We are about to renew our lease for another three years and decided it was time to make a few changes.
Coincidentally, it is around the time of our birthdays too.
So when my partner insisted I say what I wanted this year, my response was none of the typical stuff…
No sirree! What did I want? What did I really want?
Bookshelves…
Yup! No namby pamby princess-y stuff for me! Bring on the power tools and make me a couple bookshelves!
And sure enough, just in the nick of time, we have SHELVES!
So… here for your visual enjoyment (not auditory assault) are a few pics of the work in progress on the new 2nd bookcase for the living room…
- Naturally it isn’t so simple as popping over to a store and buying ready-made shelves…
- Nor is it pulling out your own power tools & buying lumber to make…
- Nope! We had three guys measure, saw, pound, sand, varnish and drill away all day to build our lovely new bookcase!
From blank wall, to empty bookshelf, to the initial stages of adding a ‘few’ CDs… hmm… this is beginning to look more like a CD and not a BOOK-case!
Let’s see if the newbie becomes as famous as the original which graced the front page of the Times of India last year.
Hanif Kureishi on the 1st page of the TOI
So delighted with our new book / CD / whatever…. shelves!
And for those of you still enjoying the biggest dress up day of the year – Happy Hallowe’en!!
Twin bookshelves – famous (left) + newbie (right)
Anyone else get a super cool fabulously useful birthday prezzie?
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Everyday Asia 
I love the bookshelves. And, sorry Mr Kureishi, I’m more interested in the photo of the men building the bookcase than in the photo of the famous author!
Haha! These gents aren’t exactly fine specimens of manhood but were cheerfully up for the challenge presented by my partner to make a bookshelf miracle happen in a few hours! 🙂
Happy Birthday 🙂
Thank you! Was good fun – in slow mo clean up mode now. 😉
Take your time – you’re allowed to have Birthweek; I always do 🙂
Hey I like that – a whole week to be indulged! 😉
One of my best presents a couple of years ago was my ipad. Use it almost every day! Happy birthday!
That’s what Denzil got early from me this year – except its the new iPad Air 🙂
And thank you!! Hugs!
Bookshelves keep things organized and they minimize clutter. I’m a big fan!
You would be 😉
Let’s just say it was the creeping clutter that prompted the new bookcase… and it filled up with just what was below and above and crammed in the original.
My father, naturally, reminded me I still have about 30-40 boxes (reduced from approx 70) of books still stored in their crawl space… one of these years I’ll either need to permanently part ways or ship and store in India somewhere.
I dream of having a big home library….
Yes, I’d love that too! My room in Ireland is still full of stuff as well – I’m always saying I’ll clear it out ‘some day’ 😉
Haha! I can just imagine your ‘some day’ is a bit like ‘somewhere over the rainbow…’
About a decade ago, the boxes went from the basement to a completely outta the way crawl space beneath the kitchen addition.
Which kinda leads to ‘outta sight, outta mind’ plus as the space isn’t heated the thought of even attempting to tackle anytime other than summer is brrrr!!!
I can understand that! And yes you’re right about my some day 😉
One of the most liberating things when I became a newly single woman was to find that I no longer had to nag for 6 months if I wanted shelves putting up. Instead I could simply pay someone to come to the house and do it for me, and get it done straight away.
Haha! Congrats on that! Yes I remember my newly single woman days – hugely liberating and absolutely loved being accountable to no one but myself. 😉
However with the right partner, ah…. ‘coupledom’ can be bliss too! (Including bookshelves being made on a mere suggestion 😉 )
🙂 Must have bookshelves! We moved almost 7 years ago, but our books were in boxes in the attic for at least 4 of those years, until my husband finally built bookshelves in our bonus room/office. So great!
Bookshelves are the best! I didn’t show pics but also had another smaller bookcase made for our ‘bonus’/office/music/guest room. Made a huge difference in helping me organise the explosion of papers for wrestling with tax filings in multiple countries! 🙂