Achievement Unlocked: Bookshelf Master!
Feb. 25th, 2011 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseCongratulations! You have reached Level 2 in Flatpack Constuction!
+2 to Spatial Orientation
+1 to Tool-Using Skills
+1 to Home Decorating
+1 to Interpretation
+5 to Creative Vocabulary
Those of you who knew us in Alaska and have come to visit us since we moved down here (ahem) may have noticed something missing from our new places. Specifically, the lovely oak double-bookshelves we had in our library at home, and the book collection they held.
Admittedly, we got rid of a lot of books when we moved, and I've been attempting to keep future acquisitions mostly restricted to the digital realm. But we are book-loving people, and getting rid of "a lot" still meant that we had several boxes' worth. (Sort of the way that if you subtract an infinite amount from another infinite amount you still have an infinite amount left over.) At the house in Sierra Vista, we tried putting some of them on wall-mounted shelves, but the weight was too much and the shelves bowed pretty badly in the middle, so eventually we gave that up.
All of this means we've been without proper bookshelves for a year and a half now, and our book collection has either been taking up floor space in the closet or (more recently) been sitting in boxes in the second bedroom. However, we finally have people coming to visit us here in Bisbee next month (double ahem), and I didn't want to make them sleep in Box World. (Mattress-On-The-Floor World still doesn't quite sit right, but budgetary restrictions mean I'll just have to deal with it.) So I finally broke down and bought some inexpensive Wal-Mart laminate flat-pack bookshelves. And with a couple of evenings' worth of effort, some wood glue to fix mistakes, some interpretation skills for the instructions, and some pretty unusual profanities, I even managed to put them together.
I still miss our oak bookshelves. But these [a] finally got our books out of the boxes and off of the floor, [b] fit in our somewhat limited budget, [c] were easy to haul up our windy little driveway in a compact sedan, and [d] actually look halfway decent. So I'm not going to knock them too harshly, even if I do fully expect to replace them with something better-quality just as soon as we have the spare cash.
+2 to Spatial Orientation
+1 to Tool-Using Skills
+1 to Home Decorating
+1 to Interpretation
+5 to Creative Vocabulary
Those of you who knew us in Alaska and have come to visit us since we moved down here (ahem) may have noticed something missing from our new places. Specifically, the lovely oak double-bookshelves we had in our library at home, and the book collection they held.
Admittedly, we got rid of a lot of books when we moved, and I've been attempting to keep future acquisitions mostly restricted to the digital realm. But we are book-loving people, and getting rid of "a lot" still meant that we had several boxes' worth. (Sort of the way that if you subtract an infinite amount from another infinite amount you still have an infinite amount left over.) At the house in Sierra Vista, we tried putting some of them on wall-mounted shelves, but the weight was too much and the shelves bowed pretty badly in the middle, so eventually we gave that up.
All of this means we've been without proper bookshelves for a year and a half now, and our book collection has either been taking up floor space in the closet or (more recently) been sitting in boxes in the second bedroom. However, we finally have people coming to visit us here in Bisbee next month (double ahem), and I didn't want to make them sleep in Box World. (Mattress-On-The-Floor World still doesn't quite sit right, but budgetary restrictions mean I'll just have to deal with it.) So I finally broke down and bought some inexpensive Wal-Mart laminate flat-pack bookshelves. And with a couple of evenings' worth of effort, some wood glue to fix mistakes, some interpretation skills for the instructions, and some pretty unusual profanities, I even managed to put them together.
I still miss our oak bookshelves. But these [a] finally got our books out of the boxes and off of the floor, [b] fit in our somewhat limited budget, [c] were easy to haul up our windy little driveway in a compact sedan, and [d] actually look halfway decent. So I'm not going to knock them too harshly, even if I do fully expect to replace them with something better-quality just as soon as we have the spare cash.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 07:27 am (UTC)You made him sad.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 07:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 12:03 pm (UTC)Mostly because I have a bunch of books and magazines (and other art references) and between myself and Jer there's a whole lot of dvd's with no shelving for them.
On the note of March 5th; let me know if you're still planning on being in Tucson that day. I can DM you my phone number if need be. It'd be good to at least hang out for a little while before the concert.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 03:45 pm (UTC)It looks like Monica's going to be flying in on the 6th, but we do have a friend in town we can stay overnight with (and I may well take you up on the concert idea, though I'm unsure as to whether it'll be Brian's thing or not). I'll send you my phone number too, I'd definitely like to hang out and catch up a bit.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 03:50 pm (UTC)The lunchbox is from the Fallout 3 Special Edition, I think. Brian has complained many a time about how, when he's already planning on buying something, if the marketers pack in a few extras and slap the words "Special Edition" on it he plonks down the additional cash like Pavlov's trained monkey.
Also, your comment reminds me of an article I read a while back, lamenting the popularity of e-readers and e-books because it meant the loss of the Public Book - the book you see someone reading and strike up a conversation over, or the books you see on a person's bookshelves that tell you things about their personality and tastes. I will admit that, as convenient as my e-collection is, it's not anywhere near as impressive or interesting to look at. But until we decide "okay, we're settling here for more than a year or three", it seems counterproductive to keep weighing ourselves down with dead tree matter...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 05:34 pm (UTC)And most of what I have upstairs right now is comic-related and the futon's in front of most of the booky-books. Suffice it to say anything sufficiently Neil-flavored is common ground. And Watchmen, natch. And America The Book, which is really required reading. May have to shuffle the furniture and see if I can't catch a glimpse of the library I never seem to partake of anymore....
As for special editions, the last one that really tempted me was The Sims 3 with the plumbbob Flash drive, and I've done very good holding off on others so far. But with Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim looming, I worry.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 06:01 pm (UTC)Skyrim does look pretty sweet. I'm hoping that we'll have our home theater put back together properly by the time it comes out, as much of the joy of Oblivion came from experiencing it in that kind of immersive environment, and this looks (if anything) even more so.
Also, if you want to outsource your library-building, I happen to know someone with skills in the arena of bookcase-building, book-organization, and aesthetic arrangement...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 03:52 pm (UTC)You Know What I Think?
Date: 2011-02-25 05:47 pm (UTC)PS I love how you write - your description of putting these together was perfect!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 07:22 pm (UTC)Excitement!
Date: 2011-04-19 12:06 am (UTC)Re: Excitement!
Date: 2011-04-19 01:04 am (UTC)Welcome, wayward Internet stranger. What brings you here?