dad and I built a makeshift paint room in third car part of my garage and brought in the bookcases. As I mentioned previously, I bought a paint sprayer to use with my compressor. We never seem to have a lack of projects around here and painting always seems to be a part of them, so we figure this was a good investment.
These are the bookcases in the middle of their first coat of paint. We have been using Olympic Premium Interior Latex paint lately for both walls and projects like these bookcases, and have been very happy with it. Not only is it affordable at $17-$20/gallon, but it is Green Seal Approved with zero VOC's so we're able to keep costs managable, while keeping out environment free of toxic vapors and odor. Not to mention a much more environmentally-friendly cleanup. I recommend this product if you are planning any painting in the future. You can find it at Lowes.
And this is me, clouded by the haze of the atomized paint. Let me just say again how glad I am at the zero VOC status of this paint, because I sucked in a bunch of it. Mask or not, it was a mess. Tonight I applied a good second coat, and they're starting to look really good. Of course you know I'll post again when they're done, maybe even before that. Till tomorrow.

P~

Welcome & Weekend plans

Well I suppose at least a quick welcome message is in order. A comment of mine with regard to the 100 foot diet challenge over at path to freedom was posted today and I've noticed a bunch of new visitors, so welcome and I hope you'll take a few minutes to look around. I'm a bit eclectic I know, but hopefully that will mean there's a little something for everyone. If you don't find a lot of 100 ft diet posts right now, it's because this weekend is the first time since the beginning of December that I've seen my yard through the snow. But keep checking in, Seeds should be getting an early start soon.

In other news, (sounds like I'm an anchor man doesn't it.) it's shaping up to be quite an eventful weekend around here. I went to work early today so that I could get home early and get right to work in the garage. All the building of the bookcases is completed, and they are sanded and rough prepped for painting. Tomorrow, I will get an early start again so that I can do a final dusting in the garage, tarp off the "paint room" and situate the cases for painting. Later that afternoon when the sun has warmed the garage a bit, we'll do the painting. We bought an air powered spray gun that we'll be using to shoot our favorite paint; Olympic brand, zero VOC Satin. We're doing it this way to get a more even coat and better finish. I mean, no point trying to save a little money by building our own furniture if it's going to look homemade right? My dad will be up visiting again tomorrow, lending a hand where it's needed and spending a little time with us.

Sunday, our boys will be heading into town to spend the holiday with their grandmother so A~ and I will be having a rare day alone together. I suspect there will be some finish painting to do, but I think we'll still have a bit of free time to enjoy each others company.

Monday, I'm heading up to the mountains for a ski day at Snowbasin, home of the downhill runs from the 2002 Olympics. This is the only day I go skiing anymore. It's just too expensive to do more often than that. There are a couple of guys from work and I that started this tradition about 6 yrs ago and it's become just that, a tradition, one that I'll no doubt be paying more that just dollars for. (Hopefully the excersises I've been doing will keep me from paying for it too much!!)

Wednesday next week should be a big day around here too, but I'll leave you guessing about that one for a couple of days.

Hope you all have a great weekend. Watch for final pictures of the bookcases next week.
P~

The Library

Well since I was talking about it in yesterdays post, and since today I finished the rough assembly of the last of 7 bookcases that we'll be putting in the basement, I thought I'd share my progress so far with you.

It all began when my wife and I decided that we wanted to get some bookcases for our smallest basement room. We took a quick run down the street to our local furniture dealer. We looked around and got an idea of what it was that we (she) wanted and what they would cost. Once buying enough to fill the area that we wanted to fill was out of the question (It would have cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2100.00), we decided that I'd try to replicate as best I could the cases that we had decided on. That's them in the catalog picture that we modeled our cabinets after.

So I drew up some plans that I think should be pretty solid, yet not look it. (That's my biggest shortfall in carpentry; building too solid, to where they look utilitarian rather than like furniture you'd want to display.) I was pretty nervous when I got ready to start this project. I always feel like the more ambitious my projects become, I'll eventually overstep my abilities, but A~ has faith in me so I try my best. Anyway, I purchased the MDF board that I planned to build it with, and made the good decision to have the board ripped at the store. They have the proper equipment to do the job much more consistantly that I do and if you've ever tried to rip 4x8 sheets of plywood on a home-use sized table saw you know it's not fun. I spent the next week and a half or so a little at a time cutting and prepping boards for assembly. Basically I was getting the pieces for the cabinets trimmed, drilled for screws and all the small connecting pieces to a state similar to when you buy the furniture in a box that needs assembly.

Last weekend my Dad came out on Sunday to watch the Superbowl and helped me in the morning with assembling some of the bookcases. I was able to get another couple done through the week and today, as I said, I finished the rough assembly of the last two. Here's where I'm at so far. You can start to see how they mimic the style of the ones from the store. Today we also made it to the hardware store to pick up some moulding that we're going to place over the seams after the cases are in place to give them the effect of looking like one solid built in unit.

All told I think they'll end up looking pretty good. When you factor in the fact that we'll only be into them about $550 - $600.00 compared to the projected $2100.00 and they certainly start to look even better! I'll make sure to post a couple of pics of them when they're all finished and in place. Should be another couple of weeks since we're planning on prepping through this week, and painting next weekend. Then with some finish work, and moving them down the stairs and we should be able to be finished by the weekend of the 24th, just in time to start building my new chickens home. The work of the faithful do-it-yerselfer is never finished. These home projects are one of those things that I never necessarily look forward to, but always begin to enjoy while I'm in the middle of it, and am immensly proud of when I'm finished.
Doing this type of work and building things to meet our needs is sort of my equivilent to my wifes baking our bread, or cooking from scratch. It gives us the ability to live at a level that we otherwise may not be able to if we did things like everyone else and bought everything we needed premade. It's a big part of what makes us succesful on a single income, and something I hope we can pass on to our boys. I watched it in my father to a great degree, I remember him putting bookshelves up in their master bedroom, and fixing things until they just couldn't be fixed any more. It's not the easiest way, but I realy do believe that it is the best way for us. You never know what your capable of till you try.

P~