The Library - Part II

So after all the painting was done, we built the storage

 boxes from the parts we had finished in San Diego.

1) Clamp first side to top of box

2) Drill holes and screw the two together

3) Clamp and attach second side to the top

4) Clamp and attach back to the top

5) Attach the base to sides first, then back.

6) First box done!

7) Repeat twice for all three boxes

8) Attach the Extend-O-Legs (22"long pieces of 2x3" studs)

 to each leg of the ladders with two 1" steel plates

9) All three ladders done. At this point decide that you do not like the way 

the old 2x3s and the new 2x3s were such different colours... so:

10) Make a quick trip to Target and buy three pairs of knee high socks 

in two different patterns, stripey and argyle, and sock the Extend-O-Legs

 Add the boxes to each ladder and there it is!

Each box has wheels (with brakes!) so I can climb up on 

them to reach the topmost shelf.

The Library - Part I

So we have always hated the mint-greeniness of the spare room, (the one I optimistically call the library, but which ends up being a bedroom for some member(s) of my family for most of the year) and three weeks ago I finally got around to painting it.

Well, I finally got around to start to paint it. Unloading the books took a whole day - all 29 cubic feet of them - and moving all the furniture to the middle of the room took another (because I had to stop and sort the thousands of pieces of paper I unearthed in the process). 

Then in the middle of all this the doctors started sticking needles into me so that kind of put a crimp in my plans...

Anyway, in the middle of painting the room, we figured we might as well take advantage of the fact  that the bookshelves were empty and add some more shelves. We've been toying around with a plan to raise the bookshelves and add storage below them for a while now, but been too busy to do anything about it. So last Saturday we took ourselves down to San Diego and appropriated the backyard, garage and tools of a friend.

So after two days of sawing and sanding we finally had all the pieces we needed, so we went back home and I got back to painting.

Things I Learned: 

1) Covering mint-green walls needs two coats of primer and three coats of yellow.

2) If I actually watched the ads I would know that you can get paint with primer already added to it, so you only need to do the three coats of yellow.

3) When you live on the seventh floor, it's very disconcerting to find people walking along outside your windows (our building is being painted and there is scaffolding outside our flat)

4) Painting the top of a twelve foot wall high is scary - especially next to a window that looks down seven stories...

The Most Difficult Part Of A Wedding...

...is getting your guests to leave!

Filler

So, for my legions of fans who want to know why I haven't posted anything in the last three weeks, well the short answer is, I was asleep.

The long answer is complicated and involves a chemically induced haze for the first two weeks as my neurologist and pharmacist used me as a guinea pig. (Maybe What I Should Do Next is a comparison of various drugs and their side effects? hmm?)

In the last week I actually did something but I have no idea where the connector thing for my camera is and so can't put the pictures up.

So I'll post this instead:

also what I have been doing in the last three weeks...

Blinky Bugs.

Last weekend (or maybe the weekend before that? Time runs together a bit when you don't have a job) I was at Oktoberfest* with Evie and Rene and when I was leaving Evie presented me with a bag and told me that I was going to help her with the decorations for hallowe'en party that she was going to have for the kid.

In the bag was:

Evidently, because I made Paper flower boutonnières for the wedding I am now qualified to make cut-outs of ghosties and hang paper bats for a four-year-old's party.

After I had made sure that I didn't have to do this in the midst of fifteen four-year-olds I was fine with it.. not that I had a choice. Also, this way I could get rid of some of those thousands of LED's and dying batteries that I have post-wedding.

It helps if saturday morning is cold and rainy, and you have someone to bring you things that you discover you need halfway through something complicated (ie. needs both your hands) so that you can make bugs while you're all snug in bed.

Basically the bugs are two LEDs and a coin battery, with 'antennae' made from piano wire to complete the circuit. After you put those together you tart them up with pipecleaners, feathers and pompoms. 

Secretly we both had a lot of fun, and maybe one of these days we'll stop finding little bits of piano wire and tape in our bed... and the bugs turned out fine though in retrospect the one with six eyes was pushing it a bit.

* About Oktoberfest.. Does it seem pointless to anyone else? You wait in a queue to get in (unless you're like me and join a friend who has been waiting in a queue just as she gets to the front - that wasn't luck), then you wait in a queue to get beer, then you wait in a queue to get food, then you have to search for a place to get out of the way of all the frat boys and girls who can't hold their beer (their beer mind you!) and to add insult to injury, you have to do this all the while having your ears assaulted with the most ghastly polka music...

The Cookie Knows...

In Which I Find A Room

Saturday.

Beddinnabox!

We have a floor..!