The New Bookshelf Smash

Attach the back panel (E) to the case with thirty four Phillips head screws (S).

Wait, do what now? That's a whole lot of Phillips head screwing!

I finished putting together a new bookcase this evening. It's much nicer than the one I bought from that Ikea in South Philly. It was easier to assemble too. I only cursed a couple of dozen times and broke down crying once (or maybe twice). The instructions were even written by someone speaking English as a first language, rather than in cryptic Swedish hieroglyphs.

This shelf doesn't have quite the detail and precision one expects from truly high-quality furniture. There's a visible gap beneath the bottom drawer and lower front panel. Major oversight by the engineer there. The finish scratches more readily than I'd prefer, too. Otherwise, it's a pretty good set of shelves for the dollars. I may even get another one.

Own the downside, while assembling the bookshelf, I dropped a 10 or 15 pound, furniture-grade pine plank on my toes, edge on. I may have broken one. It certainly does hurt, especially if I try to curl it, but I'd expect a fractured toe to hurt more than this does. Granted, my pain threshold is slightly higher than average. I routinely bruise and bloody myself with no recollection of when or how the injury happened. But I'm not impervious to the ouchies. My toe is decidedly swollen and gone purple heading toward black. Fortunately, it's my fourth toe, which doesn't seem to be especially important for walking.