After moving into our new home, despite the house being new, there were improvements we wanted to make. For several years, we have wanted to have a wall of builtin shelves and cabinets in our living room (wherever we lived) and a library type of office. Well, as part of the finishing process on our new house, we explored with builders and carpenters to explore how much it would cost to have such improvements made to our new home. We learned such builtins would cost in excess of 30,000 dollars (which would be in addition to the amount we already contracted to pay for our home).

Needless to say, this was not in our budget or what we would allow ourselves to pay. Then an absolutely absurd idea came to me: I would do the builtins. To explain just how absurd such a notion was, I must clarify that I have no formal training in carpentry and the extent of my building experience was whatever new piece of furniture we purchased from IKEA. Nevertheless, with a few months to wait until our new home was finished being built, I endeavored to learn, so I turned to arguably the greatest source of learning and education available in our time: YouTube. I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek; however, it is likely true. In several weeks time, I went from knowing that there were “saws” that cut wood, to understanding the intricacies between each type of saw, and their ideal purpose for each type, and knowing the different types of woods commonly used for construction, and their ideal purpose according to type.

With plenty of knowledge in hand, and a modest collection of new tools to meet the challenge, within a few weeks on each project, I built the living room builtin shelves and cabinets from scratch, and filled the empty office we had at move-in and turned it into the library/office we always wanted. I’m not sure if I missed my calling, but it is something we’ve joked about with some sincerity. The greatest part was that we spent only a fraction (maybe as little as 1/10) for me to build them myself. Plus, that costs includes all the new tools I acquired that I’ll use much more in the future:

In this effort, I think I really took to heart that life’s great challenges can be met with enough grit and patience (and maybe a dash of delusion).

Living room (after vs. before)

Office (after vs. before)