If you subscribe to my newsletter, you might remember that in October’s newsletter I had a few photos of a building project. I may have also mentioned it in passing in a blog post at some stage. (Pizza for anyone who actually does remember! 😛 )
For those who don’t remember/don’t subscribe the photos were of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that we were building on the eastern wall of our lounge room.
Bookshelves are great, because they hold books. The more bookshelves, the more books you can have. Big houses are also great, because they hold more bookshelves. And more bookshelves means more books. (Aside from the fact that big houses also hold enough beds and food for big families but pfft anyway, that’s beside the point. XD)
After a month of working on this bookshelf, we are very proud to say that the project is finished and we have a huge wall of bookshelf. And even better, there’s a door in the wall, which means you can walk through the bookshelf.
I haven’t worked out the mechanics of having a secret door with a book as the handle, but maybe one day. 😉
It was a huge project but it was also a heap of fun, going to the warehouse to look at the timber, staining the timber once it was here, sawing, drilling, painting, screwing, holding. Everyone took part (though the biggest lump of credit goes to my dad for designing and buying and working every day from 8 to 6) and worked together to build this super amazing bookshelf.
After we finished the shelves themselves (haha! Rhyme!) my mum spent days sorting out all the books. One side of the door is all Australian books, the other side has historical books all in chronological order. There are shelves of biographies, certain authors, picture books. It’s all very ordered and it looks so amazing.
Something that happened on a couple of days during the work was that sometimes it just looked like we were getting nowhere. My dad would work all day and by bedtime the wall looked basically the same as it did in the morning.
I think life is like that sometimes. I try my hardest to be Christ-glorifying, selfless, servant-hearted. But at the end of the day I feel discouraged. I feel like I wasted all that effort because I have ‘nothing’ to show for it.
But the thing was, that the next day on building the bookshelf so. much. changed. The ‘changeless’ day before it was leading up to a big step, preparing for it.
Same with my life. If I didn’t have those days I wouldn’t be ready for the days packed full of opportunity to show God’s love and grace. If I didn’t have those days to prepare me, strengthen me, build me up so I was ready, I would get caught unprepared and glorious opportunities would go to waste.
I just need to trust that God always has a reason for everything. The good days, the tough days, the days of chaos busyness, the days of rest. I just need to trust.
Anyways. That was my completely random thoughts. To finish up, I put together this trailer styled video so you can all have an inside look at what building this bookshelf was like. I only had photos to work with and a fairly average program to do it in, so I’m personally quite pleased with how it turned out. 😛
Let’s chat! Does your family own a lot of books? Have you ever done a big project with your family or friends? How do you order your bookshelves? (Personally I’m a bit mix-and-match with my shelves 😛 )
That is so cool!!! I wants one. Or a dozen.
It is my preciousss. xP It is really cool to be able to stand right next to it and just see allll the books.
Haha, my parents need one of those wall bookshelves. We have half a million books that are spilling out of bookshelves and boxes all over the blooming house…drives me crazy. Not that my room is any better – I just need a new bookshelf.
Catherine
catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com
Everyone needs one of these wall bookshelves, in my opinion. XD My personal bookshelf is pretty cramped too. 😛
Those are unbelievably cool and A DOOR THROUGH THE BOOKSHELF YES THAT’S SO AWESOME. XD Yeeeeesssss, rig a book to open it, that would be fantastic. 😛 and okay but the time-lapse of putting books up is really neat. *nods*
um *glances at 7+ bookshelves* yes we have lots, and that’s after three moves/trimming them down a lot o.o
I have no order to my shelves other than series go together, and I have my very favorites about eye-level(although they’re mostly my favorites, so that doesn’t really mean anything XP)
House and church building fixing up, mainly, for big projects. it’s a lot of fun, although quite exhausting. XD I wouldn’t trade the memories for anything in the world though.
I need to find out a way to make this secret door possible. XD
O-o Whoa cool. Lots of books!
Hehe yes saaaame. I have all the series together and then all my favourites get the place of honour on the top shelf where they get to show off their gloriousness. XD
Yess, working together on a project can be so much fun even through the hard work.
i so want floor to ceiling bookshelves!!!! i currently have NO MORE SPACE FOR BOOKS! *sobs*
awesome post; great reminder to trust God no matter what’s going on.
OH NO. D: That calls for more bookselves. XD
Thanks! Trusting God is so important all the time. 🙂
Yes!
are u doing nanowrimo this year?
I am! I’ll be doing a blog post on Friday about the project I’m going to be working on. 😀
Are you doing it?
oh yeah i just got your newsletter!
argh! no, not this year. too busy. maybe 2018 though
Ah yes, busyness can be hard to manage with NaNo as well. :/
Yup. We have bookshelves. Walls of them. In truth, we have more than 7,000 books. My mom organized them at the end of summer. It was a HUGE job.
Wowzers that’s a lot of books! I don’t think we’ve ever counted our books. 😛 Once I counted mine actually, and there was about 150. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a couple thousand books too. xD
Your book shelf looks awesome!
*throws confetti*
congrats on finishing it!:)
-Quinley
Thanks! It looks even cooler in real life. ^.^
Yaaaass all the books xD I showed Jas the trailer and she was very impressed ^-^
Yay, I’m glad she liked it. 😛 (I was impressed too, to be completely honest. XD)
WOW WOW WOW
That’s amazing [and very book-hoard-y]. Your mum is an incredible organizer, too! 😀
I feel like we can be official about our book-hoard-y-ness now. xD She is! I just put my books all slapdash, but she has a specific order for everything.
That trailer is gold. Pure gold. And I’m officially very jealous of your bookshelves.
We have so. many. books. Bookshelves everywhere, and quite a few stacks. My little brother just started reading non stop, so a lot of the children’s chapter books have come out of storage again, which makes for even more books. It’s fantastic. *grins*
Haha, thanks! I’m glad you liked it. xD
*highfives* Yay for books!
Eeeeeep! Bookies! I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT!
It looks so cool Jane, and a really deep and meaningful post. So yay!
Eeek yes. You’ll love it even more when you can actually see it up close.
Thank you! 🙂
just read your newsletter. i’m so excited for Nadine Brandes’ cover reveal too! it’s all over the blogs i follow! *flails*
love the pic of your doing archery. so cool!
Eeep yes! I’m so hyped to see how it looks. *fangirling*
Aw thanks! 😀
Awesome bookshelf Jane Maree. I like it a lot.
We currently have plenty of room to store books, because when we built our house 3 years ago, we designed a schoolroom with ceiling height book shelves. And be have over 7,00 books….so ya, we needed the space.
Ooh that sounds amazing. So many bookshelves. <3 Having lots of books is great, isn't it! 🙂
Great post!
Your bookshelf is so much bigger then our. We do have lots of books and no real order for them, they’re kinda just random.
Thank you!
Yours is pretty cool too (all bookshelves are pretty cool actually. 😛 ). My personal shelves are fairly random too. xD
Love the bookshelves! Yes, I remembered. *takes pizza* XD The trailer was awesome! Yes, we have (at least) 1,000 books in our house (my dad estimated them). You should definitely figure out a secret door. *nods* You never know when you’ll need a quick exit. XD
Ooh good job! *applauds your memory* xD
Thanks! 😛 Whoa nice. I love hearing how many books everyone has. There must be a heap of good books in that lot.
Yesss, I must work the mechanisms out. xP
Oh, and yes; I order my bookshelves. XD
Cool! That makes it easier to find the books. 😛
That is an epic bookshelf! Great job! It looks amazing, and it would be so nice just to see all those books everyday. We recently got a new bookshelf, and sometimes I just have to stare at all the books, haha. 🙂
Thank you! 😀 And yess, staring at books is always a plus for having new bookshelves. 😛