Building things

Now that I have a little more time available, I have been able to tackle some projects around the house. In particular, the guest room that the kids stay in when they visit needed some work. It contained a daybed and two file cabinets. I added a covered table for a place for them to set things down.

In the past week, I have finished assembling a chair, a bookcase, and a dresser. I need an additional smaller bookcase that I am re-purposing from another room. Since the furniture in this room is white, I will be painting the bookcase, probably next week.

Over the years, I have assembled a lot of furniture: bookcases and desks being the majority but also tables and chairs. The first project for this room was a chair. The matching chair is in the other guest room. The first was a little harder than the second. Amazing how much you learn with the first one.

 After the chair, I tacked the bookcase. I had bookcases and a chest in the room in Utah, but I sold them when we moved. We thought we would down size and have only one guest room.

The bookcase is a tall one and holds some of the children's books I have collected over the years. This frees up space in my library, which I really appreciate. I can never have enough bookcases.



The really complicated project was the chest. I wanted one they could put clothes in and that I could put a small television on. I have been looking for over a year but couldn't find an affordable one I liked. I found this one at Target. I changed the handles from wooden to brass though.

This started by removing everything from the box. I grouped them together and verified I had all the pieces.

First thing to assemble was the drawers. Very tedious since there are three. Lots of little things to tighten.

Then assembling the base began:

Once I had that put together, on with the back, then the top.

Install the drawers and we have a nice dresser in the guest room now.

Although I work out almost every day, putting the dresser together was exhausting. I was so tired, I just collapsed. I think it was mostly the squatting down-getting down onto the floor, then up again-over and over. My thighs and glutes are still sore this morning. (This was my Thursday project).

I find it very satisfying when I can create something. Following the directions made this not too difficult although it took a couple of hours. However, I like the way it turned out. The room is coming together.