Friday, May 10, 2013

More Bookshelves!

It's been over a month since my first house/bookshelf update, so I think it's about time for a follow-up. If you thought nothing else could possibly go wrong (like we did!), that is unfortunately not true. Not to be a Debbie downer, but owning a house can be a real bitch sometimes. Seriously. On the upside, our basement has stayed dry and the sewer has remained clear -- thank God for small miracles! But on the downside...

1. On multiple occasions I have heard the tell-tale buzz of a bee. Cue the panic, heart palpitations, and shrieking. Ugh. I hate bees. I really hate being the only one home to deal with a bee, but such are the hazards of working from home. I know they are good for the environment and all, but they do not belong in my house. They belong outside in the environment, not freaking the living daylights out of me because we are in enclosed quarters together. At least they're not honeybees so I guess I don't have to feel too bad about being a bee-killer.

2. The laundry room has proven to be even more of a disaster than we thought. Not only did we need to run a new hot water line and clean/repair mold damage, but when we went to replace the floor and pulled up the insulation underneath, we found roots and leaves mixed in with the insulation. If you're thinking that roots and leaves on the inside of a house is a bad thing, you would be correct. It is a very bad thing. Turns out the sill and one of the floor joists is rotten and the great outdoors just creeped it's way in. Two months ago, I didn't know what a sill was. Come to think of it, I kind of wish I still didn't! We're getting that fixed this weekend though so the wall doesn't just crumble or collapse on us one day. (I said it's a bitch, didn't I?)

3. And the latest thing we spotted was some mysterious roof damage. Our starting-to-get-old-but-is-totally-fine-for-now roof no longer seems to be totally fine. No leaks yet, but we want to get this figured out before that happens.

It really is amazing how a home in "average condition" with a few issues to be addressed can so quickly start falling apart. It's almost like the house knew the old owners wouldn't bother to fix anything so it held itself together as long as it could and now that we're here, it's breathing a sigh of relief and saying, "I can relax now, these new people will take care of me if I break!" OK now that I am anthropomorphizing my house, I think it's time to move on to the fun stuff...

Despite all this craziness, bookshelves just make me happy. My dad would like to build us some bookcases for the living room, but he's helping us with so many other things (::cough:: fixing the laundry room floor ::cough::), that it's not really on the horizon yet. But I still have a few new photos to share.

First, we have a second cookbook bookcase in the kitchen. Yes, I have more than one bookcase just for cookbooks. (You can see the first one here. I've shuffled things around a bit, but they are still both full.) Ironically, we are so busy with house stuff I am mostly making grilled cheese sandwiches these days, but hopefully some more adventurous recipes will be in my near future.


And then we have matching bookcases in the master bedroom we are using in place of nightstands. We came to this "design" decision for purely practical reasons. Do you have any idea how much nightstands cost at a halfway decent furniture store? Way. Too. Much. They are like half the price of a dresser, but with only a fraction of the storage space. So I asked myself, what do I really need a nightstand for? To hold a lamp, a box of tissues, a cup of water, and a book or two. So swap in short bookcases for nightstands and voila! They can hold all those things plus waaay more than just one or two books. Did I mention that bookcases make me happy?

Also, we really need curtains...

My husband's side has some of "his" books. The Nicholas Flamel series, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Septimus Heap, I Am Number Four, & various Rick Riordan books. Harry Potter and Dan Brown are only there temporarily, because those will definitely be in the living room someday. We'll probably swap those out for the original Percy Jackson series which my aunt is currently borrowing. 


Then there is my side: 


I've used the top shelf for (mostly) review books.


The rest of the top shelf and the entire bottom shelf is dedicated to the non-review books I currently want to read the most. The tip of the TBR iceberg, if you will. It's a mix of new releases, recent acquisitions, next-in-a-series, and books I've chosen for various challenges. My side will definitely get shuffled around a lot more than my husband's!


It may be a while before the rest of our books come out of boxes, but I'm really happy with what we have so far. I'm a little afraid to see how many more bookcases we will need -- by the time this is complete, I really may have my very own library!

14 comments:

  1. Oh dear, it sure looks like owning a house can be a real bitch. I hope things get sorted out soon!

    You have a lot of cookbooks! And your recipes seem to be organised and everything! (I'm judging by the folders.) I wait for the day I actually get to getting some folders and organising all the recipes around the kitchen... sigh.

    And that nightstand idea is wonderful. I might do that myself in future.

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    1. My recipes are fairly organized...what's not in the picture is the expanding file folder of jumbled up new recipes that haven't made it into the organized folders/binders yet, but most of my collection is in pretty good shape. Now if only I had more time to cook...

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  2. My nightstand on my side of the bed is also a bookcase! I keep books I'm currently reading on the top shelf in easy reach, but the bottom shelf holds my beloved series like Harry Potter. I hope things get settled down soon!

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    1. That's so cool! You're the first person I've heard of who has also done the bookcase/nightstand thing...I suppose I shouldn't be surprised it would be a fellow book blogger to have done the same thing!

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  3. I love your "tip of the TBR iceberg." I do sort of the same thing, with my list of books to check out from the library. I have my regular list (which is divided into categories that probably make sense only to me) and then I have my "short list." Sometimes books will cheat and leap directly onto the short list, but for the most part it keeps me organized. And I don't think anything's ever languished on the short list for more than six months or so.

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    1. My TBR pile is generally a total mess, so I'm hoping this new shelf will help me narrow in on what I want to read next. You sound very organized -- much more organized than me!

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  4. Eek, would've thought things were on their way to being sorted by now. Hope it's all done soon! I love the idea of bookcases instead of nightstands, what a brilliant idea.

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  5. Your cookbook bookcase is so pretty and organized!(I'm an organizing freak.) OMG, I LOVE the idea of using short bookcases as night stands, you are right, they don't come cheap. Your organization there is also amazing, great idea! Is it weird that I have never really seen a white bookcase? At least not in my house or my friends' houses. I LOVE it. For some reasons the books pop more than with my black one. Really I'm just salivating at all the great books that both you and your husband have on your shelves.

    I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you with that laundry room floor. I would have freaked out if I saw leaves and such IN my house. Oh and try not to worry about the bee. It will die or get out sooner or later. Although, the buzzing noise is just so taunting, that has always bothered me.

    Thanks for the wonderful pictures! You made my day.

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    1. I'm not the best at staying organized, but I do love de-cluttering, sorting, and figuring out the best way to store our various belongings in the new house. (One of the best things about this house is my awesome closet -- that was very fun to get organized, but what girl doesn't love a good clothes closet?!)

      I hadn't realized how uncommon a white bookcase is, but you are right that the books do pop and I like that. I wanted the room to remind me of the beach house we vacation at in the summer, so a blue and white theme seems to fit perfectly!

      I'm hoping a month from now, I'll have more good house news than bad. And I'm glad you liked the pictures :)

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  6. Oh my god. Bees. They are like ugh.
    So my parents go crazy and buys plants. They are EVERYWHERE outside and inside our home. And we know bees love plants. Every time I go home, I always see one, sometimes two HUGE bees, both the size of three quarters. When they head towards my direction, I run widely the other way, sometimes screaming in my mind while my dog looks at me funny. (It'll be nice if dogs can scare away bees right?)
    And my parents got me a HUGE six-shelf bookshelf yesterday and it's already filled up. Which is scary. But I wish they'll buy a bookshelf for my room, but my parents HATE that since they don't want me to read in night and stay in bed all morning. ):
    So yeah. I really envy your short bookshelf in your bedroom. ;D

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    1. O dear heavens, those bees sound even worse than mine! I would skip the part about screaming in my mind and just scream out loud -- I'm such a wuss when it comes to bugs!

      Yea...I could fill a 6 shelf bookcase easily as well! A little one really is nice in the bedroom though. I am known to stay up late reading though, so I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing!

      Thanks for visiting :)

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  7. Ah, sorry to hear you're still having issues with the house! Once you've got everything fixed up and the house just how you want it, I'm sure it'll feel worth it because you had to take those extra steps to make it 'yours'.
    I love the swapping of the bedside table for a little bookshelf.. Much better than a tiny (expensive) bedside table in my opinion. Plus it would be handy to organise to be read books and such just like you have.

    I love this little updates, it is like you're taking us on your journey with you. I look forward to more... Plus I just want to see more bookshelves :-P

    My Book Bubble

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    1. Thanks Jade! We're getting there... I've just added 2 more bookshelves, and still have boxes of books! Will have to see how much more progress is made before my next update :)

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I'd love to hear what you think :)