In the Library

  • Blog,  Extensions,  Extensions - Renovating,  In the Library

    Library Reveal

    Last Sunday on Mother’s Day I was crowned ‘Queen for the Day’ and my family gave this book loving girl an absolutely fantastic gift! All day they carried, dusted and sorted the seven thousand books that were scattered throughout the house, into our new library and created our now favourite room. Without further ado, let’s take a tour..  I’m now most likely to be found in the library soaking in the atmosphere, blessed, so very blessed. There is still book organising to complete, seating to purchase and picture book display shelves to build, small details, I’ll potter along. Simply ecstatic with with our space. A huge thank you to my family, in particular to…

  • Blog,  Extensions,  Extensions - Flooring,  Extensions - Renovating,  In the Library

    Library Ready And Waiting

      Once our library floor had been laid it was time to turn our focus to sanding and polyurethane-ing the floor, therefore last weekend we hired a sander and began our first foray into finishing a floor. After PC ran the industrial sander over the floor a few times; Michelangelo, Princess and PC puttied all the nail holes. When we laid the floor we had secret nailed but as our timber was recycled it contained many previous holes. As our flooring was recycled it came complete with ready made ‘character’ in that they had been worn unevenly across their surface in their past life in a classroom.  To keep some of this character we…

  • Blog,  Extensions,  Extensions - Flooring,  Extensions - Renovating,  In the Library

    Library Floor Has New Look

    Two weekends ago we began preparations for laying the flooring in our new library. As I’ve shared previously our timber is second hand timber, stored for several years from when we salvaged all the timber from a two storey Convent school prior to demolition. First task is to clean the floorboards from decades of dirt, accumulated as they sat under carpet being tramped over by hundreds of feet. PC set up a ‘cleaning station’, wherein each board was placed in a ‘slot’, the ‘criss-cross’ saws were run along the groove of each board pushing out the dirt, sometimes the tongues needed cleaning too. For two days the children worked tirelessly carrying the boards from the…

  • Blog,  Extensions,  Extensions - Flooring,  Extensions - Renovating,  In the Library

    Library Receives Its Makeover

    Once we’d completed sheeting and plastering our new library walls, next task up was painting. It’s currently school holidays here in NSW so this was a task the children and I could tackle mid-week. Jem (7) was keen to help, so once I’d given him a few basic tips on how to ‘cut in’ the bottom edge of the walls he was ready to go.  Jelly Bean’s (11) job was to ‘feather’ his edges. Princess(14) helped roll the undercoat on the walls and Michelangelo (16) rolled the ceiling on his own.  In fact he rolled not only the undercoat but both the topcoats too, there are advantages when your children are taller…

  • Blog,  Extensions,  Extensions - Gyprocking,  Extensions - Plastering/Painting,  Extensions - Renovating,  In the Library

    Our Library Taking Shape

    Building work has continued here over the past few weeks. After gutting much of our ‘old’ house and building new walls, we then turned our attention to building and completing our new library. First we installed the insulation, a necessity in the hot summer months of Australia and also appreciated in the winter. Purchasing insulation by the roll allows us to measure and cut specifically for the differing spaces as you can see on the left. Once the insulation is in, the gyrock/drywall is cut, glued and screwed on. Some of the sheets are so huge it takes help from all to lift and hold in place until the screws are…

  • Blog,  In the Library

    What To Do With The Picture Books?

    Last week I finally tackled the toppling piles of books in our library which had been accumulating for months. Once I accepted I couldn’t fit all those books onto the shelves, I began a ruthless cull, tossing books that I had considered treasures yet no-one else did. Thirteen boxes of books departed the house making one friend extremely happy and liberating me to enjoy actually having space on my shelves!:) The culling still didn’t enable all the books to fit onto the shelves, but pulling all the picture books out of their bookcase did. For so long I haven’t been happy with having the picture books in a bookcase, I felt that…

  • Blog,  Book Chat,  Family,  In the Library

    Library Opening Day Finally Arrives!

    Finally “No more sleeps”, the long awaited day arrived yesterday.  Our town’s brand new library is open.  Jelly Bean and Jem had the distinction of being the first members of the public through the doors too! With the other children following closely. We immediately headed to the children’s section.  Light, spacious and inviting.  No longer will I have to whisper a story, concerned that noise will carry downstairs like it did in the old library, for a few years now I’ve been reserving online as visiting the library was too stressful with little boys and their noise.  I can easily see us relaxing in this space, so excited! At the…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health,  In the Library

    Book Close Up – Aussie Bookcase

    Interestingly, whenever I share pictures of our library here on my blog the comments roll in thick and fast, therefore I have to assume that the majority of you aren’t thinking, “Oh no, not another book post” as one reader informed me, “I flick through your book posts, I’m not interested.” Recently Jeanne begged and begged for close up pictures of my bookshelves, so dedicating this post to Jeanne, my friend I assumed it was Australian books you wished to see. The following post is picture heavy so you just may want to click away if all things books send you to sleep. Beginning on the bottom shelf of our…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health,  In the Library

    A Bibliophile Declares, Perfect:)

    Recently I realised that our library pics are outdated and blurry.  Thought I’d treat you to a tour of one of the most popular rooms in our house. From the door looking in, it’s rare to find the room empty. The first three bookcases running along the left are; Australian, Childen’s Faith and History.  The three shelves above are;  Australian and Adult Faith books. Walking immediately forward and standing in the far left corner, I manage to not overexpose this shot. The bookcases on the left of this corner are series; girls, boys, mysteries, literature sets, favourite authors, early readers, nature and science and school texts.  Along the top is…