Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
Back before I was in the accident and broke my neck I was pretty handy when it came to Woodworking and any kind of construction. I did lots of construction. That being said though there is one project that comes to mind… One project I really wanted to look nice when I was done. Heck I was a construction worker not a finish Carpenter. And this was going to be directly in the middle of the living room. One of the first things you see right when you came in that front door. But anyways, I had these hippie Neighbors, they were a couple of real nice guys. Well, they must have had 2500 vinyl records minimum stacked all about their house and they wanted a place to store them, organize them, and just unclutter the boxes of vinyl laying everywhere. That’s when I convinced them I could build them a custom entertainment center strong enough to hold all that weight and not fall through the floor. You be surprised how much 15 vinyl records weigh, let alone thousands…
We agreed on a budget so I took my measurements and then I went up to the hardware store and handpicked All the lumber I was going to use. I was pretty picky because I wanted this to look really good. Once I had my supplies I started by reinforcing the floor joists from underneath the house. I would say they easily had 1,000 lbs in records. Once I was confident everything was reinforced and ready for all that weight, I took lots of measurements. I wanted to make sure each and every cubby could fit and hold the maximum amount of Records and I wanted them to have a spot for their record player.
7-in records what fit precisely on the top part of the entertainment center 10-in records would go in the middle and 12s on the bottom. In the very center is where the TV would sit and on the right of their TV was the record player. Once everything was built and completely anchored to the wall, I hand sanded, stained, and epoxied every square inch to match the wood floors and paneling they had throughout their house. But also did this so that it was nice and smooth and didn’t mess up the record sleeves. By the time I was done it was smooth as glass.
Anyhow, you might think… well it’s just an entertainment centerf, but No it was much more than that, it was literally a piece of art by the time I was done and the hippies… Well, they couldn’t have been happier. It’s been 12 years since I built it and it’s still standing strong today.
Uncle Donkeys Tales 