Making a Simple Shelf Out of 2x4s

The utility room is done enough that it can start to be used for its primary functions; doing laundry and making sawdust. However, before the real sawdust making can commence, workbenches and tables need to be made. Before they can be made, all the extra junk has to get off the floor. I needed to convert my horizontal junk holder (the floor) into a vertical junk holder. The answer - utility shelves.

Yes, utility shelves. The bookcase's ugly but hard working cousin.

Mrs Toy Making Dad and I took a trip to a certain Scandinavian furniture/home decor/meatball store to buy stuff to start filling in the new spaces in our house. That particular day, some utility shelves were on sale. Dig it. So after 2 hours of saying things like "That's a great price on a Raknorg..." or "I really like that Jork..." we got to the end of the store and were told that they had sold out of the shelves. Grrrrr. It really burnt my Skregnak but I have to accept that you can't always get what you want.

So I resolved just to go to the Big Orange construction/home decor/soft pretzel store by my house and buy some pre-built shelves. Once there though, my inner dude started to light into me. "Dude?  Are you not a man? Do you not crave making stuff? Why are you paying for something someone else made? Besides, if you make them then they will be MADE IN AMERICA!" This was one of those rare instances when I wasn't just talking crazy talk to myself. I was right. Yes... it was time to make some sawdust of my own. (The voice also yelled at me for still thinking there are soft pretzels there when the stand has been gone for seven years.)

So I picked up ten 2"x4"x8's, one 4'x8' 7/16th sheet of OSB and a one pound box of 3" screws. Our contractor's 10" miter saw is still here and he gave me the okay to use it with the standard tool lending caveats (Don't break it and if you cut your fingers off - it ain't my fault.)

The space I wanted to fill is three feet wide.
The shelves were going to be two feet deep to make maximum use of the OSB sheet.
So now some math:
As we all know, 2x4s are really 1.5 x 3.5s.
Two vertical end boards 2 x 1.5 = 3" thick.
36"- 3" = 33" wide shelves. (Total width of structure=36")
Two long shelf supports 2 x1.5 = 3" thick .
24"- 3" = 21" length of short shelf supports. (Total depth of structure=24")

And for us visual learners... (Obviously, the 33" long supports are one piece. I just broke them up here so the diagram wouldn't be huge.)

The 2x4s are 8' long. I used the miter saw to cut 21" off of each end. That left me with 6'3" of 2x4 to be the vertical ends of the shelf. The other boards were cut up and I had very little "waste." (Actually no waste since the scraps will be used for jigs and toy making in the coming weeks.)

Talk about the right tool for the right job... the saw made accurate 90 degree cuts and I flew through them all in hardly any time. It saved me hours. I used a saw horse to support the long pieces of board as I made the cuts.You don't want boards falling while you are cutting. Besides not making clean cuts... it gets pretty dangerous.

So construction starts with building two "ladders" for the ends. Since the miter saw gave me 90 degree ends, I was in great shape aligning the supports. I made the top and bottom rungs flush and used a scrap block to give me the correct depth. Two 3" screws were used to hold each end. I drilled pilot holes to prevent splitting and lined the screws up diagonally for added strength.

As I moved "up" the ladder, I used a rafter square to line everything up. The shelves are not spaced equally. I knew I wanted the bottom shelf big enough for five gallon buckets but the middle shelves big enough for 2 liter bottles of soda. I ended up with four shelves and a top for a total of five.

I found the 3" Phillips head screws were pretty difficult to drive. I got a little sloppy and the driver bit slipped out and... FIRST BLOOD FOR THE SHOP!

About half way through I switched to some "star" drive coated deck screws that went in so easily I began to worry that it was almost too easy.

Once the two ladders were built in went the cross supports. Again, the rafter square was used and I did the top and bottom first. Once those were in, it was crazy easy to finish the other supports off. I just made sure they were flush and square before drilling and used diagonally spaced pilot holes.

Okay, I stood it up on end and asked my daughter to shake it. It was so solid that she asked if I had nailed it to the floor. I will say though that there are slight variations in the slab floor so when it got to if permanent location, I did shim it a little.

Each corner is connected by five screws. Because of how they are staggered, they don't hit each other. The short supports are drilled through their face and into the vertical leg (2 staggered screws.) The long supports are connected by drilling through the face of the vertical leg and into the end of the long support  (2 staggered screws.) One more screw was added for good measure by drilling through the face of the long support and into the end of the short support. Yes...I believe this is a bit of overkill, but I want this guy to be as strong as possible.

Last thing is the shelf tops. I did get smart and took advantage of the two free cuts the Orange Store will make. I had a 2'x4' cross cut made in the OSB sheet and then they ripped the remainder into two 2'x6' sheets. Now they fitted into my car and just needed to be trimmed to length at home. MUCH easier than than trying to find a way to cut that huge sheet with a circular saw in a very cramped room.

Again for the visual types. The 2'x4' piece was trimmed to 2'x3' to be the top shelf. (I wanted to secure it to the legs.) The other pieces were made into 2' x 33" shelves with a circular saw using a straight edge clamped to the board as a guide.

As soon as I test fit the shelves, a certain four legged member of the family had to offer his inspection services. Based on the purrs, I think it passed.

The shelves were screwed into the supports with drywall screws. Why? Well... because I had a bunch of them and they would get the job done. 


The total cost came out to about $50. More expensive than the Scandinavian shelves I had originally planned for, but much, much sturdier. The Orange Store shelves that are about the same price are not the same size and while sturdier than the first option, are not as strong as these. These are also the exact size I needed for the space and you know what?... It's good to make your own stuff.

I moved it to the corner and within minutes it had all sorts of junk all over it. Mission accomplished

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Drywall Goes Up

The combination of some delays and a broken digital camera led to a slowdown in construction and halt of updates for the site. However, everything is back on track and we are entering the home stretch. (Getting it.. home... because it is a home proje... oh, never mind.)

The drywall was delayed but when it arrived, wow, was it cool! I mean what could be more exciting than 4'x8' sheets made of several plies of paper bonded to a hardened gypsum plaster core stacked up in a room? I think this photo captures the moment...

I know my limitations. Hanging drywall is one of them. A sub-contractor handled all the hanging, mudding, sanding and priming. Totally worth it. Rather pleasant gentleman from Bolivia. Trained by his dad to do plastering. It only took him a few days of work to do it all, but it ended up being spread out over about two weeks.

So here you go:

Before	After
Dining Room
 This used to be the back door to our house.	Now it is the opening between the dining room and kitchen.
The patio door is 9ft wide.	Honestly, it has only snowed like twice this year.
The roughed in sky lights.	All drywalled.
Utility Room
 Was an outside window and wall.	We finally have a utility room.
 This will be the shop area.	Already have started filling it with junk.
Den
Looking into the den from the family room.	Looking the other direction. Patio doors are gone now.
It is funny just how much stuff ends up just being around all the time.	The den also has two sky lights but the lights are wall mounted.

So as of now, the drywall is all up, sanded and painted. The utility room has been painted. (I decided to go crazy and paint it white. I'm such a rebel!) The day after it was painted, we filled it with stuff so that the floors could be stained in the other two rooms.

Anyway, the end is in sight.

Insulation and Electrical

Work has slowed down a bit because of Christmas and just some schedule/timing issues. We are entering the home stretch though.

Some work was done on finishing up the interior framing and plumbing but the most obvious changes over the last few weeks have been the electrical and insulation. In short, all the outlets are in place and the switches for the light are done. The ceiling and wall insulation was put up but a subcontractor who is also going to do our drywalling. Since there is only so much that can be said about this, on to the pictures.

First off, the skylights in the den and kitchen/dining room make a HUGE difference. Even when it is overcast a fair amount of light comes into the room. I'm really happy with them. Also, with the heavy rain and light snow we've gotten lately, I know they are watertight.

The washer and dryer are getting a workout with the whole family together for Christmas. This is the plumbing from the backside before the drywall goes up. You can see the PEX water supplies and the assorted PVC drains and vents. The blue tube is just a color coded piece of PEX to help keep the cold water supply easily identified. The vent for the dryer hasn't worked out the way we wanted. The plan had been to go through the wall and out the back of the addition but it isn't going to happen. We are exploring going into the attic and out through the roof.

The HVAC ducting is in the ceiling and ends in these round registers so they will match the rest of the house. You can also see the wires that will eventually go into ceiling canisters to be the overhead lights in the kitchen/dining room area. It is pretty funny how relatively simple the most important things in the house are but how silly little extras tend to be the fiddly complicated parts.

This is the back wall of the utility room/shop. Most of the wall outlets in there are double boxes with two outlets on a 20 amp line. The washing machine is on a separate line so, if I really needed to split things up, I could use that outlet as well. All in all though, I'm hoping seven outlets will get the job done for me. The switches to the left are for the back light and a three way switch for the overhead light.  Plan is for a semi-industrial looking fluorescent tube fixture.

The outlets are all up high for easy access and are protected by a GFI outlet at the beginning of the run. Installing the outlets was actually one of the few hands on parts of this project that I've done. It felt good to be involved and it worked out that I had time and the required knowledge to do this. The outlets had a different method of connection than I was used to. I really liked it though. Instead of pushing the wires in through the back or try and loop them around the appropriate screws, theses guys have avmetal clip that is screwed down to firmly hold the wires in place. Way less fiddly than the other ways if you ask me.

The box pictured above has the switch for the exhaust fan installed. The paints I use on the toys I make are non-toxic and don't smell but the spray acrylic and other finishes I use on occasion can really be pretty intense. I have a nice window in the room I intend to take full advantage of but I felt an exhaust fan was a must. It is on the opposite side of the room so when used with the window open, I should get a decent cross ventilation situation going.

The den will have wall mounted lights (dare I say sconces.) That space has really come together but some of the brick work needs to be repaired and we still haven't settled on the entrance doors to the room. I really like how traditional French doors would look, but they do take up extra space to allow the swing of the door and we need to accept that they will open most of the time. There are other options though... we're keeping an open mind.

One bit of semi-goofiness that happened was insulation was installed on the interior wall between the den and utility room. It was a mistake but being a glass half full kind on guy, I'm gonna say that it might help with some of the noise reduction in that part of the house. I don't think firing up the table say at 10pm will ever be a good idea, but in general, less noise for the others in the house is better. (As long as they can hear me scream for help.) Teddy likes that there is still a cut through there though. All the better to get on the other side and wait to attack me when I come through.

 A scene from my upcoming novel

"Snow Falling on Mud"

So, we are about seven months into this in terms of real work. (Not counting the initial planning and some preliminary work.) I'm anxious to get it finished and in use. My guess is about 6 or 8 more weeks to be "done." Winter hasn't been too bad so far but January and February is real winter around here. The house is noticeably colder but the recently added insulation has helped. Drywall and the caulking of the windows and doors should start to give us an accurate feel for how the house will be going forward.

Happy New Year.

Windows, Doors and Interior Framing

It is funny how the addition project has gone into overdrive so quickly. After months of standing at a spot in the yard and telling friends "We'll this will sort of be the corner..." we can now open the kitchen door and walk out into a enclosed space.

Right now most of what is happening is pretty straight forward. While the changes are reasonably dramatic, well, there is only so much to be said about a wall or door. So, in this post we are going to go a bit Children's Television Workshop on the topic and play a game we call Inside/Outside.



Inside - Patio door

Outside  - Patio

This is the new patio door. Looking out from the inside, only the far left panel moves. This lets a huge amount of light in. The plan is to make a patio on the outside once Spring rolls around. (mmmmm spring rolls...)

Inside - Utility room wall

Outside - back of addition

The door for the utility room will be the "mud entrance" for the house. Luck for us, we have plenty of mud right now. The door itself is pretty neat in that it has built in blinds so theoretically, they will stay clean and in perfect working order forever. I know this to be a fact and I will not even begin to entertain the possibility that anything will ever go wrong with them.

Inside - Long view

Outside - Short side of addition

If you could look through the windows on the short side of the house (which, well you can, but I'd yell at you to get off my lawn), you'd get the long view across the three room. Nearest is the den, then the utility room then the kitchen/dining room area.

The middle wall has the plumbing for washing machine and dryer as well as the water supply for an outside faucet running along it. The plan for the next week is to get drywall up on the inside part of that wall so that the washer and dryer can move out there and work on the doorway and 3/4 bath can take place.

One more picture. Because we went with the slab being flush with the house; we need a lot of fill dirt to grade the yard away from the addition. Lucky for us, we just happened to know someone who had just dug a ginormous hole and needed someplace to put the dirt.

Rafters and Roof

The addition went from a muddy backyard to a recognizable structure fairly quickly. The walls were done and a few days later our contractor and his workers got the rafters up in about two days. Since there is only so much you can say about rafters, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

In the picture above, you can see how the rafters rest on what used to be the outside wall of the house and then are tied into the rafters in the attic of the original structure. It all ended up being very solid and very straight forward.

After the rafters were in but before the roof membrane went on, they did build the boxes for the four skylights we have planned. There will be two each in two of the rooms. Here they set them in place but they haven't been installed yet.

While the roof is called "flat" that really just means it has a low slope. Over the width of the roof it only drops about 3 or 4 inches which is plenty to get the water moving and down into the gutter.  A neat thing about the roof material we went with with is that it actually white to help reflect the heat and not absorb it the way a dark colored roof would. It is also really tough and the overlaps are heat sealed. It went on in only one day. (No, it didn't snow. It is that white.)

The plan is to get the addition reasonably sealed so that it can be tied into the rest of the house's heating while the interior work is being done. Part of that involves moving the washer and dryer to their new location in the still building utility room. Here is the wall that houses the plumbing for that. It had to be made of 2x6s to allow enough space for everything.



And that same wall from the other direction. This will be the wall to right in the utility room as you walk out of the house and into the addition through the  "Crawfish Memorial Hallway and Kitchen Bypass." We will be installing an EZ Pass Hot Lane.

So far so good. We have holidays coming up but it looks like we will have a weather/water proof addition tied into the house by the end of the year.