It all began with the hopes of turning our home into a (college budget) pottery barn catalog.

What we thought would be a walk in the park, and a super cute addition to the apartment, turned out to be a 3 hour traumatizing (mentally and physically) experience.  

We tried calling our guy friends for help, but they were all coincidentally "busy." 

It only took 5 seconds to realize we were in over our heads.  We all had the same "WTF?" look on our faces as we stared at the directions.  What do these symbols mean?? Where are the words?

Our first obstacle arose when we opened the box and found that there were about 9,000 pieces.  After 20 minutes of organizing the plethora of pieces and trying to figure out what in the world dowels and barrel bolts were, we were ready to build.  

Disclaimer: wooden dowels break very easily and extras are not generously provided.

After 30 minutes of trying to put in the screws, we were all on the verge of defeat.  "Maybe this bookshelf is a defect!  We totally got the broken one in the store, that's why it was on sale,"  we all yelled.  And then, my roommate had an epiphany, "The screw is in the wrong way!"  And as anyone could have guessed, no, we did not have the defect, and yes, the screw was in the wrong way.  We blame the confusing directions. 

At this point, our living room looks like a construction site and nervous breakdowns are on the horizon. And no matter how hard we try, the two different parts never seem to meet, creating a very noticeable gap.

Assembling those pieces of plywood was really testing our friendships - this is taxing stuff people - but we finally got one side of the bookshelf together.  Only to realize that yes, the piece was on backwards.  

On the verge of mental breakdowns and vows to never build furniture again, we took apart the last hour of our blood, sweat, and tears, and then reassembled the pieces.

At this point, we are bookshelf-building pros.  We are on a building furniture high.  As we fly through the next 1,500 steps, we finally finish.

Except, we aren't.  Ah yes, the back of the bookshelf that requires an excessive amount of miniscule nails must be attached. With only one hammer handy, this takes almost 30 minutes, with many hits to the thumb.

After almost three hours, we reached the conclusion that my bookshelf was "close enough." There were a couple pieces left over however.  Extras? Pieces I forgot to put in?  I guess I will find out as I await the day when my bookshelf - and everything on it- comes toppling down.