Toy (Box) Story

Many months ago, my father, the (not amateur) carpenter extraordinaire, promised that he would build Cubby a toy box. And I was thrilled, because his current toy box? A cardboard box from the liquor store on which the Jack Daniel's label was all too apparent. (You can see it in the background of this photo.) That's almost as classy as keeping bottles of liquor on the floor.

Luckily, we have my dad to save us from our trashy instincts.

So he went to work. I got many questions about preferred dimensions and type of wood and color. I mostly went with my standard, "whatever YOU think" response, because I am helpful.

Then Christmas came, and he was busy making other things for gifts. So the toy box had to wait.

Then he needed to get a special kind of saw to make it the way he wanted it. So it waited some more.

Then the hinges on the lid didn't work the way he wanted them to (that way being to keep the lid from smashing down quickly on Cubby's fingers). So it had to hang out in his shop a little longer while he fixed that.

But finally, one day, I got a call saying he was shipping the box via FedEx and to look for it in about a week.

WHEEE!!! I was way excited. And then it arrived and it looked like this:

Nice, FedEx. Real nice.

Of course, I did not know it looked like that until after I had removed the million layers of bubble wrap and felt wrappings and everything else my dad had encased it in so it would travel safely. So I couldn't bring the issue up with the delivery guy.

It probably wasn't his fault personally, but somewhere along the way, someone must have thrown this thing from a truck. Literally, thrown. That's the only way the top could have ripped off like that. I mean, this is not some flimsy piece of crap from Target; this is a solidly built, solid maple box. FedEx must have been very, very mean to it to break it like that.

I was pissed. So was my dad. He filed a claim and got some money. A. and I fixed the box.

Because we were trying very hard to keep it as pretty as my dad had made it, we didn't use our standard method of construction. That is, lots of nails and glue for structural strength with very little concern about the aesthetics of the final product. Aesthetics mattered for this project, so we spent a lot more time messing around with screws and glue. It was not as easy to put back together as we had originally thought, thanks to some actual broken screws and stripping of holes and general brokenness.

Once again, FedEx, may I commend you on your careful handling of a family heirloom in the making?

But we did it. Okay, mostly A. did it while I tried to brace things and keep Cubby from playing with the electric drill.

So kudos to A. for rescuing the busted toy box and making it pretty again.

And even more kudos to my dad, because would you just LOOK at this thing?

Cubby's a pretty lucky little dude.