It's been some time since my last post which I believe involved football. My Ohio State Buckeyes went unbeaten but were on probation so couldn't play in a bowl game. That's unfortunate because it likely would have been an Ohio State versus Notre Dame national championship.
Mount Union went unbeaten and won their 11th Division III National Championship. The good news ends there unfortunately. My high school went winless and I think Valparaiso University only won one game. The Browns won five but the future is bright.
My current project is getting our new town house we bought in September ready. The townhouse is very nice but is much smaller than our previous home. I thought we had downsized sufficiently but I was wrong. As such, storage is an issue.
We just discovered something that has been around for over 40 years, Ikea Billys. These are modular book cases that attach to the wall and each other to form what appear to be built ins along the wall. When attached to the wall and each other they are really quite stable. The foot print is small only coming out 11 inches from the wall, they even have notches along the back of the units where they stand up against the wall for any base molding you might have. This insures they are flat and snug against the wall. They have doors, both glass and panel, so that they can form cabinets if desired. They also contain DVD towers which will certainly be helpful. We have a long wall perpendicular to the loft and between the bedroom which will be perfect for them. The run is about 10 1/2 feet long which will provide us plenty of storage for our photos, books, CD's and DVD's. What's great about these units is that you can also purchase height extenders that fit on top of the various unit and extend the height to any level you want. In our case, we are extending them to within 3 inches of the ceiling. Our ceiling is 8 feet high.
We obtained the various components needed to complete our run in the different configurations we wanted. We decided on the birch veneer finish, there are five choices, and they look great. The best part of it is the cost. Sure they are particle board and fiber board and not solid wood. As such they tend to be a little heavy which can create a problem assembling them because of the weight. But the cost can't be beat. The cost for our run which includes a regular 32 inch bookcase, two DVD tower, three 16 inch bookcases and a 32 inch bookcase that we put glass and panel doors on, with the height extenders, was about $650. What a bargain.
If anyone has had any experience with Billys, please let me know. I would love to hear about your experiences. Now its on to basketball and hockey now that football is over. Fortunately the NHL strike is over and the Chicago Blackhawks are off to their best start in franchise history, which is a very long time. The Blackhawks were one of the original six teams that formed the NHL. Ohio State and the B1G is loaded with teams which makes for some great games. It won't be long until the conference championships and March Madness.
