Apologies to any followers of this blog for a very long absence without posts. The renovation has been completely finished except for the large bookcase unit for the bedroom, where we encountered delays when the carpenter couldn't get it finished before an overseas vacation.
But, I am happy to report, he returned, the bookcase got built and painted, and on Friday they came to install it. Now that was an adventure in itself. The unit is quite tall and wide--about 84" by 60". They were able to get it inside the house and around the first turn from the main hallway to the kitchen hallway that leads to the addition. But then they were stumped. The foyer to the addition is in the shape of a T, with a short hall leading to the laundry room on the left and another short hall to the bedroom on the right. They got the bookcase to the long part of the T and sat it down. And then we all nervously appraised the angle it would need to turn to negotiate its way into the bedroom. There were five us present: three of the carpenter's men, my husband, and myself. Two of us (hubby Jon and one of the carpenters) thought the bookcase could make the turn. The other three of us shook our heads and said "no way."
Tape measures were produced and measurements taken. Various options were considered. We briefly thought about taking the bookcase back outside and bringing it in through one of the windows. A quick run of the tape measure over to the window made it clear that wouldn't work. We thought about installing it in our kitchen nook instead. But, dang it, we had a wall in the bedroom dedicated for a bookcase, and there's just something nice about having books in one's bedroom. So then the carpenters said they could take the book case back back to their shop, cut it in half, and then install it in pieces. I didn't really like that option, either, as we had been waiting so long for it.
In the mean time my hubby and the carpenter who thought it would fit had been fiddling with the tape measure, and they swore the bookcase could make the turn. So we decided to go for it, and after about ten tense minutes, sure enough, the bookcase made it in the room with about an 1/8th of an inch to spare.
The photo above shows how it looks. I keep my impressive "literary" books out in the bookcases in our living room, to show off for guests. ;-) So this bookcase gets my less-literary but much-loved books: my Robert Heinlein collection, every novel Stephen King ever wrote, Ed McBain's 87th precinct series, other science fiction, and Tom Clancy's thrillers. This new unit is huge; it easily handled the contents of the two smaller bookcases we had in our old bedroom with several empty shelves to grow on.
We had opted to go for a less expensive type of wood and have it painted to match the trim. It looks nice, but now I kind of wish that we had opted for a higher-grade wood to match the furniture. But given how much we went over budget on this project, it's probably just as well that we didn't.
And, best of all, I can now say that the renovation is finally and officially completed. :-)
I plan on writing one more post, a kind of wrap-up with final reflections on the process and, with any luck, containing a virtual tour of the space. Stay tuned.
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