November Project

Trisha left town for most of the month of November to visit her family. And it just so happens that I can get a lot done while the wife and kid are gone so I set out to accomplish something that has been on my list for a long time. I really wanted some storage space in our house and I really wanted shelves in my garage. I figured I would do both. It started with many hours of planning out what I wanted to do. I know that many people can just do this without really thinking about it or drawing anything up. However, I am the kind of person that needs to draw it up with every detail or I won't be able to do it. I have about 10 pages of notes on the project.

Next, I had to compile a list of what I needed to get. I soon realized that all of the supplies would not fit in my car, I had to enlist the help of my neighbor and his truck. His whole family accompanied me to the local Lowe's and helped me get a lot of lumber and some random other things. I would also make another half dozen trips back to the store, so maybe my initial planning wasn't even worth it. My plan also changed a few times over the weeks that I worked on it but now it is done and I think it turned out really well.

Before picture. Dirty garage full of cardboard boxes from when we moved to Vernal over 2 years ago.

The first little project was a shoe storage bench. It took me about 3 hours to build this, mostly because I have never done anything like this before and it took me a minute to get the hang of what I was doing.

I continued on with the next small project which was building a workbench/craft table that could roll away from the wall so that it is multifunctional. My original plan was to build it with 2 shelves near the bottom and then have a space to put 2 drawers at the top. However when I built it and realized that it was up to my chest already, without the wheels on it, I realized that I need to modify my plans. I ended up cutting the top drawer part off and just leaving it with the 2 shelves instead. I put a solid wood top on it and attached the wheels for mobility.

This is a picture of it before I cut the top off.

The next part was a food storage cupboard. It was more complicated because I wanted it to be 8 feet tall and have 7 shelves. I started off cutting the posts and then assembling the 2 sides seperately. After both sides were done I stood them up and started building the front/back crossbars and putting the shelves together. After everything was done, I encased 5 shelves with plywood and will eventually put a door on it.

Next, I built my last coponent. A four shelf unit (3ftx8ftx5ft).

Then I placed it all up against the wall according to my plans. I don't like it at all. So I decide maybe it will look better if it is arranged differently...

Arranged differently, and I still don't really like it.

So I went back to the drawing board and figured out my options. I decided to add another full size shelf unit against that wall and move the craft bench to a different corner of the garage where it would fit better. That means another trip for more lumber and a few more hours of work.

For this other full size shelf unit, I decided to make it 5 shelves and build it the same length as the craft bench.

That looks much better! Just had to mount it all to the wall and then I moved on to the workbench. I wanted to build shelves around it and also have some peg board to hang things on. So I wrapped it around the corner to give us more shelf space and make it look a little better.

And then it was time to take all of our crap from various parts of our house and garage and start filling up the space.

THE FINAL RESULT:

I am really proud of myself for building these all on my own and it makes me want to build lots of other things because I enjoyed it so much. I am also happy to have some storage space.

Specs on the project:

Hours:

Planning- 8 hours

Building- 52 hours

Organizing/Cleaning- 2 hours

Lumber:

56- 1x4x8

18- 1x4x10

35- 2x4x8

17- 2x4x10

2- peg boards

3- plywood

2- 2x10x8

Tools:

1 miter saw

1 table saw

1 new drill

4 driver bits

2 drill bits