  Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net |
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17 March 2007
Project Library, Part 3
 Two more down.Friday afternoon I phoned Ikea, and the extra shelves that we needed for the pair of bookcases we had earmarked for the paperbacks were not back in stock yet. Things that are out of stock for a while like that make me nervous, especially when you have begun a project in a certain color and are going to keep needing that color until you finish. What if the beech-color bookcases were on their way out? It would look terrible if we had to buy the four other bookcases in another color. I phoned James and asked him if he wanted to have supper at Ikea. So it was chicken marsala again before going downstairs and picking up the remainder of the bookcases. One is not really expensive. Four are a bit of sticker shock. But now we're done buying bookcases. Having nowhere to put them last night, we just stacked everything in the hall. Tonight, after supper, we did the two paperback bookcases, even if we didn't have the shelves. What happened is I "cannibalized" two of the shelves meant for James' paperback bookcase for mine. Mine are now all out of the smaller bookcase I built and re-shelved. James used the two shelves that were left and shelved books he had left in one Xerox paper box and some fiction novels that he had finished that were upstairs. The rest can stay in the other set of bookshelves that I built that are in the "bay" between bookcases for now, and we'll keep watching Ikea. If it gets to the point that they don't get the beech-finish extra shelves in and we get fed up, we can always buy birch shelves, which are just a shade off. Since the shelving will be in the back, it won't be that noticable. It was after ten when we finished, so we figured we will do the rest tomorrow. We also re-hung the wire shelving in the garage that collapsed, recounted in the March 7 post. We added more hooks, including installing a couple upside down so the shelf couldn't pop up and out. We also distributed the weight of the boxes a bit better. Hope that works out. Labels: books, bookshelves, Ikea, storage  24 February 2007
"Ding, Dong, the Oak is Dead..."
Upon rising this morning, we got the two dark bookcases and one of the oak-finish bookcases into the truck bed. Unfortunately the second oak bookcase would not fit, so I popped the hatch on the car, folded down my back seats and the passenger front seat. The other oak case just fit in the body of the car, although we couldn't latch the hatch. James and I bungee-corded it in, and I bungee'd the door to the latch and we wended our way to Goodwill. Watching the hatch door in the rear view mirror was a quick lesson in aerodynamics; as I speeded up it rose, as I braked at stop signs, it lowered.And so the oak monstrosities are gone. James gathered his models and trucked (literally <g>) to the IMPS meeting. I backed my car out into the driveway and swept out the garage, which hadn't been done since last fall. Since I was out there anyway, I also got out the Ortho and sprayed around the garage doors and also right at the foot of the steps where we had the ants running last August. I'm not taking any chances with the little buggers. When that was finished I had a WallyWorld trip, since I was out of oatmeal and yogurt. Got a few other groceries we needed. I can't seem to get out of WallyWorld for under $50 most times. $51 today. Back at the house, I assembled the record stand I had bought a month ago at Linens'n'Things. At some point I will get the Crosley phonograph so I can play Mom's 78s, but right now all I can budget is a stand. I am going to put James' records in it. I want the stand that is $20 more, since it has a shelf for my 45s (it's linked here). When we get the Crosley I will either put it downstairs, or put the stereo-phonograph I have downstairs; then James can play his records when he's modeling. (I should get rid of a few of my LPs. I have bought all the George Winston LPs I have on CD as well, so I could play them at work.) So tonight we made a quick stop at the Borders in Buckhead (man, and I thought we had trouble driving through Buckhead years ago; the traffic is even worst now, with all of the upscale restaurants and bars). James finally found "Launch" magazine, which is only being sold at selected Borders; the Buckhead store is the largest in the area. I found a very interesting book called Huck's Raft, a sociological study of American childhood. Then we went to Ikea for supper—I'm very fond of their chicken marsala—and we bought two more Billy bookcases. They're now downstairs waiting to be assembled. (Ikea also had some little scatter rugs for $2. We bought one for Willow, who is very reluctant to stay downstairs with James when he models; she wants desperately to be with him, but she also is upset when "the pack" is not together. We have put the scatter rug in her crate so it will get her scent on it, and then we'll put it downstairs. Maybe it will make her more comfortable. Also, in the scratch'n'dent room, we found a little plastic dog food bowl in lime green for twenty cents. This can go in the car with the free Lassie bowl we got last year and these can be Willow's bowls when we go traveling.) [11:20 p.m. Bookshelves are up. Took us an hour and fifteen minutes, maybe a few minutes more. Did make one boo-boo. The bottom shelf on one case is backwards, with the raw side out. Unfortunately we didn't notice it until everything was hammered together (the back nailed on and all that). Hm. Delta Apple Barrel Gloss has a similar brown. Maybe I can cover it up with my trusty paintbrush, or at least make it less noticeable. It doesn't make any difference to the strength of the unit, it's just an esthetic thing. Oh, here's the stand, Emma.] Labels: books, bookshelves, dogs, Ikea, records |
