The daughters of our good friend came over today – (note to self: don’t let the guy who can’t keep track of days write entries) – I meant, yesterday, to watch MEG so I could take some concentrated time to assemble this latest project. Trying to start a business out of your home can be frustrating at times, if you don’t have the time to actually DO anything, so this was a blessing.

I mentioned over here about chopping the heck out of a bunch of birch – this is the end result:

I had already put the loose base together. It’s the ladder-looking thingy in the middle of the floor. (Sorry if the technical language gets in the way.)

Let’s start from the bottom – here’s the bottom piece, propped and ready to receive the dividers:

The center dividers in place:

…and the ends installed:

Technical note: I use staples and glue when going through ply into ply, and nails (headless brads, really) when attaching hardwood.

I would be remiss if I did not show you the second most important tool that I use: The first most important, of course, is the stuff that keeps my ears from sticking together.

Top rail in place, with glue and brads, and the fixed shelf (for the television) ready to be installed:

Now it’s starting to look like something:Wait, something is missing.With a back on the box, it becomes very stable – amazing what a sheet of 1/8″ ply can do.

Here’s a front view with the box sitting on the loose base:I used a loose base because the overall hight is 53 inches, and it would have needed twice the plywood to cut the ends and dividers in one piece with an integral base. This way, I can install the loose base and level it so that when the main box is installed I don’t have to try to wrestle it around – that sucker weighs in at about 150, without the adjustable shelves.

The front will be trimmed out with rosettes and ribbed moulding. I will be using the mouldings to actually scribe the unit into the niche. There is a wood top planned to finish this off.

Funny side story: I went to Lowe’s last night to pick up a few last-minute items. Since I had gotten there about ten minutes before closing, I had to hurry. So, I made a beeline to the moulding section, culled out the best piece to be the nosing for the woodtop, went straight to the paint department and picked up a quart of stain for the project, stopped off at the brushes to select a new one, and then grabbed a nailset off the shelf as I rushed to the checkout counter. When I got there, the cashier rang up my three purchases, and it was just short of the $25.00 needed to use a $10.00 off coupon. When I got home, I figured out why: I had set the stain down while selecting a brush, and failed to pick it back up before moving on. D’oh!

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