I heard Spongebob whining?!!?? Yep...I've made lots of Women cry over the years...heh-heh! (hee-hee! Yes...yes I am a Brat!) ;-) Well....you all can take solace that we're suffering a "mini-blizzard" up here in Fargo! We're only a degree or two above ZERO... No travel advised south of Fargo on I29, and in SE ND. Northern/NE SD is REALLY getting snow! So while I'm up here laughing (in a FUN way! at Oakley), I'm not really going anywhere.....:-( Sorry Oakley, but you'd be crying EVEN MORE when you found all the ridges in your new paint from the books, etc.! Yep...another notch in the ol' belt from disa-pointin' another Woman... ;-) Faron...the Heartbreaker! (correction- The SNOWBOUND Heartbreaker....)

Hey it worked. That's a good start. Thanks aok, Didn't address you before because I've written a reply about a half-dozen times to have it get lost in cyber space. Glare is a concern especially with no window treatments but there are ways alleviate that. Just rotating the couch will cut down on it a bit as much of the glare will come from the floor when the sun isn't hitting it directly. I would usually use some type of a scrim/screen when people want privacy/shade but don't want curtains/ blinds etc. Although I didn't show it I did guess at laying out the room as you also need to rearrange the furniture if you block off that access-way too. I rotated the coffee table and centered it on the fireplace put the two mission chairs next to the new unit and the red one off center of the edge of the table. The couch face the TV with the FP on the right and the buffet can go behind the couch with a scrim separating the two if it is needed. They are inexpensive to build and add "wall space" when needed. If you want to post the dimension from the column to the center of the FP and to the window wall along with an indication north and closest major city I can do a sun study to see how we can prevent the glare. Thanks jey

That column about stacking bookcases can't be downloaded until you register, which I haven't done yet, but I like what the writer says in the synopsis: "We make them that way because that's the way we've always made them." What's important for furniture users and buyers (and DIYers) to realize is that the way things are "always done" has often evolved for the convenience of woodworkers or to reflect the tools and materials they most often have, for mass production, or for other reasons that sometimes don't matter for a one-off idiosyncratic project like this one, or for the non-woodworking builder who has fewer tools but more flexibility in other directions. In those cases, DIYers are sometimes on their own in terms of design because we have to think outside the box. Below is a link, for example, to a project my husband and I did recently, where our constraints and wishes kind of precluded doing things the way they are "always done" and we had to figure out a whole different way to build drawers. I'm still not totally clear on some of your project details, for example why you wouldn't be attaching at both ends of the row, whether you can screw into the floor, whether budget is an issue, and what the overall intent of the project is in terms of appearance and function, but there are a couple of alternate ways of thinking about this project. For example, you could look at it more as a wall-framing exercise than as a set of four bookshelves, and take your construction clues from how a wall would be constructed and installed. The stacking boxes that are apparently the idea in the Popular Woodworking articles may also be a good approach. You can construct the stationary and mobile sections differently, and also, your two stationary sets together could be constructed as one unit. But there is another option if you want to stay with free-standing bookcases that you install and connect. This evolves from the recognition that the back is much more effective if it is inset. Go ahead and use 3/4" plywood, but cut it to fit entirely within the case of your shelves. Lay it on the floor, and then assemble your case around it. Screw the case sides to the top and bottom, as you intend, but then also drill and screw them into the sides of the 3/4 ply all the way around. Now you have a pretty solid box that will not rack, and in which the backing plywood also helps keep the vertical elements in line. An advantage to this is that your plywood edge will not show and in fact, if you use finish-grade plywood, the backs of your shelves will actually look darn good. Now you can attach your shelves. One of the tricks I use is to shop the moulding section quite carefully (actually I scour a specialty moulding store). Whatever the moulding pieces are designed for, they can be used for other things, for example, keeping corners square or supporting shelves. The discussion about your lumber selection question also leads me to suggest that you expand your search beyond your big box stores. I shop for the best lumber I can find and often have to go to specialty stores to get it, and I usually pay a premium for it - but since I'm not paying for labour, the total cost of the project still often ends up being very reasonable. Besides getting lumber that is dried in keeping with the sort of work you want to do, you also get a better selection. And I will say that in the square-cut-and-screw method of attachment, a hardwood like maple is going to give you a way better result than a softwood where the fibres on the corners are apt to crush easily when the unit is stressed, resulting in wobbly joints. You may also find that the aesthetic appeal of using really nice lumber is such that you will be happier with better thinner boards than with lesser quality thick boards. Plus, thinner boards give you more room on your shelves. KarinL Here is a link that might be useful: home-made drawers

I had an area in the kitchen that had upper cabinets, but no lowers. It's about 16" deep, so too shallow for base cabinets. So here is what I came up with: This is made with two 34" high unfinished bookcases from The Woodland Mills, and a variety of other pieces of MDF and wood. The top is IKEA Numerar finished with Waterlox satin. The baskets are from The Basket Lady. (I designed the whole thing with those particular baskets in mind.) The wine rack is just a shelf with strips of 1/4" x 1/4" wood glued every 2" to keep the bottles in place. It sits on brackets and is not attached, so if at some point we decide that we'd rather have a flat shelf there, it can just be flipped over. Overall shot showing the relationship to the cabinets above: This whole assembly cost less than $500. I'm still figuring out what looks best where but this is solving lots of problems and adding storage that I really needed.