Office remodel (almost) complete
I'm really glad Mark decided
to make office shelving units rather than purchasing them new. Between
the lumber and paint, I figure one large and one small bookcase cost
right around $100. I call that cheap for two large pieces of furniture
that are color-coordinated and hefty too.
Hopefully Mark will
still think they're beautiful in a decade despite his ever-improving
skills. I know I'll continue to love them, but I'm an easy sell.
Moving my books and
office supplies back in was a slightly more bittersweet experience. I'd
already expunged over half of my clutter, but I found during the six
weeks I spent with the rest piled out of reach that I really only
missed 10% of what remained. Still, I put it all back anyway, not quite
brave enough to delete items I rarely look at but might need...someday.
The good news is, everything is now within easy reach and is instantly
accessible.
Mark asked what I wanted
to do with the wall space above the longer bookcase. "More shelves?" he
suggested.
Unfortunately, I've
found that stuff expands to fill the space allotted to it, so I decided
to go for something pretty instead --- a fish tank turned aquaponics
setup. Yes, I know I've
poo-pooed the sustainability of aquaponics in the past, but I originally just
wanted to put in a fish tank for pure soothing inspiration. If I'm
already committing to feeding ornamental fish and heating their water,
suddenly aquaponics made more sense.
So I used my Christmas
money from Rose Nell and Jayne (thank you two so much --- you rock!) to
order a premade unit that hopefully won't drip
onto the books below. Stay tuned for talk of ammonia, cycling, and
other technical terms once my present comes in the mail.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Making bookshelves yourself means you can customize them to whatever space you have. When I first moved into my place, the first thing I did was make three (3) ceiling to floor bookshelves to house my 300 books (down somewhat now but still very large collection). There was no way I could've possibly have bought something to fit those spaces. One bookshelf is nine (9) feet high!
While driving home from a friend's house, I passed a house that had bookshelves and other items on their lawn near the road with a sign "Free!". Of course I stopped and grabbed the bookshelves and a folding chair as well. The bookshelves I later turned into a small chest to house my DVD and CD collection.