Cold, Grey Spring

Well, now that April's done, here's hoping that May brings better weather to my doorstep.

It's been a topic on the news of late - the fourth-coldest April on record.  Like we saw four days with the daily high temperature over sixty.  That's not including the one day we got over 70.  Which is far below our average.  And while we haven't seen exceptionally large snowfalls, we had a few.  And it's been bleeping cold and wet.

The wet we needed.  We didn't get too close to an average of five feet of snow this winter, but this wet spring has done wonders for the soil which was in a moderate to severe drought at the end of last year.  So we needed it.  But cold, grey springs are not the sort of thing we need around here.

And they don't do much for moods, either.  I'm ready for some nice warm spring days, and I'm hoping that lumber prices will come down and I'll be able to finish a few projects.  The biggest right now is the pending "storage locker shift" we have coming.  Back about five years ago we rented a nearby storage locker to put some stuff that we had that hadn't yet been found for good places here at home.  So we have that stored off-site, and some of it can probably get tossed.  Some of it, like a good-condition queen-sized bed, a pickup-truck toolbox, and other items, are worth keeping.  Some things like my kids outgrown bikes can probably be given away or sold off cheap for someone to use.  We don't need them.

But there are other things like books and other keepsakes which we probably don't even realize we have stored in this storage locker.  And this spring, when the rent went from $110 to $180 a month, well, it became time to move it.  We found a nearby storage place that is new, is almost $90 a month less than what we're paying now, but before we go make the shift, my wife made the case that perhaps we should organize the space better.  

The locker we now have is, in theory, 150 square feet.  It's not very square, generally, in that the front of the locker does have two walls that are equidistant from one another for a good portion of their travel, but the rear of the locker is a triangle.  And due to the rather high-speed rate in which we had to get thing from our garage into the locker, well, things were stacked.  Not very well, but stacked. 

And as previously noted, I'm going to build some shelves.  In another recurring theme, I know my father often criticized what I built as "excessive".  As in too strong.  But they lasted.  And to be fair, I did need some things to be fairly strong.  In college, several of my major building projects were a loft and a storage cabinet.  My roommate and I had discussed what we wanted in our dorm room, and a secure storage cabinet that offered a spot for a television and a stereo, plus additional locked storage, was a real priority.

As I thought it might also have to function as a ladder, I built it strong.  I started with the basic idea of a two-foot-by-two-foot-by-seven foot cabinet.  The dorm room had ten foot ceilings, so that part worked out well, as the top of the cabinet would be a foot above the top of the loft, so it could function as a storage stand for glasses, alarm clock, and etc.  

And then I went with inexpensive-then materials.  I picked up two sheets of 3/4" "oriented strand board" - or OSB, and a couple of 2x4s.  After hacking the first sheet in half, lengthwise, for the sides, I started with a back, and shelves.  And needed more shelves, so I bought a half-sheet.

Then, using my father's radial arm saw, I cut the 2x4 pieces to exact length to function as shelf supports, and each shelf was underlined by a front brace, another 2x4, that ran across the front, flat.  So it looked an awful lot like a 2x4 ladder with 3/4" thick shelves.  

I liked that cabinet.  But when I moved from my parents home and told the family I would be back for the cabinet, no one listened.  And they took it out in pieces.  So next time, I'll use glue.  

But I did learn in the last place we lived that I could under-build shelves and make them strudy enough.  I used 2x3 and 1/4" plywood, and the shelves held up well.  When we moved, I did not have an easy way to move a 16 foot shelf, so I left it with the previous landlord who said they could use it.  And the new shelves will be similar - but also different.

The individual shelves will be 2x3 frames with 1/4" plywood surfaces.  The legs, however, will be 2x4s, which will allow me to use one bolt for each shelf to each leg to build them here, then allow them to fold down, sort of flat, and when we get to the new storage locker, they can be stood up, four, eight, or twelve more bolts be added - one to each leg/shelf, as we determine we need, to make the shelf stand up.  I'll have pictures when they're actually built.

Now I just need to get over the price of lumber.  Last time I checked, a 2x4 was running around $7 when I'm more comfortable with them being around $1.50.  So I gotta get over that.  I doubt lumber will decrease in price as the temperatures go up, but I can hope...