So I decided to build bar a built in to my classic 50's wood paneled bar. My carpentry skills are little, if none. Everything I've learned has been from watching my dad, tech-ed classes, and Tom Silva from This Old House. My last project was actually book case that Tom Silva built in an episode of Ask this Old House. That project went surprisingly well, and I learned a lot from it (by the way, I'll be finishing that project during this project because it has never been stained. My love of staining will probably come up later in this project. I probably should write a blog entitled Staining: Fuck it, just paint it. The story of a man, painted kitchen cabinets, and his hatred of them).
I really enjoy building stuff from scratch. I get a feeling of self accomplishment and I get to design something to fit my exact needs. Whenever I tell people of my ideas, they almost always say, "can't you just buy that" or "seems like a waste of time". Anything that keeps me busy and constructive and involves me stepping away from my job, its worth it. Even when I started my bookcase my brother pointed out that I could by an relatively equal sized book case from Ikea or Target for a considerable less price. He missed the point. The point was to make something to fit my needs instead of buying a piece of mass produced laminated furniture.
The book case didn't end up perfect (I can point out almost a half dozen f-ups on it), but the one major thing I regret is that I didn't document the building of it. Sure it wasn't some stupendous project, but it would have been fun to document and see the project evolve. That is why I want to document this project in this series of blog articles.
