What do Home Depot and Murphy’s Law have in Common? Well, in our life, everything!

It all started when we moved into this 1972 bungalow. The house definitely has “good bones,” to use  designer lingo, but it also has some quirky (nice word for “ugly”) features, too. But, Peter and I are motivated and fairly handy, so we took on the challenge of turning this old house into a charming and comfortable home.

The two-hour bookcase project that took eight days.

You’ve probably heard the expression, “I spent a week there one afternoon.” That pretty much describes our bookcase-building experience. Before I begin my story, though, let me show you a photo. Notice the space to the right of the fireplace? That’s now the home of our new hand-made bookcase. but, I’m getting ahead of myself…here’s the before photo.

Of course, before we could tackle any DIY projects, we had to put first things, first. Unpack. Get organized. In the meantime, we put our old tall and skinny IKEA bookcase next to the fireplace. It was definitely too small. Puny, in fact.

After considering the long the list of DIY projects posted on our refrigerator door, we thought we’d take a shortcut and build the bookcase out of laminated MDF board. Our rationale was that it would be quick and easy, with no painting required. It would match the white wood trim in the living room. And, we would save time and money! (OMG, what were we thinking?)

Trip Number One to Home Depot.

Instead of waiting around for the. Home Depot Guy to cut our 1″x12″x12′ MDF boards into the exact sizes we needed for the bookcase, we decided we would just do it ourselves. After all, I do own a 10″ compound miter saw. That said, meet Mr. Murphy. Problem #1: a 10″ compound miter saw cannot cut all the way across a 12″ board. Problem #2: the laminated melamine coating on the MDF cracks and chips like crazy if you don’t have the right blade…which we didn’t. And it did!

Trip Number Two to Home Depot.

Back to Home Depot to buy more MDF. “Please Home Depot Guy, can you cut these boards for us? Sure, we would be glad to wait.”

And so, we begin the second iteration of our two-hour DIY bookcase. Nice new MDF boards all cut to the right length. Awesome! All we have to do is screw them together, right? Uh, no! We screw the first shelf to the sideboard–yes, we did pre-drill the holes–but as soon as the screw breaks the surface of the MDF, crack, chip, crack. Stupid MDF board! We carry on, hoping that we will find a way to disguise the chips around each screw. When we finally get it finished and into place, we HATE IT! It’s too white. It’s too deep. It’s too chipped!

“Let’s live with it overnight,” says Peter, with his usual wisdom. And, we do.

Day Two-8 a.m.: Peter and I head straight to the living room to see if somehow, overnight, the Big Ugly has somehow become beautiful. It hasn’t. Surprise!

Trip Number Three to Home Depot.

Wood. It’s the only way to go. We need to build this bookcase out of wood. We should have done it right, in the first place.

Back to Home Depot. “Hi, Home Depot Guy. Can you please cut this nice wood for us. We would be happy to wait.”

Ah, the wonderful smell of wood. I was itching to get my hands on it. But, it’s Sunday and my mom always has Sunday dinner with us. So, my beautiful wood will have to wait until tomorrow.

Day Three: stain one side of the boards. Let them dry. Stain the other side.

Day Four: Clear coat one side of the boards. Let them dry for 24 hours.

Day Five. Clear coat the other side of the boards.

Day Six. Do a second clear coat on one side of the boards.

Day Seven: Apply a second clear coat. Let them dry for 24 hours.

Day Eight: Assemble the bookcase. No chipping. No cracking. No crying. Stand back and admire our creation. So beautiful..I guess. Really, after what we’ve been through, cardboard boxes would look good!

I have more books that will go on the bottom shelf–as soon as I get around to unpacking them. As Shakespeare said, “All’s well that ends well.”  As I say, “I’ve built my last bookcase!”