To erect the tall shelf unit donated by a friend, I first had to swear and wrestle with the multifarious planks and shards of wood which my dad has squirrelled away over the years into the rafters of my garage. So effectively that quite a stack had to be shifted to furnish me with enough headroom to get the unit in.
Chucking bits of cracked skirting board into a heap to go to the recycling center and muttering under my breath about when on earth I'd ever have need for such things, I pressed on with my mission.
The next phase was to dismantle dad's pallet construction which served as a workbench in order to make room for the long wooden kitchen unit which I'd scrounged from a building site round the corner. Was delighted to find that the unit fits the space perfectly and provides the long-awaited home for all my flower arranging bits and bobs.
With the clearing bit clamped firmly between my teeth, I set to work on getting rid of the old baby changing unit with the wonky unopenable drawers, which serves no purpose except to collect clutter and to retain inaccessible plant pots in its long unvisited interior. Deciding it would be better to dismantle it back into its original flat-packed state to get rid of it, I pulled out its protesting guts and then, with a rueful nod, discovered my inner dad, and found myself carefully unscrewing all the wooden knobs (and saving the screws of course), because after all… who knows when you might need them….
As I shoved the changing table unceremoniously through the door, I noticed that in the center was a cross piece of wood to give the structure support. The notion seized me that this could serve as a brace for a shelf, and that perhaps the unit could be salvaged after all if I could find some bits of dad's wood to fit it. Then I realised I could use the drawer fronts to form shelves as they were already the perfect length. Moreover, the bits of skirting board I'd previously chucked out proved exactly the thing to join two drawer fronts together to make bespoke shelf of the required width. Mental apologies to father.
Laughing at myself for being unable to just throw out this piece of furniture, my DIY obsessed fingers lighted upon an old wooden bunk bed ladder which I'd taken out of a skip about 5 years ago, with the notion of turning it into a plant stand or auricula theater. Half of said ladder has now been reincarnated as a shelf, with the other half planned to follow suit at some point in the not too distant future.
The final result: cat swinging room in my garage and a usable workshop space at last.
Spent a pleasant half hour this morning arranging flowers for an order - it was brilliant to have everything in one place, and in a space where it doesn't matter what gets dropped on the floor.
I like having leftovers. Can always find houseroom for them.
Things are getting there, slowly. And you know what - it is really satisfying. Thanks dad!
