Moving the Library

Instead of going to the gym this morning, my workout consisted of moving about 60 linear feet of books, photo albums, scrapbooks, and knick-knacks of a lifetime so work can begin on Monday.

One of the first rooms will be what has been known as “the pink room” since we moved in in 1977 and it was painted pink.  It will be pink no longer.  Nor will there be a mauve wall-to-wall carpet in the room because the white oak floor is being refinished. All of this stuff will reside across the hall while the pink room is de-pinked next week.



It took more trips than I could count, in each case stepping over Jake who positioned himself in the doorway as the guardian of the books.  I made piles corresponding to the various shelves, hoping for balance instead of a domino effect.

I found books on every subject imaginable.  There was “Enlightened Sex” with a CD, as of yet unopened.  (I hope it’s not to late.)  There was French grammar.  There was “Linear Algebra.”  (It is definitely too late.)  There were many books on training dogs, some read, others not so much.  There were books on health and growing avocados and travel.  Oh, the travel books.  They made my wanderlust kick in as I stacked Provence and Hawaii and Chile all in a high pile. 

This is just the beginning of what promises to give our house a much-needed facelift.  Hopefully we won’t kill each other in the process.  And hopefully we can figure out how to keep Jake out of the family room for 4 days next week while the floors are being refinished.  A new set of challenges!