My mother-in-law doesn't clean. She simply hides mess. When she is visiting, the house always looks clean, but you can never find anything- anything you are looking for, that is. You will find dirty plates in the toy box and purses in the fridge, but you will not find towels anywhere that towels should be.

Months after her last visit, I have finally looked at the heap of shit stuffed out of the way in a corner one too many times, and decide to do something about it. I decide to build shelves. 'More shelves' was always my father's solution to any problem that faced us in childhood, and it is clearly the solution I am looking for here. I have never built shelves, but I have seen it done in any number of ways, and I am sure I can replicate a modest version of it.

Korea adds some difficulty when one sets out to build shelves. The first step in building shelves is, of course, a visit to Beaver Lumber or Home Depot; but there is no such thing in Korea.

I have seen the occasional tool at Home-Plus, the bottle-neck will be the wood. I have to get that first. I look up lumber in google translate, and type 목재 into naver maps. There are all sorts of custom furniture making shops, but the only two lumberyards (목재소) that show up in Daegu just happen to be down the street from the university. I pop by, and it isn't what I was expecting. Or, I wasn't really sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I wanted to find. It is an open roofed lot with stacks of raw, unfinished pieces of lumber. I decide to ask anyways.

Me: Do you sell lumber?
Guy: Sure. What kind to you want?
Me: Smooth stuff. I want to make shelves.
Guy: What size do you need?

I show him the list of sizes I want. He takes me into the yard. He picks out a big 3 meter slab of raw 5cm by 20cm. "This will do for these bits," he says. Pointing at the 1cm thick 40cmx60cm pieces I want for the actual shelves though, he says, "We can't cut thin pieces this big, though."

I don't know how to say 'plywood', and I have trouble describing it. But looking around a bit I find a dirty looking piece of it. "Do you have any of these, but cleaner?"

"Oh sure. We can sand that up."

I'm reluctant. I'm not going to buy a table saw just to make shelves. A handsaw or maybe a Skil-saw at most. But it turns out they will cut the two pieces up into all the little bits I want, and finish them all up nice. I come back four hours later and have all the lumber I want for two sets of shelves, nicely cut, for about $60.

I don't have much sawing to do. But there is some- notching and stuff. I have a small saw
< Put video of Lucy sawing here >
but it will take too long. I go to Home-plus and find a Skil-saw on sale. Magic. I just need screws, and I am ready to go. This turns out to be the problem.

I can buy screws at Home-plus, but they come in a little assortment pack with four 1cm long screws, four 2cm longs screws, and four 3cm screws. I want 50 or so screws of 4-5cm.

I go into several stores that look like they might have hardware type stuff, and ask for screws. A couple times the people pull out a can of odds and ends a fish out one or two loose screws.

Me: I want 50 of those.
Guy: We don't sell them.
Me: Who sells them?
Guy: Go to the big street, and walk a long way. Then ask someone.
Me: Thanks.

I get Eunjoo to help me find them. We ride halfway across Daegu in search of screws. People keep pointing us further and further. Eventually we get to a street where everything is hardware. We ask for screws. They point us down to a bolt store: Deabok Bolt. This store has every type of screw or bolt you could imagine. In bags of 500 each. Turns out though, that 500 screws costs about $4. That will do. I can hide the extra screws in Lucy's pancakes.