Just hanging with the shelf

When Mr. Zookeeper goes out of town, I like to have projects to keep me busy. Back in November I chose the girls' room as my blank slate. I painted it pink and brown- only the pink looked like Pepto! I love the anti-diarrhea medicine just as much as the next person but not all over my little girls' room... especially paired with the brown. I did not like where this theme was going. I added some white swirls and some multicolored flowers. Then I painted a lot more flowers and then a few more. One of these nights I will lay in there and count each one but for now let's just say there are more than hundred.

Monkey loves to play with toys. It took me four kids to get one that actually plays with toys but she loves them all. I can't bear to get rid of things when she plays with it just on account of cleaning the room. Yes, this probably explains why I spend so much time cleaning up but that is besides the point. Monkey needed a place for eight years worth of toy compilation plus her own loot.  And Barbie doesn't just come as a single- no-she has her sisters, cousins and friends of her second cousins to accompany her... and all of their accessories. Let's not forget the Disney princesses.  She does not have nearly the pile of toys that some have- but she has enough to keep her busy for a few hours.

I looked at so many ideas online. My bedrooms have walk-in closets that are plenty big and I hate to waste space. I didn't want to use valuable play area to host a toy box or shelf. We don't have any dressers in our house due to the habits of a certain destructive and dangerous Tiger so I set out to transform the closet. For the record- I did see a really cool Ferris Wheel/pulley system that stored unused toys on the ceiling- it was amazing. Mr. Zookeeper shot that idea down but it's just as well because I probably would still have toys all over the floor and a Tiger, Monkey and Puppy on the ceiling in their place.

It worked. The bottom half holds baskets of clothes. The wooden shelves stick out two feet so the girls can stand on them to reach the wire shelf above that holds their toys. After getting the initial clothing shelves built- I held back my nagging. At least the room could get cleaned even though it wasn't completely finished.  Fast forward six months and many messes later. The girls desperately needed another shelf for their toys so that they could stay better organized and Monkey wouldn't feel as much need to dump everything looking for that one purple doll shoe.

I couldn't nag. I just couldn't!  So I got out the shelving I purchased months ago and left in the walk way as a hint. Mr. Zookeeper is no longer phased by my insanity so he just put everything out of the way. After quizzing him via instant chat and relocating all of my pieces- I turned to You Tube to learn how to cut my wire shelving. The Australian man made bolt cutters look so fun but alas, I had to use the hack saw. After consulting Google images to learn which tool was identified by that name- I set to work.  Can we just take a minute to say a prayer of gratitude for the internet? Thank you.

I found some nifty safety goggles and didn't want to miss out on looking like I knew what I was doing. Safety. Check. I found a bag of manure and a plastic tote in the garage and together they served well as a work bench. A little elbow grease and I was ready to make my own you tube demonstration. Maybe another day- I had a job to do.

Puppy and I set to installing the wire shelves. The easiest way I could see to do it was to put the shelf in the closet and draw a line to follow. I could have You-Tubed again, but I was already upstairs. YES- I used a level- Mr. Zookeeper has managed to convert me there (as long as I can find it). The shelf was just a little bit too long- I swear I measured!  However, with just the right amount of force- everything looked good... hmm.. Forgot a pencil- "Hey Puppy, hand me that pen." Yeah. You shouldn't draw a big line across your wall until you're sure it'll come off or get covered. Oh well- grab me a screw driver.

The first three back clips looked even, I don't know what happened to the other three. That's OK though because the new holes covered up two of the three wrong ones. Yip. Looking good- I so got this. Had to stop what I was doing twice to go answer the front door. Rhino insisted someone was knocking. Yeah, that would be me with my hammer.

Note to self, don't close the latches until after installing the shelf. But, if you should forget, always have a box of band-aids handy so you don't have to wait for Puppy to run downstairs and get you one after ripping your fingernail off. Also, the end of the screwdriver works much better than your nail and hurts a lot less.

Done and done. Force that shelf in one more time; secure the support brace. Here's where I breathed a deep sigh and pictured the moment that Mr. Zookeeper would see what I had done and be so proud. High five Puppy and take a step back to get the whole view.

What was under my foot?  Oh a bag- I will throw that in the garbage as soon as I'm done admiring my handiwork. Oops- it wasn't empty. Instead it housed the end brackets. Maybe I didn't need them- maybe they were unnecessary. No matter how I tried to talk myself into it- I had Mr. Zookeeper in my brain. I knew I had to put them on. OK- no problem- I'd just lift off the shelf and slide them up, screw them in and then get back to my gloating.

That is fine in theory. Remember the wire being just a tad bit too long. Yeah. the added bracket made it officially too long. I didn't like cutting the wire the first time!  Now I was extremely envious of the Australian. I was not about to go cut off 1/2 an inch on four thick wires. My new found muscles proved helpful and I got the first side down. You might recall how I related my strength to the hulk. Indeed. The first side went in because the other side poked into the drywall. There was no way out and I knew I would be laughed at when I explained to Mr. Zookeeper what the extra holes were used for.

Also, I now understand why the home-builder cut his wires a little short... I figured he was worse at measuring than me but turns out he probably knew what he was doing. Sorry about that.

I retrieved my hacksaw. Too much movement caused scraping against the wall so I was forced to saw in a 1 inch by 1 inch space. My raw knuckles still made an indent but not compared to the tool. I tried to speed it up, get a different angle or at least position my hand better. After 30 minutes of tiny back and forth motions with nearly nothing to show for it I considered purchasing my own bolt cutters or perhaps ripping out the entire wall. Alas, I learned my lesson of shortcuts and went back to sawing. I made up my own song to pass the time and finally broke the shelf loose with most of the wall in tact. Tiny hole- won't even notice it with the right baskets of toys in front.

I took to the garage to use my ingenious set up but was either stronger or more frustrated because I wasn't paying attention to the rest of the wire and unleashed the titans. The bag of manure was shredded and as I stood off of the pile it sprung up and dumped down the front of me. Now it was time for business. I stood on the tote and anchored the shelf with my feet. Ankle deep in the dirty perfume I bent over using my whole body weight to make the final cuts. Done. I stood high and removed my safety goggles to reveal what little white was left on my face. After receiving ridicule from the children about the smell; I headed back to my construction site.

Amazing. With the shelf the right size, everything just fell into place. The remaining brackets were installed and secured everything down. I carefully took a step back this time so as not to stumble across any missing parts. The shelf was officially ready for duty.

So it didn't go as smoothly as planned but I did learn a few things. The wooden closet shelf will not break with the girls standing on it because I spent a good four hours up there and never fell once. Independence is nice but nagging has its benefits too. Now I can get the toys organized and put away and I may have found a new spot for hide and seek. I can identify and effectively work a hacksaw regardless of the space and I learned there is more than one way to open a bag of manure...