[Happy Monkey]

Alright. So I'll catch up to the present on my bookshelf construction. Unfortunately, it's sort of late in the game, so I won't be able to show all of the steps in progress, but here goes.

We bought most of the wood rough, 4/4 cherry, at least 11 1/2 inches wide. (This was not cheap.) For the top, we got some planed poplar and cherry. We then spent one weekend putting the rough wood through our planer. We brought the bottom piece down to about an inch, and the verticals to about 3/4 inch.

We used a router against a guard to straighten one side, then used a square to draw square ends, and routed them square. We marked off the desired width at intervals along the board, and routered that off. We could have used a tablesaw, but they make a big mess and are unwieldy for long boards. We don't have a roller table or a bandsaw, either of which would make this part easier.

Here's the wood for the basic framework. It has already been shaped, but you can get an idea of the dimensions.