Need a new cabinet but can’t find one you like? Why not try making your own? That’s what Monica did in Mobile.

Over the years, the house in Mobile had become home to a furniture collection of various sizes and shapes. Most items were individual pieces and not part of any kind of coordinated set of furniture. My in-laws – mainly my mother-in-law, who had a hard time throwing anything away – accumulated it in their more than 50 years of marriage. So when Monica moved back to Mobile in December 2001 to take care of her dad, some of the furniture did not seem all that practical for her keen perception of how to store things efficiently. But with other matters to take care of first, rearranging storage space in the house became a long-term project.

When it came time to replace an old chest of drawers that was being used as a storage cabinet in a corner of the dining room area, nothing seemed to "fill the bill." Monica wanted something that would stretch from near the end of the existing kitchen counter over to the corner, with shelves and nooks for various things. Things like the bin for recycling paper and our wood box for firewood, which is our source of heat in the short winter heating season. So she decided to make her own cabinet. With her dad, a former architect by profession, providing some pointers, she got some boards and cut them the desired length. Then she assembled the cabinet, finished and sanded it, and lo and behold! It now stands in its place, providing plenty of storage space in an area that hadn’t been used too efficiently before.

Now if I can just get her to do the maintenance on the car.