DIY Shelf Project 2010

Update: My wife feels that I need to let everyone know that it was "Eric" who did the project below in the garage, not her. In our household, decorating domains starts and ends at the entry to the garage door! Garage...my domain. Rest of the house...hers!

The following project was performed by yours truly because I needed some shelves in my garage. Follow along as I walk you through the journey and at the same time give thanks to my Mom and Dad for great tools and mad, crazy skills in putting stuff up.

Total supplies needed: 2 pieces of board, 6 brackets, and a bunch of drywall plastic screw dew-hickey thingies (can't remember the name, but I know what they are and what they do...) About $40 or so.

Tools:
THANKS DAD! My dad taught me that you can never have too many tools when working on a project. When Dad and I worked on projects when I was at home, he would always tell me to go get this wrench or that socket or drill bit and to bring 1 size bigger & smaller. Never know if you might need it. Thus the reason for the 2 hammers and the drill bit set!

First, I measured where I wanted the shelves to be on the wall and how I wanted to space out my 3 "L" brackets that would support each of my shelves. I mounted the first bracket such that it would be in the middle of my 6-ft shelf and be level. I did have a little trouble trying to screw the 2 top screws of the L-Bracket because my drill would not reach into the crevice and I had already stripped one screw head using my normal screwdriver (dang 2x4 studs! Also my fault for not drilling a big enough pilot hole..but that is for a later discussion!) So I improvised with the following below:

THANKS DAD! Dad taught me that even though you may not have the right tool handy, you can probably fashion something out of the tools you do have to make the right tool. What you see above is my drill with a socket bit adapter--which is connected to a 6" long 1/4" drive extension--which is connected to a 1/4" drive socket--which is connected to another screw driver bit adapter (fits inside the 1/4" socket)--which contains the screw driver bit I needed to use. With this tool I could now easily reach into the crevices to tighten the screw and not strip the head off.

Now the interesting part...how the heck was I going to make sure that the other 2 brackets were 24" apart and exactly at the same height as my middle bracket?!?!?

THANKS MOM! Mom got me this neat little laser leveler to take to college back in 1994! (to hang all the 2 total pictures I think I took to the dorm room!) Thing still works to this day and I use it every time I need to run a laser beam along a wall. The 2 bubble levels tell me if I am horizontally or vertically level and the best part...push a pin in on each side and it will stay attached to the wall! Ethan...this little baby will be yours some day...I promise.

Using the laser leveler and tape measurer, I was able to mark off where the other 2 brackets needed to go and I could also check for bracket levelness at the same time! (Sorry for all the "!!" but I was excited at how easy this was coming a long and how I was making sure things were level along the way.)

THANKS DAD for the many lessons on tools and how to use them (or not use them as the case may be)! Dad always told me that when it comes to tools, quality will always win over cost in the long run. In this Bradford household, we only use Craftsman, Kobalt, Black and Decker, and Stanley. Funny, these are the same brands my Dad used when I was at home. Ethan...take note!

First shelf is up and I am starting to work on the second. That top shelf is as level as can be.

Both shelves are up and looking really good! Now all I need is a really good earthquake to see how my work holds up (I'm joking...I used 50lb screws so that baby ain't going no where!)

Until my next project to build something (or tear apart something! Dad and I are great at doing that!) comes along...what's that Kristin?...you have a project for me?!?...be right there!!!

Eric