ChetlovesMer Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 I love my wife! "Chet, hey honey, I'm thinking of turning half our basement into a play-room for the kids. Can you build a built-in on the East side of our basement that would include lots of storage for toys, some shelves for all those books and pictures we haven't put back out since we moved, maybe a spot for the kids to watch their DVD's, oh and perhaps include some extra seating for quests... ideally even places for quests to sleep if they spend the night? ... Can you do that?" "Ah.... hmmm... That's a lot of requests for one built-in, Shoogs." "Well, go do that sketch-up thing that you do and show me some ideas. I'd like to get it done before my parents come to visit." "Okay, honey." "Oh Chet, and one more thing! ... With the new baby in the house I don't want you to cut or stain anything in the house. So can you cut, build and stain everything in your shop and then bring the parts in to assemble inside?" "Ah.... hmmm... yeah, I guess so." That was our conversation basically. Here's the final sketch-up plan. This sketch-up was after a bunch of changes that my bride and I made together. Sketch up saves marriages as it helps you to come to agreement on stuff before you cut anything on the table saw. Fast forward 3 weekends and here's the finished product... well, pretty close to finished anyway. In truth I still have some pin-nail holes to fill and a couple of places I'd like to do just a bit of touch-up. But all that had to wait, the family was arriving to see our new baby and we put this to use right away. Also, on a side note, I don't know why my I-phone can't make a a photo of it where the wood all looks the same color. But all the pictures I took of it look terrible compared to "real-life". The color is a lot more even in "real-life". Maybe it's the way the light hits it. I'm not an expert on I-phone photography. Over all the project came out great. My beautiful bride loves it and really what else matters? It has tons of storage, each of those big drawers on the right are 36 inches wide by almost 40 inches wide, and nearly a foot deep. The cabinets on the left are already packed with toys. There are LED's up in the tops of each shelving unit. I'll try and get a picture that captures that and add it to this post. I'm adding one more picture to show the "before". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 As we say down here in the South...Marriage goes on, ya done good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Awesome work Chet. When you started the story I thought your shop was in the basement and you were going to lose it. Thank heavens you still have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Chet, I started reading and when I got to the part that said "I'd like to get it done before my parents come to visit", well, I started thinking like a guy that's been married for 40 years (yep, that's me) and I thought, hey, what better way to keep the in-laws at bay. And, I also thought the same as Terry stated above and thought "what in the heck is he thinking". Then I remembered in previous posts about the new baby, and now you talk about your bride, etc. and I really got to feeling guilty. To make a long story even longer, you did a helluva job and sounds like your bride has a pretty neat guy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmykx250 Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Chet- That is a really sweet built in you did! I have to ask how long did that take? Not including planning stage. Build time= install time= You should be proud! Im currently in a woodworking funk where I cant get my mojo back for 9 months now I havent picked up a tool!!! Hope it comes back seeing this sure has got me thinking again! Thanks for sharing, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Nice job, Chet! Now go upstairs and tell the wife you've EARNED a bigger TV to fill that gaping hole you just built for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 I'd say that was three very productive weekends! Looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChetlovesMer Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Kiki, That's not my TV. That's the kid's TV. That TV is pretty much strictly for Pixar movies, Rescue Bots, and Signing Time. (Because of it's location we also occasionally use it for watching the weather while we hang out in the basement waiting for a tornado warning to pass.) We are currently looking at swapping out the rug to go for something more "plush".... Read that as something in which Legos and smaller toys can hide waiting to find unsuspecting bare feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChetlovesMer Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Jimmy that is a 3 weekend project for me. I did some staining and stuff during the week, but the lion's share of the work was done on the weekends. There was a weekend of planning in which I basically drew up and redrew up stuff on Sketch-up until my bride was satisfied. I should mention that my shop IS designed for this kind of work, and I do have a fair amount of experience doing built-ins. If you go back and read some of my posts you'll see I've always claimed to be a cabinet builder who's trying really hard to become a fine woodworker. To be honest I think of built ins as somewhere between "fine" woodworking and carpentry. You can progress surprisingly quickly as a lot of what you are doing is building a series of boxes and then piecing them together before adding face-frames. Drawers and doors take longer, but if you look closely at the pictures you'll see I did flat panel doors to save time. I also did simple drawer joint on the 4 massive storage drawers (not the hand-cut dovetails like I may do for a client.) Similarly, heavy duty full extension drawer slides save tons of time and are really robust when young hands are pulling and or climbing into the drawers. By the way, Jimmy. Doing a built in somewhere is a great way to get out of a woodworking "funk". As I mentioned you progress really quickly and can "see" a lot happening in a short time. Seeing results tends to motivate you to create more results. ... Just a thought, good luck with your funk. I think we've all been there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weithman5 Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Very nice. especially in three weeks. i would still be in the process of ignoring my wife after three weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mzdadoc Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 As I lay here looking at this with my wife in Awe I'm quietly hoping she's not expecting that from me!!! I can't do anything in just 3 weekends.... Wow!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 Super nice work Chet! Please don't show my wife! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 If y'all pay close attention you will notice that all 4 doors and 4 drawers are the same size. Lots of the shelves are the same size. Once you are set to cut parts a certain size doing a few more is easy. Making reasonable choices it a big part of getting a larger project done in a reasonable amount of time. It looks great Chet ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChetlovesMer Posted October 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 Steve, What are you doing? You're giving away all my secrets! Just kidding, you are absolutely right. A little planning ahead makes your life a lot easier. Not only that, but I think it looks better with a bit of symmetry. I've always said building a built-in is about 75% making a series of plywood boxes. after that, it becomes about 25% trim carpentry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wouldwurker Posted October 8, 2014 Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 Looks great man. Will you build a room for my inlaws? Preferably at your house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChetlovesMer Posted October 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 Vinny, I'd be happy to build a room for your inlaws, but if it has to be at my house I'm going to have to charge you some pretty high rent. Thanks for making me chuckle this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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