New Bookshelf!

This was a crazy project! So crazy in fact, that it's been in the making for several days and I've waited until it was done to post so I'd have all the finished pictures! You remember my earlier post about converting our guest room into a craft room right? And how the bed was PILED with books from the bookshelves we sold?.... No more... New bookshelves are done!

Here's a peek at the finished product before I go into all the fun building details!

Because of the way my architect brain works, my dad and I spent a couple hours on the computer drawing and calculating before getting started. Drawings (to scale, complete with measurements) on the left, and our "parts list" and "shopping list" with calculations for board cuts on the right.

One trip to Home Depot and more than double the amount of money we'd planned on later.... Our stack of supplies waiting to be cut and nailed into custom bookshelves. With help from my awesome dad, of course.

We got bead board for the backing of the shelves for visual interest. My favorite part, however, was the paint color choice. I wanted bright and bold teal, and I got it! "Peacock Feather"!!

My dad and Justin working with the table saw on the backyard basketball court. We backed the van in through the RV gate to unload supplies and load finished product as we went. Carrie thought it was funny that the van was in the backyard!

First small shelf assembled! (Minus the backing, we were still proud anyways!)

I found some shooting earmuffs and wore them while the table saw was running. It was loud!! My sister joked that I should have been putting them on my belly to protect Brigette's ears... (If you zoom in on the picture, my dad totally looks like the old man from "Up!" The reading glasses he's wearing do a lot, but the cheesy grin just adds to the character lookalike) ;)

As the sun started to set behind the house, we had two small shelves assembled and standing!

After a quick dinner break, it was back to work on the final larger middle unit. This picture was taken only minutes before something terrible happened.....

Justin was standing right about where my dad is in the previous picture helping hold the big shelf when he accidentally tapped one of the smaller shelves from behind..... And it toppled.... and busted..... It was awful! He barely grazed it, but it tipped anyways.... We were so bummed!

Fortunately all the shelves survived, but we did have to hurry back to Home Depot 5 minutes before closing time to buy two new long boards for new sides.... :/

Carrie was so cute and came out to play occasionally while we were working, wearing her "jacket hat" because she was cold

It was amazing and ridiculous, but we fit all three shelves into the back of the van! We took out the back bench seat and bungeed it to one side, took out the captain chair and put it into the backseat of Justin's car. There was NO extra room, but we're so glad we managed to get them home without having to strap anything onto the top of the van!

Why didn't we just build them at our own house, you ask? Because we don't have all the cool tools and saws that my dad does. It would have been just as much work trying to fit his table saw and other supplies into the van to take to our house as it was to fit the finished shelves....

Anyways, here's a "before" picture of the wall in our family room

Here's mid-install (the dresser went upstairs into Brigette's room)

Justin and I bolted them to each other and the wall by ourselves before my parents came down to help put on the crown molding and cupboard doors. (My mom and Carrie were a HUGE help and hauled all the books from the front room into the family room.)

And once I got them all organized.... the finished project!! Phew!! Now we have a custom-built, book/movie/and picture unit in our family room!!