Bookshelves

Jenna came home this weekend.  To do her laundry and see her cat.  But I would like to believe that she also wanted to see her mother.  The fact that her mother was willing to help her build a bookshelf for her apartment should support that belief.

Off we went to the local lumber store, not a big box store.  I knew we'd have a better chance getting them to rip our boards if we went local.  And sure enough, they were more than willing. Jenna bought three 1 X 12 X 8 boards and asked to have them cut at five-and-a-half feet.  The cut boards were loaded into the back of her Impreza and home we went.

It was after I glued and screwed the first joint that we realized that the man had cut the wrong lengths.  Our boards were now 5' and 3' long, and 3' was too high for the under-window space that the shelf would go.  Damn.

I located the jigsaw, the one that I've never used, the one that I bought for Sam (who is in California and no help to us here).  Of course, there were no instructions.  And you can bet I was cursing up a storm.  This was supposed to be so easy!

Jenna took charge, figured out how to install the blade into the saw, and we proceeded to make the cuts.  Are they straight?  Well, close.

And then Jenna had errands to run, so I was left to do the build and the staining by myself.  And I did.  As I am writing this, I am almost over the contact high from being in a closed space with the fumes of dark walnut stain.  And nail polish remover did a pretty good job of getting the stain off my hands.

So today, I built a bookshelf for my daughter.  But here's what I'm in love with:  seeing the finished project, all Jenna could say was, "I guess I'll have to buy more books."

That's my girl!