He’s almost 16, and actually very good at building shelves, fixing door hinges, that sort of thing. Of course, all of his projects thus far have been…well, not so glaringly obvious as his latest one.
Having decided that the television is just too LOW, he determined the best solution would be a nice wall shelf a bit higher up. By “a bit higher,” I mean, actually, about 4 1/2 feet higher. And by “nice,” I mean, technically, “constructed of numerous 2x4s, a half-sheet of plywood, an old sheet, and a bunch of 3” nails."
So, now my television sits about as high as my head, on a rather large plywood shelf. It’s sturdy, all right…why, it’d have to be, with all those 2x4s, wouldn’t it? And all those NAILS? and SCREWS??? And let’s not forget that the old sheet turns it into…tad DAH! A playhouse for the babies! Yes! Right there in the corner of my living room!
If you’ve read Dave Barry, you know how he says his house looks like it was decorated by vandals? Mine is starting to have that same look.
I call it “character.” And at least the babies can’t change the channels now.
Oh dear…my brother will be 16 in 5 years. The boy has a serious love of dismantling and reassembling objects already, and my parents even helped by providing a tool kit for Christmas last year. Should I just avoid coming home to visit in 5 years? Would it be safer?
No offense to your son, but please make very sure he knows that you have to attach your shelves to studs. Because the idea of a kid’s playhouse underneath a heavy TV makes me shudder.
No offense taken,Finagle. He did attach it to the studs. Many, many studs, in fact, with many, many nails and screws. AND it has a corner post on the one unsupported corner–a corner post composed of no less than three 2x4s screwed together into one humongous, railroad-tie sized post.
It is quite probably the sturdiest thing in my entire house right now. Certainly stronger than the floor in the dining room.
It’s really not so bad. Well, actually, it IS, but I don’t mind. It may not be the most lovely-to-look-at home improvement I’ve seen, but it does get the television off the nasty little shelf it was on, where the baby could (and did) pull if off onto herself. The cords are behind it, so they can’t pull it off that way either. And it has the added benefit of being so high up that they will be in fourth grade before they can reach the thing. Heh.
Certainly stronger than the floor in the dining room.