Plumb Loco

Got the soffits uninstalled, with only minimal damage to two of them. A little wood putty, and all will be well. Installed the first case, and ran into some minor problems. The first case is supposed to butt up right against the north wall next to the entry door, in the space between the door frame and the west wall. The first problem is that the door frame is not plumb (frelling house is only fourteen years old, folks), but I knew that, and was going to replace the door frame anyway so that it matched the window framing. The other annoyance is that the wall right next to the door bulges out about a half an inch near the bottom, something that is unnoticeable until you try to butt a big honking bookcase up against it. So I need to stick some shims in there to fill the space between the side of the case and the wall where I attach it to said wall. Fortunately, the wall that the cases will have their backs to is both plumb and flat, so I won't need to shim behind the cases.

Got the first case installed against the back wall, with the only other adjustment needed being to add a couple of shims under one side where the floor dipped about 1/8".

Next steps are to go to the Depot to get some more shim stock, and some longer screws. I'm off...

Ghost in the Machina

Screws and shims obtained. Also, they had some better maple stock, so I picked up enough for the face frame and some of the shelf edging, so I can start working on the shelves.

Almost forgot the oddity of the night. (Okay, I know that's sort of redundant around Casa Machina, but anyway...) Woke up this morning absolutely freezing. Now the back room is by far the warmest room in the house, and usually it's overwarm, rather than cold. Get up. Check the thermostat, thinking that perhaps I'd accidently kicked it way down whilst I was wrestling the cases past it. Nope, but the thermometer is reading 52°F. WTF? Did the furnace crap out overnight?

It was then that I turned around, and saw that the front door was wide open. No, not a burglary. On occasion, it doesn't catch properly. It was really windy here last night, so it blew open. The wind also blew the door to the attic open. (I'd forgotten to hook it.) It was toasty warm up there, because that's where all the heat went. Yup, doing my bit for energy conservation. Either that, or I have a ghost...

Done! (Well, Sort of...)

They're installed, and the soffits are back in their proper places. Had to shim the bottoms in a couple of places, especially for the last one, but they look great. There's still a couple of dings I need to fix (drill slipped while driving a couple of screws), but now it's on to the face frame and the shelves. Woo!

Now I'm off to Cambridge for some Shakespeare.