You can’t open a drawer when a door is in the way -Also about Beaverboard

[Frank Pellow]

That should be obvious, but I had to learn the lesson all over again last week.  :-[  :-[  :-[

A little while ago, I decided to make the closet at the foot of our basement stairs more efficient.  When we moved into the house about 40 years ago, I built some cheap shelves out of beaverboard and hid the mess with some (nicely finished) folding doors.  In this photo, I have removed the doors and I am starting to tear apart most of the shelves:

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I built better much shelves and several drawers:

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The old folding doors looked nice but they could not fold fully back and so blocked full access at the sides of the closet.  So I decided to convert the 4 part folding doors to two sliding doors.  (I bet a lot of you know what’s coming soon.)   I connected each set of doors together with a metal plate on the back of the joint and a piece of hardwood along both the top and bottom:

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Here the sliding door hardware has been installed and the doors have been hung and they slide nicely:

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I still did not realize that there was a problem.  

I stained the new wood and proudly told Margaret that she could start to use the closet.  Then I went off to do some work at a friend’s house.  I came back that evening and Margaret pointed out the obvious to me.  Both doors blocked the middle set of drawers no matter how far one slid them:

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[doh]   [doh]   [doh]

If only I had left the four panels and not converted them to two, but I didn't want to undo that work.

So I had to remove the drawers, divide the space and make new drawers and shelves:
     
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[Jonhilgen]

Ack!  I'm setting cabinets IN MY OWN HOUSE, small Ll-shaped.  The drawer that is perpendicular to the farm sink strikes it!!  I'm here waiting for the painter to be done priming the walls so I can get in and shift the cabinet run over...

I feel your pain.  And I'm never going to live this down.

Jon

 

[LostInTheWood]

Oh man!  I've seen this so many times over the years, especially with kitchen layouts and the inside corner cabinet area. 

Frank, I've got to ask,  how did the term "beaverboard" come about?  That's hilarious.  To me, I know that stuff as particle board and some refer to is as chip board. 

 

[Frank Pellow]

Oh man!  I've seen this so many times over the years, especially with kitchen layouts and the inside corner cabinet area.   

Frank, I've got to ask,  how did the term "beaverboard" come about?  That's hilarious.  To me, I know that stuff as particle board and some refer to is as chip board. 

I'm not sure where the term "beaverboard" comes from or even if the term is used any more but it is what we called these really cheap pressed together sawdust panels in the part of Northern Ontario that I come from.  Maybe it's only a local term for the region.

 

[Tinker]

Oh man!  I've seen this so many times over the years, especially with kitchen layouts and the inside corner cabinet area.   

Frank, I've got to ask,  how did the term "beaverboard" come about?  That's hilarious.  To me, I know that stuff as particle board and some refer to is as chip board. 

I'm not sure where the term "beaverboard" comes from or even if the term is used any more but it is what we called these really cheap pressed together sawdust panels in the part of Northern Ontario that I come from.  Maybe it's only a local term for the region.

First off, Frank, i love stories that bring out a bit of humor.  if that had happened to me, i would have laughed for a week.  (who wood ever guess?)

As for the beaver board, i don't know where the term started.  i can only guess.  For the many here who have never seen beavers, or the results of their endeavors, I am aware that you probably have probably seen pictures of their dams and their "apartments" as well. 

Beavers are particular about the trees they take down for their constructions.  They use only the small branches for their constructions.  i have never seen them construct with twigs any larger than 2" diameter.  I suppose, if i were to examine closely, there might have been pieces as heavy as 3" or even 4" diameter.  I don't know.  The bases of the trees they cut down are cut by chewing of chunks of wood as the make a pair of cones (not always perfect cones) around the base.  There will be a cone pointing up and a cone pointing down coming to a point somewhere close to center.  They really have no idea which direction the tree will fall.  Once the tree is downed (and sometimes, the beaver might end up as a cushion to the tree), the beaver goes to work making use of the smaller parts of the tree.  they also use the tenderer portions just under the bark as nourishment.  The larger sections of the trees end up untouched.

Around the base where the double cones had been developed, you would find a ring of chips, not unlike the chips that make up "beaver board". 

Note:  i am not sure, but there may even be some very well organized, and artistic, beavers around that are famous for making a particular form of lumber that a certain Fogger by name of Kreg is famous for.  My research is somewhat lacking in that direction. :
Tinker

PS  The longest Beaver Dam I have seen was in Monterey, Mass and meandered for maybe 200 feet and was a tad over 3 feet high.  It actually turned a swamp into a fairly large pond.  Where i live, in Connecticut, beavers continually move in and have constructed a couple of their "apartments".  About the time they get started building their dam, neighbors (i have never found out who, but do have suspicions)get to the site and blast, or otherwise destroy the architecture.  All of the trees that are lying around the perimeters of the few small ponds/lakes in the area are not there as results of the several severe storms we have recently witnessed over the past two years.  There are still some beavers in the area.  they have learned to keep a low profile, somehow.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks for all the information about beavers Tinker.  My avatar is a stylistic beaver from the bottom of a totem pole that I carved, so I guess you can figure that I, too, know a lot about beavers.

I think that the name used in and around my home town may, indeed be inspired by the chips they leave when cutting down a tree.  Here is a photo of my tree hugger friend Terry at the site of a tree that beavers have started to cut down on Pellow's Island:

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You can see the pile of chips at the base of the tree

 

[Sparktrician]

Frank, if you were to finish cutting down that tree that Terry is hugging, but do it well below the beavers' work, imagine the "smile" you'd have an another totem pole!!! 

[big grin]

 

[Tinker]

Frank, I always thought the avatar was a self portrait.  :

Is the netting over terry's head to keep mayflies away, or is that a Bee tree and he is really trying to push it over?  [scratch chin]
Tinker

 

[Frank Pellow]

Frank, I always thought the avatar was a self portrait.  :

Is the netting over terry's head to keep mayflies away, or is that a Bee tree and he is really trying to push it over?  [scratch chin]
Tinker

The netting is protection against blackflies which are the scourge of Northern Ontario in June.  They are only bad for about 3 of 4 weeks, but they are really bad during that time.  I have developed an immunity to mosquito strings but there is not such thing as an immunity to blackfly stings.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Frank, if you were to finish cutting down that tree that Terry is hugging, but do it well below the beavers' work, imagine the "smile" you'd have an another totem pole!!! 

[big grin]

I'm afraid that I cut down the tree about an hour after I took the photo.  It was too dangerous to leave standing.

 

[zapdafish]

There's a pissed off beaver somewhere grumbling about how he does all the work and someone comes along and takes his log.

Frank, if you were to finish cutting down that tree that Terry is hugging, but do it well below the beavers' work, imagine the "smile" you'd have an another totem pole!!! 

[big grin]

I'm afraid that I cut down the tree about an hour after I took the photo.  It was too dangerous to leave standing.

 

[greg mann]

I once re-drew house plans that I had commissioned an architect for. He had used a little too much artistic license for my taste and budget. The builder already had 70% of the framing done when it just popped in my head that I had not offset a hallway so that there was room for the kitchen cabinets. One side of the hallway would have been flush with the wall against which the cabinets were to be attached, meaning you could not walk down the hall as the cabinets would have blocked entrance. I hurriedly called the builder, who had also not noticed it, and he checked the layout and saw the same problem once I pointed it out. We were about an hour ahead of that part of the framing. We added 2 1/2 feet to the bedrooms on one side of the hallway and stole the same from the rooms on the other side. Ironically, those rooms, which included a bathroom, suffered not at all and the two rooms that gained the space were still a bit smaller than they should have been. In the end, I should have stolen 2 more feet!

 

[Frank Pellow]

Greg, that was a near miss.  But there are a couple of differences between your situation and mine:

-You did not make the mistake and you caught the mistake before it was too late.

-I made the mistake and no one noticed it until it was too late.

 

[rmwarren]

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[poke]

 

[JayStPeter]

The builder who built my neighborhood built the first copy of a new model they were introducing a few houses down.  The master bath toilet is directly behind the door, limiting the opening to about 80 degrees.  Oops.  The second copy a few more houses down has a redesigned bathroom.