Home Library Begins

I've promised photos for a while. Well, I've been done with the floor in the library for a while, but haven't had any time to tell you about it.

Our new house was built in 1959 and fortunately for us has wonderful hardwood floors under... patina, I guess to put it kindly. Carpet, pad, staples, carpet tack strips, random nails, screws, paint, mystery stuff, etc., etc.

So, the floors are done. Now I need to paint still and I'm also waiting on a carpenter to get freed up. I like to think I'm pretty handy, but this is my very own home library. I'm not leaving my future happiness up to my "sufficient" wood skills. Sufficient is being kind. I can knock together a compost box (check!), and as these photos demonstrate strip a floor down so it can shine.

I have a plan of what I'd like, but I want to talk to a pro. But, it's a crazy boom time in eastern Montana, so getting someone available is tough.

Anyway, some explanation in the photos, the "done" ones are of the library, the earlier ones are of another room, but it all looked about the same.

So, my apologies while things are under construction.

In book news, I've recently acquired a typically pricey tome for a nonce which I hope to translate into another Legacy Library over at LibraryThing. Have you seen the revamped Legacy Library page? It's fantastic! Go, visit and enjoy.

If you're not familiar with the Legacy Library Project on LibraryThing, the idea is to take the best resources we can tackle and digitally reconstruct the personal libraries of famous (and infamous) people in history. There's

Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Jefferson (and nearly all the founding fathers!), Marie Antoinette, the collection of books from the HMS Beagle when Darwin was on board, ee cummings, Emily Dickinson, and even the fictional Roger Mifflin, the bookseller of Parnassus on Wheels.

As of this writing there are 809 entries on the LL project. Now, not all of these are completed, but we're working on them all the time, and new libraries are finished nearly every week.

So, while I work building my physical library, maybe it's time you started cataloging your books on LibraryThing. If you have more than 200 books, get the lifetime membership for only $25. Having an accurate catalog is a bibliophile's dream, and it's the best money I've ever spent on my book collection.

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Still moving.... and books!

It's been so long, I sometimes forget-- briefly. It's been nearly a year and technically I'm still in the process of moving. At the end of May last year, I posted about taking a new job in Montana. Because of housing shortages the Mrs. and I have been staying with her parents. Did I mention the housing shortage? Housing prices have comfortably doubled in the past five years in our part of Montana due to western North Dakota's oil boom. We also have a "people willing to work" shortage as well. Many two income families only need to be one income families now, almost none of the city's youth work-- and there is no housing, so only the very determined (or desperate) have come to fill the open jobs. For example: It's hard to get a meal after 7pm when some of the restaurants close for lack of workforce. The newspapers are full of open jobs-- not just in the oil patch, but all kinds of jobs.

So, if you know of people in dire straights when it comes to work (I know many parts of the rest of the country are hurting badly), get yourself to Sidney, Montana. Bring a camper. Rented campers are currently running around $200/ mo./ person. *CAMPERS*. And bring warm clothes. Our first snow and last snow were 7 months apart.

In 8 months of searching we were shown 4 houses. One was already sold when we saw it. This was with a realtor working on our behalf, but also every other person we came into contact with. And my wife's a local, which can help in a small town. Finally in February, we were the fastest ones, and we found the house we wanted. But, with 5 kids, the family we're buying from was waiting until the end of school to move--- so, we've been waiting as patiently as we can, and for the first time in ages, I cricled the end of the school year. And it's finally getting closer.

So, what does this have to do with book collecting? I'm building a library in my new house. My application for home library has been approved by the home-governing council (i.e. The Mrs.), so my posts will likely lean that way in the coming weeks as I debate layout, styles, colors, furniture, etc.

Our house is nothing opulent, but nice and normal and I think installing a home library in a 1961 ranch house will be of interest to some. I'm so excited I have to remind myself it won't be like Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford, but it will be my very own, and that's the best part of all.

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