Wall to Wall

For as long as we have been married, Matt and I have dreamed of having a library, a room devoted ENTIRELY to books. Oh the visions we conjured up!

Of course, it was impossible to actually HAVE a library.

Our first house was about the size of a cheez-it.
Our second apartment was slightly bigger, with a second floor making it more like a graham cracker.
Twice we lived (for a month or two) in one room of Matt's parents' house while Matt was between jobs. (That would be crumb-sized)
Then we moved into what we deemed Mansion size, but we didn't own it and never would. Definitely sandwich-sized.
Then we moved HERE and realized what a real mansion size house is (for US, anyway) and we realized we had moved into SUB territory. (ANYONE HUNGRY?!?!)

Of course, we've been dirt poor but one thing we've learned is that dreaming is free.

The library in our mind has open admission and serves happy pills on silver platters by a chubby, rosey-cheeked, dimpled-smile librarian. It has floor to ceiling books on three of four sides, a large enough windowseat to sprawl even my very own crazy-long legs, library ladders that wheel and roll, and stained glass lamps.

Who knows, maybe someday these things really WILL happen for us. We still rent and we are still broke, but thanks to Matt's carpentry skills (and absolute refusal to buy storebought bookcases while simultaneously accumulating MORE books) the shelves got done...and after a year of living here I got to unpack the grown up books! Hurrah!

Here is the before picture:



And here it is after:



No chubby librarian (well, I am trying to lose some weight), books on two sides instead of three, no ladder and only ONE stained glass lamp: and yet: I never thought we would ever live in a house big enough to house a bonafide "library"!

So HEY! You never know.



It took forever and a day to get this room done but I take full blame. I realize if I hadn't felt compelled to sort books by subject AND author it might have all happened more smoothly.

What can I say? Sometimes my obsessive/compulsive tendencies rear their perfectly groomed, immaculate heads.

The very bottom shelf is all the too-tall for the other bookcase books for the children.

All other children books are here (with hard paged books on bottom for Miss Adele) :



I wish I could say this was ALL of our books but the truth is, we do have some old, storebought pressboard bookcases (gasp!) that we have had since we got married in our schoolroom for school books. And I have a bookcase Matt built in highschool in my craft room for craft books. And I have three piles of cookbooks awaiting a shelf built above the sink in the kitchen. And okay, there is a box of old Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew books in the attic awaiting the pre-teen years.

There I said it. HAPPY NOW?!?!?!

But MOST of our books are in the library. And look! There are still some empty spots!

ROOM to GROW~ miracle of miracles!



So there you have it. My newest "happy place".

(PS. As I was posting these pictures it occurred to me: all the furniture in this room was free except the desk on the right wall which cost $3.00 at an auction. The big computer desk? We found that lovely in one of the barns (and yes, the top looks awful but that will be remedied when...someday happens.) The chair was about to be thrown out (it is sturdy but the bottom cushion is all ripped. I will re-cover it...again, when someday happens. The bookcase was Matt's. The stand that the printer on was...on the side of the road. The bookcase with the letters on the sides...was also on the side of the road.

wow.

we really are cheap.