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Reassembling A Library

April 19, 2012

We have painted all 1200 feet of the walls downstairs and our contractor installed new molding, which we painted a color called “peach champagne” with some friends who came to help paint and drink bellinis.  Ron and Walker got the ten 16-foot pieces of molding into the basement through a window that hadn’t been opened in such a long time that opening it up broke it, so we’re getting the window glass replaced on Friday, and then we might be through with workers in the house for a while!  You can see our newly white walls and the peach-colored molding here.  The carpet was washed and treated (there’s no pad underneath).

Now we’re working on getting the shelves back against the walls. This means taking all the books off, moving the shelf, and then putting the books back on. The books were double and triple stacked when the water restoration people started yanking the shelves about and we started putting books in boxes, and some of the shelves were too damaged to be saved, so none of the books are in the right place, and we’re not worrying about that. If you look closely, you’ll see baseball books next to collections of 17th and 18th century literature next to 1950’s paperback science fiction.

 

In a few more weeks, after we get the rest of the shelves out of the middle of the room and against the walls with books in them, then we can start arranging (I mean playing with)(I mean reading) all the books.

21 Comments leave one →
  1. CSchu permalink
    April 19, 2012 9:20 am

    Looks fabulous! Can’t wait to see it. (I know you will like the way that it brightens up your basement.)

  2. April 19, 2012 9:49 am

    Yay for playing with books! Fun.

    • April 20, 2012 11:02 am

      Yes, and we’re getting to that part…soon…I hope!

  3. PAJ permalink
    April 19, 2012 1:03 pm

    Looking good, Jeanne. Wanna come work in my basement for a while? It’s more yucky that what you find behind/beneath your refrigerator.

    • April 20, 2012 11:03 am

      Wow. Because as we said the last time you helped us paint, what’s behind the refrigerator is something we let only our most intimate friends see!

  4. April 19, 2012 6:30 pm

    It all looks great…and now there will be some extra space on the shelves, too, right? Or were the culled book all in boxes? Also, I know you probably already explained this, but I’m curious – have you been able to put anything into place that will insure this can never happen again? Or is that simply not possible?

    • April 20, 2012 11:07 am

      There will not be extra space, because while only a few books were ruined, a couple of of the particleboard bookshelves (from IKEA) weren’t repairable. We’re thinking about getting a shelf specially sized to hold DVDs so we can reclaim the bookshelf all our movies are on.
      And yes, we installed a sump pump, since the city says they’re responsible for the storm drains twenty feet down the street, but not for the one in pieces at the bottom of our driveway.

  5. April 19, 2012 9:08 pm

    Sounds like you could drink your paint color!! I think it would be so fun to rearrange your library … thought not under the exact circumstances that forced you to do it.

    • April 20, 2012 11:08 am

      We did serve bellinis at the painting party. They were good, if I do say so myself.

  6. April 19, 2012 9:42 pm

    Wow. It’s looking good and I’m glad things are working out.

    To be honest, one of my favorite ways of dealing with major stress is to reorganize my books. It’s second to rearranging the furniture. My husband says that sanity is not my strong suit.

  7. April 20, 2012 11:09 am

    Well, we’ll hope that organizing the books is soothing, when we get to that part!

  8. April 20, 2012 1:32 pm

    Bellinis, what a wonderful way to celebrate your new library! It’s really coming together and it looks great!

  9. April 22, 2012 8:49 am

    It does look nicer down there. We gave away the Brio train table that always had a Playmobile scene set up on it, and the more of that we do, the easier it is to actually get to the books (we kept the Playmobile toys, though, in a plastic bin).

  10. April 23, 2012 2:51 pm

    Looking good!

    • April 23, 2012 7:04 pm

      Your May 11 arrival date is now our deadline for clearing out Eleanor’s room. At least part of the way!

  11. April 23, 2012 7:03 pm

    It looks awesome! Well done famille de non-necromancy! It sounds like the spinachy parts of the repair process are mostly done? And that you’re on to more fun stuff now?

    • April 23, 2012 7:20 pm

      We spent Sunday deciding what we could keep and what had to be tossed and taking the stuff we could keep back downstairs (from the garage). That was difficult, because we have pack rat tendencies. But we have not let too much of the junk go back downstairs, so being down there is getting more fun, and titles are starting to get put next to each other in our traditional game, started by my mother when she saw The Sound and the Fury As I Lay Dying side by side in the Hendrix College Library.

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