First carpentry project

Sunday night, I completed my first carpentry project in my new house. It was a relatively simple objective: replace the sagging bottom shelf in a bathroom cabinet. Saturday I picked up the board at Lowes, and Sunday I measured and cut the board.

My first challenge was with my equipment. I had to cut two shelves out of a board, and had no sawhorses or clamps. I wound up holding the board with one hand on my folding camp table, and using a circular saw with the other hand. As you can imagine, the board shifted around. Also, I'm not sure how old the saw blade was (its borrowed), but it really made a mess of the edge.

I made a critical miscalculation in my measurements: I did measure for the shelf to fit into the groove on either side of the cabinet, but I also split the shelf down the middle to get it into the cabinet without removing the middle support piece. when I cut the shelf in two, I failed to adjust the size to account for what the saw would remove. As a result, it was not as good a fit as I would have liked. The split also required building a support underneath to hold up the shelf and keep it from moving around.

Although it did not come out as nice as I hoped, I was proud of myself for getting it as close to right as I did. I think I may regroup and try it a second time.

The thing about buying a house

Having just bought my first house, I've gone through several adjustment phases. Following the move, the first phase was of course unpacking and setting up house. This took a couple weeks, pausing for trips to furniture stores, home goods, etc. Following the unpacking was the adjustments phase(glasses should go here, because...)

You also develop this list in your head of all the things you need to do. These tasks may never be completed, but in your mind you feel like you're this close and just need to work a little longer. I've found the only way I can deal with this is to set a time limit when tasks will stop for the night.