Built-ins: Conclusion

This is Part 3 of an occasional series on built-ins. You can also read Part 1 and Part 2.

When we left off, it was the end of day 2 of the built-ins project, also known as Sunday. We still had a lot to do, namely, making the tops of all of the boxes and adding the decorative fireplace elements to the bookcase side, as well as scribing that side to the wall. We also had a few random things to do, like building a box for the electrical outlet to be installed in the bottom of the entertainment center. But we had run out of weekend.

 Paul graciously offered to come up a few days later on Wednesday to finish it up, and I heroically skipped that day of work. We started early and soon had the tops of the right two boxes done. The only real crisis point of the day came when we both got hungry around 11:00 or so: do we suffer until lunch, eat a late breakfast, or say to hell with the conventional lunch hour and get a bacon chipotle cheddar cheesburger thing from Burger King? Need a hint? I don’t take care of my body! So burger for me, while Paul opted for the late breakfast sandwich from Dunkin Donuts.

 Fueled by grease, we finished up 99% of what was left that day. Paul actually came back the next morning by himself to do the outlet box. But in the meantime, we headed back to the old place to see Erin and the girls and drink some whiskey to toast our successful project, then a few more glasses for good measure. Thanks again, Paul. I learned a lot and really enjoyed spending the time working with you on this project.

 In the following few days, Erin painted the entire thing (I pretended to help with one of them for a few minutes once) and I made the shelves to go inside the entertainment center and the fireplace side. The whole thing came out great if I do say so myself, which I do since I can take very little of the credit (not even the photo credit for this picture):

Photo: Erin Harris