So, all of my books and all of my toys have to come down. I started with the Wall of Voodoo. You can read about that here. It was weird to see that shelf empty, even though it has been in place less than a year.
Then I took all of the toys off my main shelves and packed them as carefully as I could into banker's boxes.
I tried to pack as safely as I could. Even if something doesn't break while it's in a box, it can bend. Staffs or arms aren't as neat looking when the plastic they're made of has taken an all new shape because of the pressure put upon it inside of a box it was kept in for a few weeks.
Then I took the books down one shelf at a time.
So, the den grew empty, and my daughter's empty room upstairs grew full.
Now it was finally time to move the bookshelves themselves. I unscrewed the anchors that attached them to the walls, and pulled them forward.
But I couldn't figure out how to get them out. They have two extensions on top that make them very tall. The bookshelves come within a few centimeters of the ceiling. Somehow I tipped them up into their positions, but it doesn't seem possible to tip them back down...at least not without scraping big divots into the ceiling.
I remember it being nearly impossible to get them in, and I really didn't want to try getting them out. I've been grumbling about this since the very first time my wife suggested that we should redo our floors.
My wife came up with the idea to see if the installers can work around them. Maybe they could rip up half the floor on the one side of the room, then push the bookshelves over to the other side, and rip up the floors beneath where they were.
It was a weekend, though, and the floor place wasn't open to call them, so while we waited, we pushed the bookshelves into a new configuration that my wife wanted to try out.
She's been suggesting for a while that we should wrap the bookcases around the corner and continue them on the wall where my desk usually is. We pushed them into place, and really like the way it looked.
She really wants to go all in, and make them look like they're built in bookshelves...which I suppose they kind of will be once we put trim on them that seals them in. That could look really nice, though, if we ever move out of here, we'd probably have to leave the shelves behind.
Might be better to buy all new ones than to try to get these ones out of there though. That seems like an impossible task. The floor guys, when we finally got a hold of them, said we could leave the bookshelves in place. They could slide them to one side, remove the flooring from that half, then slide them to the other side for the other half. So, I'm happy to say that I am done, and ready for the floor demolition that is on its way later this week.
It's sad to sit in my den the way it is now, though. It's always been my special place to spend time. It has my computer, and even better, my glorious book/toy shelves. Now it's a shell of its former self. How long will it take to return it to its former glory? Hopefully not too long.
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