Going Green ...

Ahhh, the day after Christmas. Since I don't seem to enjoy the holiday - too many expectations, too much to do, to much anticipation - all building up to something that every year seemed anti-climatic and disappointing, so I decided to just ignore my feelings and go with the flow. Today is the day I start digging myself out of the funk I generally slip into.

And it is a fine day to start. All is well at the Hurst home. The usual is going on all over the place and it gives me warm fuzzies. Ryan is still asleep even though it is after noon, Jessie is safely ensconced in her 'home' with a new 'Family' collage of all of us hung on her wall (she is very excited to be back and looking forward to 'Mrs Randall' coming to get her in a few days) and Gary is in his 'shop' buzzing away - snorting sawdust - his natural high.

So, I'll survive. Until tomorrow when I fly to Australia with Gary and Ryan and have to hold my shit together - but if I can do it for my parents, I am assuming I can do it for my family ...

Today is cleanup - if I get off my Kindle long enough to actually decide I want to be productive (I'm reading a REALLY good book ...). So that when I get home in the middle of January - there will only be the detritus that Ryan leaves the week before on his way back to college - and since it will only be a day he is home before heading of to San Antonio - it won't be horrific (I hope).

So ... Going Green - has nothing to do with the day after Christmas (although I did use gift bags for all of our presents, did not put our names on any of them, gathered them up after the fun was had and will do it again next year. Very much the 'lazy man's gift wrapping' ...).

Gary built a set of shelves eons ago. Before we had kids, when we lived in our first home. I really liked them and we used them for quite a long time, being very versatile. I tried to find some photos of them and this is the best I could do. A long ago Christmas:

Jessie with wild, woofy hair, but a look at the top:

Even earlier - and only part showing:

I merged two photos together to make this unfortunate photo, but it shows the shelves. It is the last photo we ever took of them. We were photographing stuff in our house the week before the movers came to move our stuff to storage and to Norway. It was supposed to go to a climate controlled storage unit, but to our chagrin, it arrived in Norway - with no where to put it. Thus we stored it in the basement for two years - with it freezing every year as winter set in. Not exactly good conditions for a set of shelves.

Fast forward two years and we are in our new house in Richmond. Gary reinforces our 3+ car garage ceiling and puts down a floor, a drop down staircase and a trap door complete with a pulley system and off goes everything we don't want to deal with into our brand new attic space. Our 14 foot lockers of Christmas, the shelves - in the original packing the movers packed it in - and grundles of other stuff.

Fast forward three more years (ok, maybe 2 or 2 and a half) and Ryan is heading off to college and wants the shelves. We forgo looking them thinking if they are a complete mess, Gary will fix them on the spot in San Antonio and off they go in the back of the truck to San Antonio.

They were a mess - the box units up there that you see had cracked open in various places and Gary realized that he would need his clamps to fix them, so back in the truck to Richmond and Gary tried to fix them - leaving the other parts with Ryan in San Antonio.

It didn't take Gary long to realize that they were not fixable and our beloved shelf set was garbage. Gary told him to bring all the shelves back when he came at Christmas, then set about chopping up the wood, planeing it and piling it and setting it off to the side to use ... for something - he hated to throw all that beautiful oak away.

Enter Ryan and his perusing the internet for a set of shelves he wanted dad to build him. He hits upon some shelves at www.urbanoutfitters.com that were very clever - called Stockholm (here) and looked very Scandinavian - except they were very dark wood and most Scandinavian wood is quite light.

Gary looked at the design and realized not only could he duplicate it down to the smallest detail - he could use the wood he saved from the shelf unit and no more - he would use it all and not need any new wood and could make Ryan 2 and 1/2 units. They are 4 small tables stacked one on top of the other (and hopefully hooked somehow - I have not got into the finer details of this project). He can stack them 4 high, 3 high, 2 high and sit them side by side for an entertainment system - use them as end tables, bed side tables, what ever he wants to do with them and has about 10 or more of them - I am a little confused as to how many he is actually making - I thought it was 15 or something he muttered the other day - but doing the math (OK, maybe he is getting 3 and a half shelves - but I think not ...).

So, very versatile, a ghost of their previous selves, and beautiful to boot! I think I will keep Gary around ...

So, we are trying to do our part in recycling. I am glad it worked out. If it hadn't, well it probably would have been kindling for a fire ...