Home Improvement

I’ve been using the stairs that lead up to the attic as a linen closet, but more often than not, towels, sheets, and out-season kids’ clothes were getting thrown in there willy nilly. I was starting to fear it could become one of those cartoon closets that just keeps dumping tons and tons of stuff out and buries the unsuspecting sucker who opens the door.

My parents came down to build some shelves and, in theory, banish the linen closet clutter. They pulled up first thing in the morning with a trailer full of scrap lumber and a bunch of power tools. My dad tried to explain to me where the shelves would go and how it would look, but I have to admit that when we started out, I just couldn’t picture it. But he had a vision, and so I watched as he measured and marked and held boards on one end while he leveled them and later cut them with the table saw and even tried my hand at the drill. We used the carpenter’s square and the reciprocal saw and a number 2 pencil and a buncha other tool things. And then, piece by piece, it all started to come together and actually look like shelves. I will say that I did learn a lot, but I’m definitely not ready to tackle any further home improvement projects or even handle power tools without supervision.

My Grandpa Carlson was also quite a skilled carpenter, and I thought of him many times throughout the day. My dad looks an awful lot like him, and all the more so in his tool belt and working on the kind of project Grandpa would have loved.