SwampDragons

It gets down to about 10F (-12C) here in the depth of winter, but right now it's hovering around freezing at night.

Just each other and the wall.

This is super cute :D

Using hose to do the joining is a _brilliant_ idea! I'm definitely going to do this with my toddler.

Just gorgeous! I love the bridge design in the guard rail and the overall simplicity of it.

Thanks! I ended up replacing the philodendron with a plastic plant, because it was a pain in the neck to climb up onto the counter to water it, but it is really nice to have a pop of green.

Ah! That photo is totally unclear, sorry. We never installed the little plinth; what you're seeing in the step 5 photos and earlier is actually all the individual adjustable shelves for each bookcase stacked on top of each other. We used them as spacers, to make sure the base of the bookshelves were the right width apart, since we didn't have the real base installed. They're not actually attached to the bookcases in any way, though. We just slid them out and hung them using the little ikea shelf pegs once we were done screwing the bookcases into place.

I think you're right, especially considering labor costs of hiring a contractor. And it would probably have taken a lot longer to finish. As it was, we knocked the whole thing out from beginning to end over a 3-day weekend and had a ton of fun doing it.