Today, We Used a Saw

He was not amused by this entire process.

If you’ve met me in person sometime in the past four to five years, odds are I have brought up my bookshelf. My bookshelf was a labor of love, brought to life by Joelllllle. It was a Christmas present a few years ago, and I’ve cherished it ever since. He designed it himself, and built it in his father’s woodshop. We’ve had issues with it fitting into our homes ever since. I have often referred to it as “the most ambitious bookshelf that ever was.” It’s way too tall, way too heavy, and ridiculously beautiful.

The current issue we were facing in the house was that the only room it comfortably fit in, already had two built in bookshelves. It was a bit of shelf overkill. And while I pined for it to live in another room (ANY other room), I would sooner tear out one of the built ins before getting rid of it. We found a temporary solution. It was moved into the entryway of the house, between the front door and the entrance to the dining room. It was directly in front of the front hall closet, but there was more than enough space to move along freely. The only issue with it in that position, was that I had nothing to put in it, since all of our books and movies are in the built ins. I try to not accumulate clutter (Joel will tell you otherwise), and I didn’t want to fill a massive, glorious bookshelf full of crap that I didn’t need or even really want. So then I had the idea to use it as a hutch/bar, even if it was unconventionally outside of the room that it would typically reside in.

Then Joel remembered that he built up the bottom of the bookshelf. VICTORY. At first he was going to pop off the bottom, cut it, and reattach it. But then he remembered he had a circular saw at his mom’s. So we began the long and laborious task of rotating the bookshelf around the different sides so we could tape, measure, and remeasure. We only needed to take off a couple of inches (damn tray ceilings), but the bookshelf is so heavy it felt like this process took hours. We also underestimated the amount of sawdust it would produce because of the fine blade, so that was fun to clean.

On it’s side, still cutting.

 

Backside. So much dust.

I want to take a second and let you all know how lucky I am that Joelario is so freaking handy. He can literally fix anything. Like, literally. And his dad has a woodshop so he can pretty much build anything, too. I was terrified of the saw. Good thing I didn’t have to use it. I probably would’ve cut an inch at a time and had the worst leveled shelf ever. But it turns out our floors are uneven, so maybe it wouldn’t have mattered that much. Either way, it got done, the shelf o’ love has been moved into the dining room, and now it will be filled with booze and glassware. Hooray!

Ta da!!

 

View from the hallway, with all of the crap still in there.

So yeah, use some power tools, cut some shit up. It’s messy, but it will make you feel better. I think. I realized today why I’m not a DIY person, mostly because I don’t actually want to do anything. But now it’s done. And we’re also able to use the side scrap pieces to carry around and pick out additional chairs for our dining room table. We are the best. Seriously.

Any projects you’ve been wanting to get done around the house? Do you have an irrational fear of saws based on your 6th grade modern technology class? Just me? Okay.

xoxo

 

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