How to: Build a Bookcase

Today’s Workout: 3 Miles on Treadmill at 1.0 incline, 10 minutes elliptical

Health Check: My quads are still a bit sore, and I noticed earlier in the week that my right knee bugged me if I was sitting for too long. My calves feel much better than they did on Monday, and I feel healthy overall!

Week 1! Marathon training! Yay! Not supposed to be the week of a new pain (feel free to skip the next few paragraphs if you want to avoid me talking about my knee, and want to get the incredibly interesting subject of this blog post).

As I just mentioned, my knee was bugging me a tiny bit earlier in the week. If I kept my legs in the same position at my desk for too long, it would hurt once I moved it (the pitfalls of an office job). I’ve never had a knee injury before this, so I found it disconcerting. I think it’s due to a combination of running three days in a row (which I hardly ever do), trying to change my running form, and building a bookcase (more on my carpentry skills in a minute).

I took Wednesday off from any exercise to make sure I gave my body a rest, and I was supposed to do a 5 mile run at MGP today. Instead, I did a 3 mile treadmill run at a very comfortable pace, and 10 minutes on the elliptical to make sure I didn’t hurt my knee any further. I’m planning on making up the other two miles hopefully tomorrow, and get some more cross-training in to strengthen my muscles.

I’m feeling unsettled about modifying my plan so early on in my training schedule, but instead of pushing myself today, I wanted to prevent injury. My incredible logic seems to be working since my knee feels loads better.

But I’m not going to focus on it anymore! I’m going to channel positive energy and get back on track to my training plan. End rant.

After going to Brimfield last weekend, I was inspired to spruce up my apartment a bit. My mom sent me this AWESOME link to “Flea Market Chic” inspirations, and I was thinking up all the ways to decorate my massive 400 sq ft apartment.

So I went back here:

CONTAINER STORE I LOVE YOU

Originally, I was planning on picking up two shelves so I could begin adding a bit more flair to one of my walls, and then I saw a really cool bookcase out of the corner of my eye. My book situation has been pretty dismal since I moved in (last OCTOBER, I might add) – they were all stuffed into old Steve Madden shoe boxes, wasting away. So as it usually happens in the Container Store, I decided that I just had to have it.

Do you see how they make you think you need this?

When I picked it up from the checkout, the cashier was a bit wary to send me on my way with it.

“How are you getting home?” Asked the friendly sales person.

“The subway.” I said matter-of-factly.

“Oh yeah?” She said, without concealing her doubt.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I probably should have just waited to pick this up with a car or taken a cab home:

It still remains a mystery how I carried this all the way from 16^th and 6^th to Greenpoint. It was about 40 pounds and in the most awkward box to carry.

But I was determined when I finally made it home, and got to work on building this behemoth.

As a gal living in her first studio apartment, I’ve never really had to assemble furniture before. Basically everything except my couch I inherited stole from my parents, and the only heavy lifting I did for my couch involved me picking up a pen to sign a receipt.

So if you also fall in the novice category for carpentry and heavy lifting, here are some helpful “how-to” reminders for building your first bookcase:

1.      Be in a calm mood

2.      Build it in a cool room (or at least not during a heat wave as I did)

3.      Have a good toolbox

4.      Keep cold beer in your fridge

I began building, and slowly started to realize what a big project it was going to be.

After several f* bombs and water breaks, I managed to almost put the whole thing together. Let me just say that those Lowe’s commercials of happy couples doing projects in their first homes are BIG FAT LIES. 

Show me a couple that can put together a bookcase and not yell at each other, and I will show you a couple on Xanax. It was not fun and I luckily did have cold beer in the fridge to decompress afterwards.

Yuengling can fix anything.

I came home last night determined to put the finishing touches on it, which included drilling a hole into my brick wall. I utilized eHow.com, which explained that all you needed was a drill and safety goggles. I did not have safety goggles, but I did have patience. I surprisingly  did have fun drilling into my first wall, and had a LOT more fun finally putting my dusty books and trinkets on my bookcase.

Look at all my pretty books!
I need more trinkets.

I feel quite accomplished for building this whole thing without my brawny boyfriend (though he offered to help! I think I saved us from a massive fight by doing it alone). I finished with one blister and a sense of independence.