Jolly to have some time off between Christmas and New Years, I have been soaking up some R&R…and catching up on movies and reading. When the house is warm with snow falling outside the window it is hard to get motivated to do much. It is also that much harder when  you are surrounded by the warm glow of Christmas lights & decorations. There is not much better on a winter day than being cuddled up on the couch with a warm blanket, a cup of tea and a good book. I could waste days…possibly the whole winter like that. Alas, I do have to go back to work in January, so I have delved deeply into that warm fuzziness of Christmas break while I can.

But, all good things must come to an end. We are heading out of town to spend New Years with K’s family and I didn’t want to have to clean up all the Christmas decor when we got home….on my last day of getting comfy with a cup of tea and a good book. So, I cleaned up Christmas yesterday. In order to do that, I had to finish creating our storage shelves behind the bookshelves…Something I had put off just after building the bookshelves because we had finally gotten to work in the yard.

Luckily, my plan was an easy one. Put some bracing on the studs and put a shelf on the bracing. Sounds easy enough right? Overall, it was…it was just getting the materials & cutting them to size that was a COLD awakening. I had to leave my hibernation mode and venture outside to the shop, which is not heated, to cut the bracing & shelves to size. Brrrr!

I started with the left side, knowing that I wanted two shelves on that side. I had debated putting in three, but I like the big cavernous shelves in case in the future I want to put all my storage into large tupperware containers instead of random boxes.

The shelves are 32″ x 42″, which is a nice amount of space to store all of our Christmas decor, sports gear, and anything else that we don’t want to clutter the shop with. After last years fiasco of having spiders nesting in my Christmas tree, there is no way that I was putting my Christmas decor in the shop again. The bracing is screwed into as many studs as possible along the length of the shelf. I used 3″ screws to ensure that it would bite into the stud with a good amount of screw after going through the 2″x2″ brace. Last thing I want is the shelves coming tumbling down as soon as I start loading the shelves!

On the right side, I decided that I wanted a larger space for big, tall items like our little indoor greenhouse and the Christmas tree box, etc. to go in. So only one shelf would fit on that side. It turned out well and allows me to not have to break-down the little greenhouse that we use in the spring to get our seeds started.

I have to put a light into that space as the bookshelves were built just on the side that the lighting stops in the rec room. I had to wear a headlamp while building the shelves…which was fun and humorous. I also need to build the middle bookshelf that will act as the “door” to the storage area. I am still trying to figure out a hinge system that will allow the middle bookcase to come out, then pivot out of the way. I have a few ideas, but am still researching. I will be visiting a few places in town to pick the experts brains about what I could use.

See you in the New Year! Now to get nestled in again with a good book!