In a previous blog post about my recent trip back to Singapore, I mentioned that I was shipping 240+kg worth of books to the U.S.. Well, they're here!
They arrived in a series of deliveries over the course of 3 weeks. Otherwise, I would have piled them all up and taken a photo. Our existing bookshelves wouldn't come close to holding all these books. And I would have to reinforce the floor of our ground-floor library so that it wouldn't collapse into the basement! What to do? Why, make a basement library, of course.
The basement has a concrete foundation, no need for more reinforcement. Its temperature, being underground, is a consistent 16-20C. I had previously installed a dehumidifier so that it will be dry for storage, perfect for books. Being hidden away in the basement, we don't have to care about looks of the shelves and concentrated on load bearing capacity.
We went to the university's Property Disposition facility and picked up 5 used office shelving units. They are usually about US$180 when new, but were going for US$45 each. We had to rent a truck to bring them all back to the house, but that was only US$70.
The 2 shelves on the left contain my books, while the 3 on the right are reserved for Jia Nin's. I've been shifting to electronic books over the past few years, so I only collect books that I really, really want to keep. My entire e-book collection can fit on one single backup USB hard drive! Ah, progress.
It's been a year since Jia Nin and I moved into this house. Things have sort of settled into places where they should go, where we use them the most. Ironically, among the first spaces that we got "visitor ready" is one of the rooms that we use the least: the living room. (The first was the guest room, obviously, but that's another post.)
The low shelf/bench running along the walls is a "hack" of an Ikea Norrebo shelf. The room looks larger without it looming up the whole wall and that height is perfect as either seating or TV shelf. A Magiker display case in the corner used to be on a wall in Jia Nin's condo, but now throws light from that corner for some interesting lighting at night.
We watch TV on our PCs and laptops these days, so there is no need for an entertainment system yet. But I am on the lookout for good deals during this down economy.
The windows face north in this side of the house giving us a lot of summer sunlight without getting too hot. The room is much dimmer during winter, so we kept the color scheme "light". U.S. home architecture tends not to put much recessed lighting in the ceiling, for some reason. We may have to add more lighting around the room if we use it more often.
That "couch" is an Ikea Hemnes day bed, which pulls out to make a king-sized bed. It used to be in a guest bedroom in Minnesota, but the size of it fits much better in the living room here. Wilson, if both our upstairs guest rooms are occupied, this one is yours, hah!
One of the non-dining things we do at the dining table (to the right of this picture is dining/kitchen) is to sort mail. For most of the last year, it an unholy mess, papers and "stuff" all over and around the table. To get organized, the Ikea Cyril suited our needs perfectly, along with an Alve storage bench and Trofast storage bins. The Trofast is our recycling-sorting station, with a shredder on the bottom. Very necessary to shred those irritating credit card offers that they keep sending us in the mail.
OK, OK, I know that's a lot of Ikea stuff, makes the place look like an Ikea showroom. If you conveniently live just 5 minutes from the only Ikea in Michigan, you'll wind up like this as well. Seriously, we didn't just go out and buy all of this just for the living room. Most of these accumulated over the past 7-8 years at our old apartments and condo. We just like the simple, clean European design style and the way Ikea designed their furniture to be disassembled, which suited our previous need to move around every few years.
The 2 shelves on the left contain my books, while the 3 on the right are reserved for Jia Nin's. I've been shifting to electronic books over the past few years, so I only collect books that I really, really want to keep. My entire e-book collection can fit on one single backup USB hard drive! Ah, progress.
The low shelf/bench running along the walls is a "hack" of an Ikea Norrebo shelf. The room looks larger without it looming up the whole wall and that height is perfect as either seating or TV shelf. A Magiker display case in the corner used to be on a wall in Jia Nin's condo, but now throws light from that corner for some interesting lighting at night.
We watch TV on our PCs and laptops these days, so there is no need for an entertainment system yet. But I am on the lookout for good deals during this down economy.
The windows face north in this side of the house giving us a lot of summer sunlight without getting too hot. The room is much dimmer during winter, so we kept the color scheme "light". U.S. home architecture tends not to put much recessed lighting in the ceiling, for some reason. We may have to add more lighting around the room if we use it more often.
That "couch" is an Ikea Hemnes day bed, which pulls out to make a king-sized bed. It used to be in a guest bedroom in Minnesota, but the size of it fits much better in the living room here. Wilson, if both our upstairs guest rooms are occupied, this one is yours, hah!
One of the non-dining things we do at the dining table (to the right of this picture is dining/kitchen) is to sort mail. For most of the last year, it an unholy mess, papers and "stuff" all over and around the table. To get organized, the Ikea Cyril suited our needs perfectly, along with an Alve storage bench and Trofast storage bins. The Trofast is our recycling-sorting station, with a shredder on the bottom. Very necessary to shred those irritating credit card offers that they keep sending us in the mail.
OK, OK, I know that's a lot of Ikea stuff, makes the place look like an Ikea showroom. If you conveniently live just 5 minutes from the only Ikea in Michigan, you'll wind up like this as well. Seriously, we didn't just go out and buy all of this just for the living room. Most of these accumulated over the past 7-8 years at our old apartments and condo. We just like the simple, clean European design style and the way Ikea designed their furniture to be disassembled, which suited our previous need to move around every few years.
