Entry tags:
2020's last swipe
Back in the summer, we put about a thousand books into boxes in the garage, so we could take down the bookshelves in the closet, so the construction guys could demolish and renovate the spare bedroom cum office. They did that, but we had to do some of our own construction work (mostly crown molding) after they left, and we had to get new parts for the bookshelves in the closet because the closet is now a different size and shape, and Home Depot kept not having the right parts in stock, and and and... as of Dec. 31, we were down to the last ten boxes of books to reshelve, hoping to finish it before the end of the year. So we were in the office re-shelving books. And ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shalmestere said "What's that? That ticking noise?"
Indeed, there was a ticking noise coming from the closet. I thought it might be coming from outside -- rain, or squirrels, or something like that -- but when I put a hand on one of the shelves, it slowed down and stopped. I took my hand off the shelf, and it didn't come back... until about ten seconds later. So I put my hand on the shelf again, just in time for the top shelf to suddenly drop an inch or two onto the second-to-top row of books. With one hand holding the top shelf in place, I started frantically grabbing books off the shelf with my other hand and passing them toshalmestere to pile on the floor. We got all the books off, then took down the shelf so we could examine the situation. One of the vertical brackets that hold the horizontal brackets that hold the shelves that hold the books was no longer flush against the wall, and the screw that held it to the wall was no longer in the wall. We emptied out another shelf, took it down too, and got a better look.
I spent the next two hours trying to find screws with the right combination of diameter and length, and recharging the power drill, and trying to extricate a broken-off screw from its hole in the wall, giving up on that and instead moving all the screw holes 1/4" to the right, and screwing and unscrewing things over my head while standing on a folding chair, and punching new holes in a steel bracket so there would be more screws holding it to the wall next time. To make a long story short, the shelves were up again before midnight, but I'd really prefer to replace some of the screws with longer ones before we put books on them again, and that'll require a trip to a hardware store. So we still have piles of books all over the floor, in addition to three boxes of books-to-give-away and two boxes of books-we-were-about-to-reshelve, and there are still five boxes of books in the garage.
Anyway, around 11:00 I quit all this, walked the dogs, and came back to watch the ball drop. Not the one in Times Square this time: we were watching Wolgemut's Musical New Year's Eve Countdown, which cut away at 11:59 to Clan Tynker's fire-dancing-and-juggling show, which included gradually lowering a large flaming ball made to look like a coronavirus particle. We toasted the New Year with milk and cookies, brushed our teeth, and went to bed.
shalmestere said "What's that? That ticking noise?"Indeed, there was a ticking noise coming from the closet. I thought it might be coming from outside -- rain, or squirrels, or something like that -- but when I put a hand on one of the shelves, it slowed down and stopped. I took my hand off the shelf, and it didn't come back... until about ten seconds later. So I put my hand on the shelf again, just in time for the top shelf to suddenly drop an inch or two onto the second-to-top row of books. With one hand holding the top shelf in place, I started frantically grabbing books off the shelf with my other hand and passing them to
shalmestere to pile on the floor. We got all the books off, then took down the shelf so we could examine the situation. One of the vertical brackets that hold the horizontal brackets that hold the shelves that hold the books was no longer flush against the wall, and the screw that held it to the wall was no longer in the wall. We emptied out another shelf, took it down too, and got a better look.I spent the next two hours trying to find screws with the right combination of diameter and length, and recharging the power drill, and trying to extricate a broken-off screw from its hole in the wall, giving up on that and instead moving all the screw holes 1/4" to the right, and screwing and unscrewing things over my head while standing on a folding chair, and punching new holes in a steel bracket so there would be more screws holding it to the wall next time. To make a long story short, the shelves were up again before midnight, but I'd really prefer to replace some of the screws with longer ones before we put books on them again, and that'll require a trip to a hardware store. So we still have piles of books all over the floor, in addition to three boxes of books-to-give-away and two boxes of books-we-were-about-to-reshelve, and there are still five boxes of books in the garage.
Anyway, around 11:00 I quit all this, walked the dogs, and came back to watch the ball drop. Not the one in Times Square this time: we were watching Wolgemut's Musical New Year's Eve Countdown, which cut away at 11:59 to Clan Tynker's fire-dancing-and-juggling show, which included gradually lowering a large flaming ball made to look like a coronavirus particle. We toasted the New Year with milk and cookies, brushed our teeth, and went to bed.
no subject
Your post made me think about how wall-mounted bracket shelves have invariably failed to stay secure in my experience, and then I realized I've only ever had them installed in lath and plaster walls. You may want to look into using toggle bolts; they go through a hole into the wall and then open up, bracing the bolt against the back of the wall in order to hold more securely.
no subject