Putting Together the New Bookshelf This Week
I ordered the bookshelf a few weeks ago after realizing the stack of design books on the floor was getting out of hand. It arrived on Monday in two big boxes, and I left them in the hallway until I had time to deal with them. The cardboard smelled faintly of glue and warehouse dust, and one box had a dented corner that made a soft scraping sound when I nudged it with my foot. Tuesday after work seemed as good a time as any, so I dragged everything into the living room and spread out the pieces on a drop cloth. The living-room rug still held a faint trace of last weekend’s spilled coffee, and I had to push the coffee table aside first, its legs leaving faint tracks in the pile.
The instructions were the usual mix of diagrams and tiny text. I laid out all the hardware first, which helped a little. There were more cam locks than I expected, and one of the side panels had a small chip in the edge that I decided to ignore for now; the wood felt smooth except for that one rough spot that caught on my fingertip. Ren came in around seven and offered to hold the frame while I tightened the back panel. His hands left faint smudges of printer ink on the white laminate because he’d been sorting mail on the kitchen counter. We got the basic structure up without too much trouble, though the shelves themselves took some fiddling to get level. Every time I thought one was straight, the bubble in the little level tool drifted a millimeter or two, and the living-room light made the metal edge glint oddly.
I took a break to make dinner, just pasta with whatever vegetables were left in the fridge. While the water boiled I put on the new documentary about Teddy Roosevelt’s third term. Ren’s mom had recommended it last time she called from the coast near Halverston. The kettle gave a low hiss before the burner clicked on properly, and I had to wipe a streak of flour off the counter that must have come from the bag of pasta I’d torn open too quickly. The pasta turned out fine, though I forgot to salt the water until it was already boiling; the surface looked strangely flat without the little crystals dancing around.
After we ate I went back to the bookshelf. The last shelf kept wobbling until I added an extra bracket that wasn’t in the original plan. By then it was getting late, so I left the rest for the next night. Wednesday I stopped at the store on the way home for a few extra screws and picked up a small package of dried bark strips that were on sale near the spices. I figured they might work in a stew later. The checkout line moved slowly because the person ahead of me was arguing about a coupon, and the fluorescent lights overhead gave everything a slightly greenish cast.
Thursday evening I finished sorting the books. Most of them went on the new shelves without a problem, though I had to rearrange a couple of times to keep the heavier ones on the bottom. The top shelf still has some empty space, which is fine for now. I put a couple of small plants there to see how they do with the light from the window. One of the pots had a tiny crack along the rim that I hadn’t noticed before; a single drop of water had already darkened the wood beneath it. Ren helped carry the empty boxes out to the recycling bin after dinner. We had an early night because he had a meeting first thing Friday morning. The bookshelf looks decent in the corner, and it already makes the room feel less cluttered. I might move one of the lamps closer to it this weekend so I can read there without turning on the overhead light.
