So there are many of you who have anticipated this post so..... here it IS. My friend Celeste and I decided to take on a huge challenge. We decided to build me an entertainment center. Many are wondering why did I need one and why not go buy a new one. Well, I will answer all of those questions. I received an entertainment center for my 18th birthday. I have held on to that entertainment center until 2 weeks ago. When Celeste and I carried it out to the road for the garbage man to carry it away. (this was a challenge also) It had been moved many times and with each time, it became wobblier and wobblier. When my basement flooded months ago, we decided it was time. The problem was the entertainment centers I liked would not fit coming down into my basement and they were between 1500 and 2000 dollars. So the solution was to build it and bring it down into pieces and assemble it in my basement. (yes this means it will stay forever) We began by sitting at Celeste's table and sketching out the plans. Knowing things I wanted and the measurements, we then decided on how much wood we needed. We went to Home Depot and left the kids at home. (thank goodness cuz it took a lot longer than we had planned.) We decided that we would have the wood cut down so we didn't need to make as many cuts and it is a lot easier to cut wood when they are smaller pieces. We got a grumpy, sweaty, fat man who did us the honor of cutting our wood down. I tried to help him lift the wood up and he told me to just stand back. It is funny to laugh at now but it wasn't at the time. We found everything that we needed and then began the process of loading it in my van. I wish we would have gotten a picture of it but needless to say we were full. 
We waited for a couple of weeks before we began. It was still cold the first day we started. I remember it took a long time to warm up after the day was over. (shower and soup didn't help.) Thank goodness it did warm up during the couple of weeks of building. It made it possible for Brooke and Camden to play outside too. Those 2 kept us busy themselves but considering they are 3 they did pretty good. Brooke liked to bug Camden which would make Camden mad and then someone would be tattling. We started building the 2 book shelves first. 
They went fairly quick and by the weekend, we had them moved into the storage room to be painted. (This was a bad idea cuz there isn't much light in there.) I had to do a little sanding and fixing of things. Then, we began building the big beast. We first built the bottom part. This was much like the book shelves but much larger. Then we built the top piece. We used a machine that Celeste had. We had never used it before but it cuts little slits that you put a little disc into it and you cut another slit in the other piece of wood and they slide in together. After playing around with it one afternoon, we decided we were ready to give it a shot. It worked beautifully. Now was the fun part. We took the two pieces downstairs. They were 10 times heavier and much more awkward. I ended up bruising Celeste. We finally got them down and glued the discs in and nailed the back on and it was ready to putty and paint. That weekend I painted. Then it was ready to be polyurethane. I kind of thought all were the same and failed to read all the instructions(Warning to all who might build and use polyurethane READ THE LABEL! ) I began using the polyurethane and I got a phone call. I went to wash my hands and realized my 30 dollar purchase was oil based. I thought oh well that just means I have to clean up differently. So I continued like an idiot. When I got to my doors I was talking to Celeste on the phone and I told her that it looked like I had taken a brush with water and placed it on the door. She thought after another coat it would be fine. So I got everything Polyurethane. With the book cases I worked harder at brushing out the oil which meant it took me longer. When Celeste arrived at my house on Monday, she looked at everything and knew there was a problem. Because I had never used it, I thought I was just a sucky painter. She read the can and it said do not use on paint. My heart sunk! That meant it had to be peeled off because that is what it was starting to do on the bigger piece. So a kind friend began spending days helping peel all of it off. Some came off easily and most we used a razor to get off. By the end of the week it was scraped as good as I was wanting it to be and painted and polyurethane. I had bought a satin on accident and instead of returning it I just bought the kind that I needed. I accidentally grabbed the satin kind and didn't realize that I was using it til the can was empty. So then I had to start over with the glossy. Then it was ready to be moved and decorated. New problem.... When we got the TV and tried to hook it up to the satellite, it wouldn't work. We tried to see if Mike could fix it but he couldn't. He called the satellite company and they told him that if he could see the screen that everything was hooked up right. So that meant we had to have a repair man come out and see what was wrong which meant we had to wait until Monday. When the repair man came, he discovered it wasn't hooked up right. After he left we hooked up everything including a "cheap" home theatre system. We spent hours trying to hook everything up. We finally moved it back. Then the next day we put the lights on it ( something my kids like to trick their friends on how they snap their fingers to turn it on.) and we also put the doors on. The next day we decorated it. It is finally done. (until I have to pull the oil base off of the book shelves.) Thanks to a wonderful friend who never gave up and gave me plenty of things to laugh and cry about, it is Done and I have a beautiful entertainment center.
We waited for a couple of weeks before we began. It was still cold the first day we started. I remember it took a long time to warm up after the day was over. (shower and soup didn't help.) Thank goodness it did warm up during the couple of weeks of building. It made it possible for Brooke and Camden to play outside too. Those 2 kept us busy themselves but considering they are 3 they did pretty good. Brooke liked to bug Camden which would make Camden mad and then someone would be tattling. We started building the 2 book shelves first. 
They went fairly quick and by the weekend, we had them moved into the storage room to be painted. (This was a bad idea cuz there isn't much light in there.) I had to do a little sanding and fixing of things. Then, we began building the big beast. We first built the bottom part. This was much like the book shelves but much larger. Then we built the top piece. We used a machine that Celeste had. We had never used it before but it cuts little slits that you put a little disc into it and you cut another slit in the other piece of wood and they slide in together. After playing around with it one afternoon, we decided we were ready to give it a shot. It worked beautifully. Now was the fun part. We took the two pieces downstairs. They were 10 times heavier and much more awkward. I ended up bruising Celeste. We finally got them down and glued the discs in and nailed the back on and it was ready to putty and paint. That weekend I painted. Then it was ready to be polyurethane. I kind of thought all were the same and failed to read all the instructions(Warning to all who might build and use polyurethane READ THE LABEL! ) I began using the polyurethane and I got a phone call. I went to wash my hands and realized my 30 dollar purchase was oil based. I thought oh well that just means I have to clean up differently. So I continued like an idiot. When I got to my doors I was talking to Celeste on the phone and I told her that it looked like I had taken a brush with water and placed it on the door. She thought after another coat it would be fine. So I got everything Polyurethane. With the book cases I worked harder at brushing out the oil which meant it took me longer. When Celeste arrived at my house on Monday, she looked at everything and knew there was a problem. Because I had never used it, I thought I was just a sucky painter. She read the can and it said do not use on paint. My heart sunk! That meant it had to be peeled off because that is what it was starting to do on the bigger piece. So a kind friend began spending days helping peel all of it off. Some came off easily and most we used a razor to get off. By the end of the week it was scraped as good as I was wanting it to be and painted and polyurethane. I had bought a satin on accident and instead of returning it I just bought the kind that I needed. I accidentally grabbed the satin kind and didn't realize that I was using it til the can was empty. So then I had to start over with the glossy. Then it was ready to be moved and decorated. New problem.... When we got the TV and tried to hook it up to the satellite, it wouldn't work. We tried to see if Mike could fix it but he couldn't. He called the satellite company and they told him that if he could see the screen that everything was hooked up right. So that meant we had to have a repair man come out and see what was wrong which meant we had to wait until Monday. When the repair man came, he discovered it wasn't hooked up right. After he left we hooked up everything including a "cheap" home theatre system. We spent hours trying to hook everything up. We finally moved it back. Then the next day we put the lights on it ( something my kids like to trick their friends on how they snap their fingers to turn it on.) and we also put the doors on. The next day we decorated it. It is finally done. (until I have to pull the oil base off of the book shelves.) Thanks to a wonderful friend who never gave up and gave me plenty of things to laugh and cry about, it is Done and I have a beautiful entertainment center.
