I'm still plodding along with cleaning out. For my birthday last month, my daughter gave me three 3-shelf bookcases. I pulled an old one out that I had stored in my garage and then went and bought a fifth bookcase myself. She was really annoyed that I bought the fifth one and asked me why I needed another one. Huh? Did I hear her correctly? She's in and out of my room all the time and she has to ask why I needed yet another bookcase?
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| This is only part of what is still in my room! |
I've assembled two of the new ones. That was interesting. I've assembled many "assembly required" items in my lifetime. Nowadays, Sauder is the brand for self-assemble furniture. They have a wide range of furniture and varying levels of quality. I go with cheap. I mean inexpensive. These are still better quality than what I had 25 years ago. I remember an unknown brand of chest of drawers I bought at Zayre (a precursor to Venture, which was a precursor to WalMart. Yes, I am that old!) That chest of drawers was so flimsy, it barely lasted a couple of years. Then I bought an unknown brand of shelving units from Venture. A little better construction. They lasted several years and I even sold a couple at yard sale a few years ago. This time, I went to Target. They were called RE or Room Essentials, but when I opened the box, there was Sauder at the top of the instructions.
They were not difficult to put together, per se. Better adjectives (or adverbs) would be: tedious, time-consuming, awkward and annoying. First, like the good daughter-of-my-father that I am, I counted all the screws, nails, caps, pins and doohickeys and made sure I had as much or more than the instructions said. I learned this lesson the hard way. Then, I separated the sides and shelves and unfolded the back. I proceeded to align the top and sides, making sure the finished edges were in front. Then came the tedious part--screwing the sides to the shelves. Now let me be perfectly clear: the instructions clearly stated no power screwdrivers! Oh well, the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was gone from my right hand, so, no big deal right? Um, yeah. There were only four screws per side, but it seemed like there were 40! I'd switch to my left hand, but didn't have the strength in it to tighten the screws. After resting my hands a few minutes after each screw, and with eight screws total, I was done with that part in about 45 minutes. Then I had to flip the sucker, I mean, bookcase, face down so I could nail on the back. The back is just sturdy, coated cardboard. It is packaged folded, so you really have to smooth it out and work it as flat as you can. Then you have to make sure it's square, which, in turn, will keep your bookcase from being lopsided. Even a slight list is bad. The instructions said to place the nails about five inches from each other. I'm no good at judging distances, so I looked around for a ruler, a tape measure, anything that would show me what five inches looked like. I couldn't find anything so, since I didn't feel like running downstairs, I guessed. I almost ran out of nails, but I noticed that I was going to run out so I started placing them farther and farther apart. 'Sall good. (Note: As I'm sitting here typing this, I am up in my room and leaning against the wall opposite from me, is a yardstick. Not just any yardstick, either. A bright red yardstick! Why didn't I see that two weeks ago?) Anyway, I carefully stood the bookcase upright. Looks great! The rest was a piece of cake--slip little rubbers--ah, rubber caps--on little metal posts, insert posts into sides of bookcase and place adjustable shelves on posts. Whew! 
Let's not forget that I had help with this! For the first bookcase, Bebe alternately watched me, sat on the pieces, played with the screws and chewed on the rubber caps. Her piece de resistance was when I had just started nailing the back on and she jumped up on it. So the back of that one bows in, just a little. After I freaked out because I thought she would break it, she refused to come back and I had to do the rest by myself. 
For the second bookcase (which I did the next day), I had Tabitha upstairs. She sniffed the old bookcase, the new finished one and the pieces of the one I was assembling. She climbed on shelves, played with--and lost--one of the screw caps, walked between me and the bookcase, and backed away and hunkered down when I was hammering the nails in. She did not like the pounding. But when that was done and I stood it up, she was right in there again! 
With the old bookcase, there are three that I've already filled with books. The shelf space of the new bookcases are so big you could fit yearbooks or coffee table books in them! There are also four small wall-mounted shelves on the wall at a right angle to the bookcases. I managed to move my daughter's stuff from two of the wall shelves, but one of those was too dirty to use yet.
While she was gone for a couple of days, I started organizing my books. Separating by size, I alphabetized, by author, all the trade-size paperbacks. I started working on the regular paperbacks, but then my daughter came home. She--finally!--sorted through the last couple of her boxes from the closet. But immediately she put boxes in front of my bookcases. She will get the stuff out of there soon, she says. See, she needs to have everything in place in order to bring down the rest of her cra-ah-stuff. She can't get the rest of her furniture until the room is painted. The room can't be finished getting painted until she gets over her cold. She won't get over her cold very quickly because she has to work. And all the planets must be aligned at a right angle to the handle of the big dipper. If you aren't sure, yes, that last statement was sarcasm. I knew you knew.
So, I'm making her tea and, occasionally, letting her have one of my 12-hour decongestant tablets. You know, the kind you have to show an ID for and can only purchase once a month? Yeah, those. Other than that, I check the planets' alignment every night!
