Toybox grade: "D" for quality, "B" for effort, "A+" for good intentions.

The Anthony and Meredith Gardner family patriarch here, reporting on one of the most interesting, fun, disappointing and stretching activities of the last few months.

I decided a while ago that I wanted to build Ruth - and her future siblings, and no, we are not pregnant - a toy box. I was thinking Christmas, but Meredith was thinking "finished-soon-space-saver." Once decided, I went with my father-in-law to Menard's and bought what I thought was enough wood to make the box, based on square footage calculations.

Mistake #1: You cannot purchase lumber based solely on total square footage calculations if you are constructing a three dimensional object.

So, needless to say, I didn't buy enough and didn't find out until I was done cutting all of the wood to size... or at least, everything I could cut to size.

Menard's isn't exactly close by, but I went back. I purchased more than enough wood to finish the project, some gorilla glue for the bottom and other gluables, and just to be sure, I bought a large enough piece of glued pine to serve as the lid once cut to size. (It is actually the prettiest piece of wood on the box.)

Once everything was cut to size, I realized I would need fasteners.

Mistake #2: Wood doesn't just stick together. You need fasteners.

 If it wasn't already more expensive than I had planned, 3/4" nails weren't going to be enough, so I went down to the ACE hardware nearby and purchased four 3" framing screws to take care of fastening the bottom to the box. Turns out you need to drill great big pilot holes if you want to do that, and I didn't have a drill to do so. So I went back to ACE again and bought 3/4" soft wood screws. They worked like a charm!

While starting to frame up the box, I noticed that my planks were mostly bowed.

Mistake #3: Planks that are not checked adequately for flatness tend to be bowed.

I had very few flat lengths. On the flat lengths, I fastened them with nails. The bowed, I used screws. Result: a menagerie of alternating nails and screws at the fasten points.

With plenty of nails and screws and glue, the box is finally framed up and assembled, except for the lid. Before adding the lid, I decide to sand and buff the wood in preparation for a staining. I got to involve our little brother Brandon (paired through the BBBS system), which was fun. We got most of the box stained, and upon first glance, everything seemed to be going well.

My wonderful wife inspected it, but it turned out a lot worse than I thought. She found tons of drippies, lots of sander chewspots (you know, those places where the 60 grit sanding wasn't quite erased by the 160 sanding), and plenty of gaps in the wood that were eyesores.

Mistake #4: Never assume that gaps are not eyesores, and that drippies aren't noticeable.

Result? Gaps stay, sanded staining, buffed it down lots better and stained again. There are still chew marks, but little to no drippies. I finished the lid, attached it, cracked it down a glue seam while attaching the friction hinge, and voila.

Now, some of you reading might say, "Wow, what a negative post!" Well... I admit, I view this project in a lot of negative light because I view a lot of myself in it. I really wanted to just make a box for Ruth and the kids with my own two hands, but was too prideful to stop and say, "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to admit that I have no idea what I'm doing for the most part, and I'm not going to settle for less than near perfect."

This was a really good experience, and I know that Ruth and the other kids are going to like it. I can repair the lid since it only busted slightly down a glue seam, and the friction hinge can be replaced with a specific toy box lid support. I can put slats on the underneath of the lid after clamping to prevent further seam splitting and I can always sand it again and refinish it in the future.

This was a really good experience, and I'm glad to say I was able to embark on it. I believe the benefit outweighs the cost of production.