This week I got a hair up my nose and finally decided to do something about it. Or I just needed and excuse to buy a jig saw (I have wanted one for a while) I decided that my ideal height of the desk needed to be 29 inches and the depth to work with at about 34. I like to have some of my cubbies in front of me for easy access to supplies so I took their depth into the calculations also. So I decided to cut a rectangle out of the desk to have a U workspace. I can put stuff to the sides and in front. then we yanked the desk off the "rails" (for lack of a better term) that were nailed into the wall and tore the rails off. My kids LOVED this part and honestly I just let them do it. After that I measured and cut new rails and mounted them under the desk at my desired height. The desk would never come completely out due to it being wedged against the side walls. Under the desk to the left and right is built in shelving. Nothing to fancy just particle board. But whoever built this desk to begin with did a really good job. Those shelves were NOT coming out. My handy dandy jig saw to the rescue. Since the desk top was lifted I measured the shelves from the ground up to the height of the new rails and cut (awkwardly i might add) the top of the shelves off. I lost a shelf but I am ok with that. Then we lowered the desk (ok hammered the thing down cuz it was soooo tight) and nailed the top to the rails. Then we caulked the edges and corners for a more finished look and then I spackled the area that was damaged from the rails.
This was the desk when I first unpacked after moving in. You can kinda see all the extra unused space behind my scrap cubbies because it was way too deep.
Here is Chris helping me screw in the new railings. I was doing that one myself but burned my thumb badly on the head of a screw. I have the impression of the screw head burnt into my thumb. Yes you can laugh now......
More railing help and top of the shelves after I cut them
Tonight I will wipe everything down so we can start painting! I have decided to repaint the desk white (since all my scrap cubbies are white) and paint the room a lighter shade of the blue I painted in Taylor's bedroom. It's a really pretty color but far too bright for my small space, so I am mixing it with white to tone it down a bit. Then its hauling in all my crap and reorganizing!
Me and the boys are very proud of ourselves for doing this alone. I hope the desk doesn't crash down and ruin the good mood.
WOW...I'm impressed. T think that will be awesome when you get it all finished. The desk looks way better. Good for Chris for helping you, and you for being brave enough to do everything by yourself!
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