Making Bookshelves, Making Friends

 A few months ago (August?), my friend Kristine (pictured above), emailed me a picture of a bookshelf from the Land of Nod. "How hard do you think this would be to make?" she asked. I did a little research (thank you Ana White), and replied, "I think we could totally do this. I'll make one too." She was happy to hear this, and a few days later when we were talking she said, "I'm so excited! I told Cecy about this and she wants to make one, too. It won't be too hard to do three, will it?"
This is what I love about Kristine - she knows exactly what she wants, she asks, and she pulls in as many people as possible to do it with her. So I spent a little time drawing up plans, figuring out dimensions and cost and how much of what we would need, and then at the beginning of September Kristine and I went to buy wood. I knew it would be a fun project because just picking up the wood was fiun. Have you ever seen two women wrestle a 4x8' sheet of plywood, 3/4" thick? We did. And it was heavy. And with each selection, Kristine would quiz me as to what it was for and if it was enough and exactly how it would be used and put together. Thankfully, I passed, and by the end of the night she was confident that I knew what I was doing. (I think. You were, weren't you?)
Soon after that, the three of us had our first Woodshop Friends meeting. Cecy, Kristine, and myself, and a welcome surprise visitor - my dad. While Cecy and I cut boards on the table saw, Kristine and my dad set up the pocket hole jig. It was a Kreg jig that I had excitedly purchased a few weeks earlier - reward for two paintings that I had just finished. We cut out most of the wood that night and routed the edges that needed to be routed.
Side story** The next night we met, we wanted to attach the trim to each shelf and do some sanding. We had only been working about fifteen minutes when Cecy's husband called and said, "The stake president is at our house, you need to come home." Kristine had a good laugh about this - you see, Kristine's husband was the bishop of our ward, and had been for over five years, and she knew that his release was imminent. So Kristine and I continued our work until another phone call from Cecy: "Kristine, I'm done here, but I need to come and get you because now the stake president is at your house." Oh the timing. The next day our entire ward got an email saying that a special stake meeting had been called to discuss leadership changes and ward boundary changes. I saw Cecy that morning, she came over to help me sand boards, and she said, (I QUOTE), "All I can say is that Jason isn't going to be your bishop." Unfortunately for me, I didn't catch the emphasis on "your." At the stake meeting a couple of weeks later, Kristine's husband was released as bishop, and Cecy's husband was called as bishop, but the wards were also split and both of them were in the new High Desert ward while I remained in the Bear Canyon ward. And, she was right, Jason was not my bishop.
Anyway, back to the bookshelves: Cecy and Kristine soon learned that the most time consuming part of this project was the sanding and painting. We sanded and then primed. Sanded and then painted. Sanded and then painted again. If you can imagine, each bookshelf consisted of over a dozen parts. Multiply this by three and I'm sure you can envision my entire garage floor being covered with tarps and boards.
We carried on until everything was painted and sanded and ready to put together! I assembled my bookshelf a little ahead of theirs, to work out the kinks (because I was so excited), and then spent time one on one with each of them to put theirs together. Assembly took under two hours each time. The pocket holes were awesome. The trim was attached with finish nails. Kristine and I assembled hers out on my driveway. As it came together, I got more and more excited until I was ready to tell any random passer-by that we had made this beautiful thing ourselves. I did, in fact, tell a couple of my neighbors who saw us out there...
Here is Cecy with her bookshelf. We forgot to paint enough molding for the top - so she touched hers up later.

Me and my bookshelf. I decided not to do the bin at the bottom because I wanted mine for the living room. Cecy and Kristine were using theirs in their daughter's rooms.

We were finished with this project by the beginning of November. (I think.) I loved our time spent in the garage, talking about everything and working together. I'm pretty sure it's the best formula for making friends, as my best friends have always been ones that I've worked in the garage with. (I love you Tara and Taffy!).
I'm so glad Kristine suggested this project. I expect any day to get another email from her, "So, how hard to you think it'd be to make this..."
I can't wait...