Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Ha, Mr Cheery will be delighted you're all rooting for his plan 😂😂

I won't be taking the carpet up in the spring I'm afraid, those tiles will likely stay hidden as long as we're here now. They look nice, but I've sat working with a hot water bottle on my knee for most of the summer and I'm ready for a bit more cosiness! The most that will happen is that we replace the carpet with a new one at some point, but that's definitely not a priority and is at the bottom of the list, below moving into the bedroom, finishing the kitchen, replacing the blown windows, finishing the stairs, and replacing the bathroom 😂😂 Probably not for a few years at our current rate of progress 😂

themadvix

What a difference in temperature that carpet makes Cheery! And imagine the reduced use of lpg too. Another vote for bookcase removal here.

KajiKita

Poor bookcase! Being voted out of existence! Furniture has feelings you know!! 😂😂

What we did with a ridiculously deep bookcase is we took the back off it, cut the shelves in half and slid the back down the middle and set it up as a partial room divider (in a place where EVENTUALLY in our very long term plans we will be reinstating a wall). It’s made a huge difference to the warmth of the room already (I’m going to see if I can furtle out an old curtain to cover the other half of the gap) and we have doubled our bookcase capacity in the the same footprint which is important to us! 😉

Might not work for you, but if you are thinking of scrapping it anyway I thought it might give you ideas on how to repurpose it 😊

KK

Tescodealqueen

greenbee said:

beanielou said:

Whispers. Ditch the bookcase.

whispers a bit more loudly... 

starts to shout a bit

Cheery_Daff

😂😂😂 you lot!! That poor bookcase! 😂😂

KK, that sounds like an interesting way of doing things! You've made me start wondering where else it could go - our initial assessment was 'it's too big for anywhere else', and I certainly don't intend to cut it in half, but I've started thinking it might ideal as shelves for fabric in my new craft room... 🤔

Aarrgghh, this was meant to be a simple project and now it's turning into 'turning the whole house upside down' one 🙄😂

Seriously though. The New craft room (which is the current bedroom) is directly on top of the study, and the same size, without the fireplace disrupting one wall, two windows instead of three, and the door in a different place. The spare bed in there will only be a single day bed, so no need to leave space for a double to fold out.

And of course, deeper shelves will be far more appropriate for fabric and sewing sundries - books are a bit lost on them, but I'd be able to get the rest of my fabric/sewing stuff down from the loft...

Hmm, will ponder with Mr Cheery over breakfast. He was explaining yesterday how he was quite happy to dismantle the shelves and put them back together, how it would be much easier than last time, so I suppose this would be a nice opportunity to demonstrate...

So, today. Cutting and sticking the underlay down. Dismantling the bookcase and finding somewhere sensible to store both it and the books for a little while. Might need to re-fit some of the gripper rods I haphazardly put under the bookcase (although it may now be impossible to remove them from the floor!!) Buying paint and painting the study. Then in the evening I'll assess the status of the glue, and maybe start fitting the carpet (or maybe leave that for Sunday).

Busy day!

Must get some washing on as well, just about to put on my last clean pair of socks 😮😂

Baileys_Babe

If the bookcase is still up for debate, work out how much smaller the new bookcase will be. Sounds as if the room will be much more flexible without the oversized piece of furniture.

EssexHebridean

Sounds like some good thought processes around the bookcase. I’ll just throw into the mix the question of if and if so how much it will disrupt where you keep work-related books, allowing that ultimately the room it is in is your “office” a lot of the time. 

As for the idea of taking the carpet up again in the spring, goodness I should think not! 😂😂 Those tiles can look as lovely as they want - they’re never going to be warm though, and it’s not like you’re ripping them up after all - they can be a lovely discovery for someone else in a hundred years, and then THEY can spend a winter freezing before covering them up again! 🤣

Baileys_Babe

Sounds like the bookcase will be perfect for your craft room 😉

Viking_mfw

Gosh Cheery, you're making me feel all inspired to actually make some progress on our house this weekend. I shall get a small tube of polyfilla so I don't have to wait for OH to make it up from a packet to fill the six tiny screw holes in the wall!

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all, and yes, Viking, get the pollyfiller out!

Yes, the tiles will be a nice surprise for the next people - although they may spend a lot of time cursing me as they try to get the grippers unglued from them 🙄😂

Useful thoughts about the bookcase. EH, most of my work-related books are at work (currently in boxes which I'll have to unpack on Monday after our swift unexpected office move). I do have a small selection at home - but they weren't on the bookcase anyway, they were on top of the chest of drawers we dismantled yesterday 🙄😂

I THINK what we'll do is keep the smaller bookcase for now, with a mix of books and sewing stuff on, and store the remaining stuff in the offshot/utility room. Then as we move upstairs, build some shelves on the wall. Upstairs room is going to have to host two rails of coats, dresses etc that we don't want in our new bedroom, so bookcase is just going to be too bulky. 

Right. Home now, quick cuppa, then underlay.