Books

Ok, so the house is now almost as empty as when we moved in. The three flew out yesterday which means I am here, all by my lonesome. I could get really snarky and make nasty comments about moms being left with cleanup but I think you already know my feelings about that. Should I mention that I had also organized help for the next two days through one of the charitable organizations that I know in Rohrbach. The young man made the mistake of showing up to check on dates/times late Monday afternoon while I was taking a nap. The DH mentioned it to me more than a day later: I have no idea why he drew on his German ancestry to be haughty, prejudicial, and nasty. But he decided that the kid didn’t “look good” and sent him away which is likely going to mean that there is no way I will have any help. The kid should not have stopped by – I told him specifically NOT to come back before Friday but if anyone had bothered to ask me…..(off soap box. Do I look like someone with no brains or in needing of “male protection for my own good?”

That leaves me with thousands of books in boxes which need moving, shelves to be dismantled and an incredible amount of trash to be policed up and sorted on my lonesome. Not a happy bunny here…  First, the starting point

first batch of shelves headed to garage

more empty space

empty studio

By partway through the day, I could see visible progress, both on the terrace and in the studio

about 1/3 of the way through moving the boxes

I started  at 0800 this morning and did fine till I was down to the last 50 or so boxes of books when I found a number which still have to be sorted by separating out the German and English kids books since I have specific places to take those. I also managed to identify a number of cartons that will go to Kleber Library either end of this month or in Oct. The rest of the books are just going to have to be donated/swapshelved at the rate of 50-100 a day on those times when I have enough energy to get up before 0600 while parking is still available to accomplish the drop offs. There are two swap shelves, so it should take me only a year or two….

On my right side

on my left

while I was at it, I put the dining room and living room back together and took a picture of the terrace

living room

dining

terrace with all book boxes gone

The next large task is to tackle all the window ledges followed by the rooms downstairs…..

Contest

It is been a long time since I did one of these. The payout will/be dinner for two or = value in yarn. I looked at all the boxes of books and realized I have no idea how many there really remain to find new homes. So my proposal is simple – make a guess before the end of Aug on how many books there are in all the boxes. I will post numbers as I distribute them as to how many each time. At the end, we all can add the numbers.

As a general rule, 95% are paperbacks. The Xerox boxes on the one side number 54 and have an average of 30 books per box if you want somewhere to start. The larger boxes in front them of which there are two have about 80 paperbacks each. I didn’t make a count for any other box, but they range from small publishers boxes which contained 4-6 paperbacks on inbound to wine boxes, beer cases and some pretty hefty filling boxes (just ask my aching shoulders).

I mentioned the boxes on the left.  The brown box piles  average of 49″/117cm tall in the front.  That portion of the piled boxes front is about 95″/228cm deep from the back wall. I have yet to haul in the five boxes needing to be sorted. Additionally, there are 73 English language kids books that have already been separated out.

No guesses below 4000 will be accepted…..

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