Finally I can reveal our library!

Katie and I have been working on our house a room at a time. For this post, I want to share the library. It's the only room that's completely done. With just the two of us, we didn't need a formal dining room, so we made that room into a library. With all the books we have, we needed to shelve them somewhere, too.

About 2 years ago, when my daughter and her crew were vacationing here with us, we went to IKEA. She had rented a long van — first to keep the family comfortable during the long trip, then to bring back the short and tall shelves we would be buying at  IKEA. Our small car would never have been able to accommodate all of what we intended to purchase and still be able to close the hatch. Katie and I had never been to IKEA before, and my daughter and her husband enjoy going there. IKEA in Charlotte, NC is about a 3.5 to 4-hour drive from our home. Some of the kids stayed behind, because they would have whined the whole time if they came. Lucky us. Video games. Need I say more?

We had a great time at IKEA, and thought about what else might be useful as we worked our way through the store. There are plenty of ideas for every single room in a house.

So...the shelving sat. And, it sat. It sat some more.

Finally, we painted the library! We did plenty of preparation, like we removed the baseboard behind where the shelves were to go and taped other baseboard so painting would be easy. Katie did the high and low painting — near the ceiling on a ladder and near the floor sometimes on her knees — because my knees are shot. I used the extension to get up high and down low with a roller. It worked out well for the both of us.

Soon after the paint was dry, we built the shelves and put them into place. I filled the shelves with books until we realized we didn't have enough shelves. All the books would fit except for our personal reading material. Sooo...

Katie petitioned some friends from school to see if anyone would be available to meet us at IKEA. We would be away at a conference near Charlotte, and rather than come home and then go out again, we wanted someone to meet us there. This time, we only needed tall shelving. Friend, Melba, with a big SUV, was game. We owe her so much. The meet-up and shopping went smoothly. We didn't get home until late, then she had a ways to drive home. We sure appreciated her help.

I rearranged books for a good long time. I think we still need more shelves, but there is no more room in the library. We need to read a bunch in order to get more space.

In the meantime, a friend of ours changed out the chandelier and we bought a rug for the space. We haven't yet had the settee reupholstered or the coffee table painted. Soon, I hope.


So, here it is. The library:

The short wall separates the dining room from the living room.

This was a fun wall to put together. Katie's books occupy the first two shelves from the left.

Here are a few close-ups of some of the elements:

Two kaleidoscopes.

Small bookcases for small books.

A blackboard eraser holds the two postcards, and a frog holds the fish card.

These items were collected for a long time. I had some of these elements in another house.

Dice ashtrays that I've had for years. They're special now that they're under glass!

There are many birds in this area. You can find some if you look.

That's a tiny original oil painting in the center top of the photo.

I knew I needed her for our library!

Love my globes. I hope to find a medium-sized one someday. There is also a working clock.

 

There are more than books to collect and display: an old View-Master, some clocks and skates.

Here are the children's books.

Now we continue to the window that looks out onto the front yard:

Some of my books are to the right of the window. The rest are in the hall to the bedrooms.

This is my grandfather's chair. It is well-padded with quilts and faces out to accommodate the kitties. There are also leaded glass art objects hanging up inside the curtain.

I'm going to stop now and show you the last wall next week. There will also be a living room teaser! So, stay tuned!

Showing off with: 
Share Your Style #159
Talk of the Town #112 
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #304
DIY Salvaged Junk Projects 417 
Snickerdoodle Create, Bake, Make Link Party No. 221 

From books to shelves and from clocks to skates ... and everything in between ...

Ridin' the Ridge — Spring Ridge, SC, that is!

Donna picked my wife, Katie, and I up from our motel in Aiken for a day of junkin', antiquin' and yard salin' fun.

Wooden nautilus

Our first stop on our way to Spring Ridge was a yard sale. I purchased only one specimen, which was a wooden nautilus. I thought this was kind of interesting.

We visited three places in Spring Ridge. The first place was Stuff & Things. This store was of the junkin' fun kind. Three full store fronts of nothing but Stuff...Stuff and Things, to be exact. There was no organization, and we had to look at everything. I looked slower than Donna and Katie, but I eventually caught up with them. I found quite a few nice goodies.

Stuff & Things

This photo doesn't do the store justice. It is so much more than this one dinky store front!

Leather baby shoes

Pink booties

I have to figure out how to remove the splotches on that left bootie. My own personal green organza booties have the same kinds of stains. Getting the stains out would make me very happy. Maybe someone can help?

Madonna

I found a Madonna for Katie. She was looking too fast. Good thing I was looking slow!

A basket of shells

Katie found a basket of shells. There were a nice variety. Even though we live near the beach, we don't find very good specimens, so this was a nice catch {snicker, snicker}. 

book

There was even a large selection of books. This is where I cut my time and finally caught up with my cohorts. I'm glad to have found this one, single, lone book. Truth is, I could have spent much more time in the book department, but I fell too far behind. Don't pay too much attention to my reading selection {heh heh}.


The second store we visited was Olde Treasure Antiques.

Olde Treasures

All I have of this store is the scanned-in business card. I guess Katie and I didn't purchase anything here. I may have my photos confused with the other stores we did visit.

YSS Antiques WAS in Spring Ridge and in close proximity to the others we visited.

YSS in the third store we visited. We found three white objects and a piece of wooden architecture.

Medical glove-making form

I have been wanting one of these for forever, it seems. I've always passed them up due to price, but this one was more affordable or I had more money to spend. I'm not sure which!

Madonna

This makes number two for this town!

Madonna planter

And, this makes number three for this town! Katie has been collecting for awhile, and she has amassed quite a few.

Architectural element

Isn't this gorgeous. If I didn't get it, Donna would have. Good thing I was a little bit quicker than she was on this. It's about 18" wide and about 2" thick. It's pretty heavy, and I love it. I don't know where it will end up. It will go above one door, but we don't know which one.

Ridge Antiques

Ridge Antiques was the last store to visit in Spring Ridge, and we found some nice goodies.

Old-fashioned goose neck lamp

I will be using this lamp to read in the bedroom while the Missus is sleeping. The shade has a lovely detail to it.

Wooden apple and pear

I have a nice collection of fruits and vegetables for the kitchen, and these will be added to it.

Roller skates

Look what we have here! A pair of roller skates that would be attached to the shoe. I had a pair similar to this. I still have my skate key, but it can't be used on this pair. Time to look for another key!

This concludes the stores we visited and the goods we purchased, but our trip was by no means over. Donna had a treat for us.

Peaches and Such

Lunch at Peaches and Such! We all had a sandwich, and for dessert, it was Peach ice cream all around. Peaches and Such also had jams and jellies for sale. These are some of the funnies they offered:

Traffic Jam

Frog Jam (Fig, Raspberry, Orange, Grape) and Moonshine Jelly

Toe Jam (Tangerine, Orange, Elderberry)

Those were some of the funnier jams and jellies. This is what we actually purchased to bring home:

Scuppernong is a grape.

The peaches were grown next door in the orchards. It was neat watching them grow.

And, that concluded our ride to the Ridge and back. Oh! One more photo:

The cargo hold was full.

Donna was good at filling up what we didn't. I think ours is the little pile all the way to the right. Donna has a couple of booths at Riverfront  Antique Mall in North Augusta, so she's always on the lookout for goods. We were on the lookout because we want to decorate our house!

Fun was had by all. I want to ride the Ridge again some day.

From NC to SC ... and everything in between...