At the end of last summer, we finally finished our library project. We turned the front room from a room where the books were stacked on the floor to having books sorted out on bookshelves.
OK, let’s admit it. Neither Vin nor I are handy enough to actually build our own bookshelves, believe me we have enough trouble trying to assemble anything that has the tag “Some assembly required”, so Josh, our friend Jeanne’s grandson was commissioned to do the actual building. Here’s a little photojournal of the evolution of our library.
First Vin vacuumed the room, and we stacked all the books elsewhere.
[[image:lib01.jpg:Love the bright colors in this room!:center:0]]
[[image:lib02.jpg:This wall is to be covered by the shelves, unfortunately:center:0]]
Prototype box:
[[image:lib03.jpg:One is the loneliest number:center:0]]
The room fills up:
[[image:lib04.jpg:More boxes:center:0]]
[[image:lib05.jpg:The corner is to be a workstation for Vin:center:0]]
[[image:lib06.jpg:This wall is filling up:center:0]]
[[image:lib07.jpg:Recessed lights at the top of the shelves:center:0]]
Be careful of wet varnish:
[[image:lib08.jpg:Oooo shinyyyyy:center:0]]
[[image:lib09.jpg:The beautiful greens have been covered:center:0]]
[[image:lib010.jpg:Holes for wires:center:0]]
How about some shelves now?
[[image:lib11.jpg:The first shelves have been put in:center:0]]
[[image:lib12.jpg:More shelves:center:0]]
[[image:lib13.jpg:Wheeee:center:0]]
[[image:lib14.jpg:Shelves drying in the garage:center:0]]
[[image:lib16.jpg:They’re all done:center:0]]
[[image:lib15.jpg:Books being sorted on the floor:center:0]]
Here come the books:
[[image:lib17.jpg:This section is Fiction, mostly:center:0]]
[[image:lib18.jpg:A few books:center:0]]
[[image:lib19.jpg:More books:center:0]]
[[image:lib20.jpg:Books and more:center:0]]
Now for Vin’s workstation:
[[image:lib21.jpg:Rubber mat and office chair:center:0]]
(We had to put together this chair – “Assembly required”. We were lucky we didn’t hurt ourselves doing it!)
[[image:lib22.jpg:Gadgets and plants:center:0]]
And finally, I’ve had to work in the library so here’re my papers all spread out on the floor.
[[image:lib23.jpg:It’s in business:center:0]]
[[image:lib24.jpg:Filling up the shelves:center:0]]
We thought we would have plenty of room to expand our library given how many books we had. But once the books were dusted and put on the shelves, more books appeared. They just kind of crept out of the woodwork. We underestimated the number of books that we would have once Vin and I consolidated our books. Looks like our shelves are getting pretty filled up! How did that happen? I guess we will need to add more shelves or start layering books pretty soon! In the meantime, we love our new library. If anyone needs something to read while visiting us, they will have plenty of material to choose from: Fiction, Short Stories, Plays, Reference books (many in Spanish), Poetry, magazines and all kinds of other stuff.
This room is the reality of my life long dream, to have my own library that would rival the old Book Room we’d established in Sitiawan. Turns out, Vin has had the same dream of having a library too. So that worked out for us. 😉
