BOOK LIBRARY DOOR PREP

Flip a coin. Heads or tails? Ah, tails it is - looks like we’re making the door for our little lending library book box first.

Materials needed for this part of the project are as follows:

• 2 x 2.4 metre lengths of par timber approx. 4.5 cm wide x 1.8 cm deep
• 1 x sheet of 2 mm thick clear Perspex
• 4 x 50mm angle plates for door corners
• 2 x 75mm tee plates for central door support
• 3 x small flush hinges
• 1 x door knob
• 1 x door hook clasp

Metal plates for extra bracing on the frame

Flush hinges and door clasp

Begin by making a mitred frame that fits on top of the box front.

Cut mitred pieces of timber to make a door frame

Glue the frame together at each corner.

Glue your frame together at each mitred corner

Add a wooden strut to the middle of the frame for extra support.

Adding extra support to the middle of the frame

On the inner side of the door frame, position your hinges along the left-hand edge of the frame to correspond with fixing position along the rim of the box. Don’t worry too much at this stage about fully fitting the hinge into place as this can’t really be done until the door frame has been painted.

Add hinges

A word here about hinges. Disclaimer - Being DIYers and not carpenters then it’s a job to know what type of hinge you should be using for this kind of thing or how best to fit them. If you know of a better/proper way of doing this bit then great but for us, this part is trial and error.

Put plastic on frame to work out sizing

With your hinges in place, lay your sheet of Perspex down on top of your frame to work out sizing. I bought my clear Perspex from an Ebay seller who specialized in cutting it down to size. However, as I didn’t have exact sizes at the time then there’s a small bit to lop off on one side.

Cutting the plastic

Two millimetre thickness doesn’t sound like much but when it comes to cutting plastic it can be a big deal especially if you don’t have specialist cutting tools and as always, there are a million and one ways to cut Perspex according to the internet.

We tried scoring it with a sharp knife. (Who is Stanley and why did he invent a knife?) Using brute force and ignorance, scoring barely touched the sides. But it did leave a nice line clearly marked out on which to try something else.

A small fine-toothed hack-saw, our next tool of choice, did little other than splinter some of the edging. Pants!

Having almost given up the ghost, the other half dug into his box of power tool tricks and brought out a Dremel multi-tool. Using a small rotary blade to slice through the plastic, slowly but surely, finally the bugger was cut down to size.

With your plastic sheet cut to fit inside the wooden door frame, place your angle and tee plates on top and mark out their fixing positions using a sharp pencil. Mark the location of screw holes as these will need to be drilled first before fitting.

Mark out screw holes for drilling

Drilling into plastic is less of a headache than cutting it and can be easily achieved with a small drill bit. Drilling or cutting plastic can leave a hard residue/ridge around each cut likely due to the plastic ‘fusing’ from friction. This can be easily chipped off with a long finger nail.

Clean off plastic ridges around holes

Right.  I think that covers all the fiddly parts. Before anything else can be done, the door frame needs to be primed and painted so I’ll return to door assembly later on after I’ve tarted up my frame.

BOOK LIBRARY - MAIN BODY

Whether you’re making a tortoise enclosure or tractor, most of our woodworking projects begin with a box and this one is no different.

‘Take 3 planks a day for the next few weeks’ said the DIY doctor reaching for a glass of Pimms in temperatures worthy of San Tropez.

To construct a simple box something like the one in my diagram - use 2 pieces of pine board 1150 mm long x 200 mm wide then chop each length in half so that you have 4 smaller pieces approx 57 cm long.

Something that looks roughly like this

Join the four sections together at each corner using wood screws to create a basic square frame.

Cut a smaller length of pine board (53.5 cm long x 20 cm wide) to fashion a shelf that will fit inside your timber frame. 

I have centred the shelf to create a gap big enough for an averagely sized hardback book.  Screw this into position from the back and sides.

Square frame with centred shelf

Finally, cut a backing board the size of your completed frame. We’ve used some leftover OSB board as this is nice and sturdy. Attach the board to the frame from the back using long thin wood screws. Don’t forget to countersink all the holes so no screw heads stick out.

Attach OSB backing board

Hey presto, basic book box completed and ready for part II – door or roof. Haven’t decided which yet.

OUTDOOR BOOK LIBRARY

Number of times I’ve thought about work since retiring – ZERO.

Has boredom set in yet? NO.

Another weekend of reading articles extolling the virtues of working past retirement age or urging punters to invest their nest eggs in shares rather than cash accounts. Just who are you kidding?

Lacking the imagination to make something of your life when you give up work is no excuse to just continue that same life in servitude to the Tax Man because in reality that is all you are doing.

Persuading people to work longer is not about alleviating their boredom, giving them a purpose, countering loneliness with an office social life or water-cooler gossip, funding a cushier retirement – it’s because the State needs as many taxpayers as possible to balance its books. Work if you must but count me out.

Anyhow, this post is not about the whys or wherefores of whether to give up work or not but is about outdoor book libraries.

One of our neighbours very kindly set up a mini lending library in her front garden which being a life-long lover of reading, I loudly applaud. I've been an active contributor since its inception.

Neighbourhood book exchange

Encouraging others to read instead of spending hours with nose buried in a gadget is top of my list of things that should actively be pursued. Books are a wonderful form of escapism and libraries (indoor or outdoor) can transport you to other worlds energy free.  Nothing beats a well crafted novel or crime thriller.  Not even chocolate or sex comes close.

My son it seems has the same idea in mind, wanting to pop one outside his front door. A free book exchange for anyone who has a hankering for a good read. Shocked by the cost of acquiring one of these little lending libraries online, it’s time to head to the timber merchants for a bit of wood. Hey boys, I’m back!!

Guess what my son’s getting for his birthday this summer? Yep, a little lending library loving crafted by the workshop of mum and dad.

I’ve already found a simplistic design for an outdoor book cabinet to be used as a model for ours because the best ideas are always someone else’s.

Could we make one of these?

Our little lending library will be fashioned using principles and skills applied to a whole host of previous projects. It will be made from pine board, finished in a couple of coats of exterior weatherproof paint with a waterproof roof then mounted on sturdy posts cemented into the ground.

Sounds simple but for a pair of old duffers with the carpentry skills of a plug-in air freshener, it’ll be like trying to broker a ceasefire deal in the Middle East or understanding the new Make Tax Difficult rules. Complicated to say the least.

I hope this next series of posts will inspire you to make your own little book library but let’s get this project off the ground while we wait for the flooring quote to arrive.

TIDAL SURGE

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Or to wash in. Or to flush the loo.

Well, well, well – looks like our water bills are going to float down the same river as our energy bills judging by the recent slew of tabloid headlines relating to price increases by water companies. The Government’s latest idea is to introduce surge pricing for water consumption next time we have a drought. Use more, be charged more when supply is scarce is their thinking.

No mention of setting targets for new reservoirs to be built or incentives for greater rainwater capture by farmers, the public or anyone else using water. Nope. Even with my dodgy eyesight, I saw ZERO mention of those things. Doing something that might actually fix the underlying problem thrown out with the bathwater (ha ha), just more punitive charging of the masses.

It also seems that we are now going to be forced to pay for stuff that is not even directly related to our own personal water consumption. But every time new houses get built or data centres come online then kerrching! Those costs will be sneakily added onto our bills thanks to the efforts of OFWAT, the water regulator. Cheers OFTWAT. Thanks a bunch mate!

As I and most of the country have said until we’re blue in the face - water companies have been allowed to get away with blue murder since Thatcher allowed them to be sold off to the highest bidder, rinsing both the public purse after nationalisation and our wallets ever since. Now it looks like we’re expected to fund all those improvements to infrastructure that should have been paid for decades ago and some.

Mad cow I may be but a water squanderer I am not. Every drop of the precious stuff in this house is never wasted. And with 3 water butts already in the garden, I’m re-visiting all my outside spaces to see where I might cram in a few more.

This recent article on the Beeb just takes the biscuit. Here’s the intro paragraph to give you a flavour of what’s heading your way:

Water companies have been given the green light to increase bills for customers by an extra £3.4bn in coming years to meet increased pressures on infrastructure and the environment.

Nearly a third of the extra funding provisionally approved for 13 water companies in England and Wales is earmarked for making sure water services are maintained.

Some of the rest will be used to meet rising demand from housebuilding and data centres and to address pollutants known as "forever chemicals".

When I read stuff like this, my brain does not simply accept it with an ‘oh, ay’ then go back to whatever innocuous thing I was doing beforehand. If only! Instead, I find myself playing devil’s advocate, picking apart each statement like a vulture picks a zebra bone cleaner than a new pin.

So, looking at these journalistic statements then what I want to know is this – if only a third of the extra funding is for making sure water services are maintained then what’s going to happen to the other two thirds of the dosh? Two thirds of an extra £3.4 billion comes to just over £2 billion quid. That’s a lotta wonga to be unaccounted for.

Why is some of the rest being used to meet demand from housebuilding and data centres? Presumably, that means part of the £2 billion is going to be spent on these areas. Surely, these industries both of which trouser a handsome profit from their activities should be paying their own water bills and not expecting the public to do so. I didn’t ask for extra houses to be built and I don’t remember signing up for data centres either.

Why am I now expected to find money I don’t really have to bankroll developers and tech companies so they have enough water to make handsome profits whilst I have to wash in a bucket and watch my garden frazzle as the UK burns? There’s something not quite right here.

Lastly ‘forever chemicals’ – what exactly are these?  According to the Government’s own blog these things also known as PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) are a family of thousands of man-made chemicals. They're brilliant at resisting heat, water and oil - which is why manufacturers have used them.

https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/03/forever-chemicals-the-problem-and-our-plan/ 

And which is why manufacturers who use them should pay to mitigate the effects of these unwanted and potentially dangerous toxins polluting our environment out of their profits. Having purchased an item containing PFAS, it should not be down to every water user in the land to pay again for the consequences of their environmental impact. The answer is to stop producing or using items that contain PFAS, find alternatives to these chemicals or to impose a PFAS levy on manufacturers.

The Government has no money but clearly thinks we all have far too much of the stuff even after taxes and this cost-of-living squeeze. To avoid any form of direct taxation increases then no doubt it’s come up with the same cunning plan to include ‘green/environmental levies’ in water bills in the same way it does for energy bills. Next thing you know, they’ll be bumping up our broadband bills to pay for the environmental costs of all those invisible radio-waves frying our brains.

Unfortunately for us, whilst we may be able to cut down on gas and electricity or phone use, it is much harder to cut back on water. Even if we didn’t wash our cars or water gardens, there are basic needs such as drinking, cooking and using the loo that require water. Cutting back on those activities might lead to longer term health or hygiene issues. I am certainly not going to wait for multiple poops to accumulate in the pan before flushing. Eeeeugh! Can you imagine anything more gross?

Come on Burnham. You promised us action and change yet you’re going down the same ‘fleece ‘em’ route as every other prime minister before you.

Either privatise these water buggers or harness the building capability of the armed forces to quickly build pipelines connecting rainy Scotland to UK water systems or better still, ask Rayner to fast-track all applications to build reservoirs. Use your power on the basis of a national water security strategy to quash the Nimbys and increase rainwater capture – don’t just keep bleeding all of us dry!