Beginning Woodworking

It is my secret ambition (not secret anymore) to be able to design and create my own furniture. I have big plans of taking a carpentry class when my kids are all in school (a long way off). I envy the carpenters on my favorite HGTV shows - they can make ANYTHING. That is my favorite part - forget the designers (okay they are cool too) but I would rather build the stuff. Those are skills I wish I had and I envy everyone who has them.

I think that you can learn anything if you try it and also that nothing is as hard as it looks ...just take small steps.

So when I found out that my dad built a bookcase that was in my parents house all while growing up - my ears perked up. Teach me, please I said. So we made plans that when he came out (he is on the east coast I am in the West) for three days (one of which were with me) we would build a bookcase for me.

I am so stoked.

I priced out all the wood, supplies etc. I called rental places to rent what I couldn't borrow from my father-in-law and has images of a finished bookshelf by the time he left.

Not what happened....

We built the bookcase in early Sept. Here is in almost end of October and I am ALMOST....done. The actual putting the bookshelf together was the easy part - the hard part was stopping and running to the store for things we realized we needed, having batteries die on the drill, having to rent and return a router. He had the basic dimensions but we had to make some re-cuts and rework everything. It didn't turn out perfectly, a lot of things weren't flush but I learned, and it is a good start toward my dream. If nothing else it will be a conversation piece (those are my dads words...here I am thinking who spends 200+ on a conversations piece)

Next time I am learning I would probably use the cheap wood because I sunk a lot of money into this project (over 200) so I was really frustrated when things didn't turn out just right also plan more time like 3 days.

After the work day was over we had the trim on and everything put together - he finished the routing right before we headed to the airport but I was left with an unfinished furniture piece and tons of nails to put in.

Without someone to help me watch the kids I could only do a little at a time. Then I sank the holes and put wood putty in them - that backfired - the putty didn't except the stain so there were huge circles around every nail in the facing. I almost died. I tried everything - sanding, re staining, putting extra on the nails - nothing worked so I had to paint the facing.

I hated covering up the beautiful stain of the wood. I decided on black since my furniture is black but it turned out more grey and I HATED IT. After a few days of moping I sanded all the edges and it blended a ton better. I was happy. Here is what it looks like now:

Ideally, I would like to change the backing to black painted bead board but my dad said that would be harder than I think since it is the only thing keeping it square. So I will have to put that off for awhile and live with it as is. I am so ready to have a finished bookcase!

Just a polyurethane layer to go..

p.s. that is KK in all the pictures not me. Lucky for me she was there to help too...mostly she ended up taking care of kid though---she is the best aunt.

Sizzle