The cleanest my office will ever look

A few months ago, I decided to undertake a redecorating project. See, I have a problem: I eat books. To quote Bobby, "You've heard of the library, right?" Yes, I've heard of the library, but there is something so comforting about possessing a towering stack of books. Plus, I'm a writer. We support our own. I hope to someday write a novel that has a place on the sagging bookshelves of bibliophiles across the country. One can dream. That being said, my collection of literary tomes finally outgrew the hand-me-down bookshelves that followed me from home to home over the last seven years. It was time to upgrade. Here is a photo of my previous book storage situation:



With new shelves finally purchased, I set about dismantling my collection. The books lined my hallway, arranged in meticulous size-and-color order, awaiting their new home. The rows stretch on to infinity.



First things first, shelf number one was assembled. This proved tedious, so we quit for a few days after attaching it to the wall.



Later that week, the second shelf began to take shape. It was a wily particleboard beast, and took a chunk of my leg down with it as we were putting on the final touches. The connecting piece, designed to create a bridge of additional storage between the two shelves, also got a piece of me. While I was lining up the top with the screws that hold it, gravity got the better of me and dropped about 20 pounds of pressure on my finger, carving a perfectly round wound that bled profusely and caused me to have a minor panic attack. I decided to just leave the neosporin and band-aids on my bathroom counter after that. Patched up and determined to get this project done, I returned to the construction zone.



Bobby, handy guy that he is, attached some planks to the wall in order to even out the edges.





At last, the time came to reassemble my belongings. With great pride in my Ikea assembly skills, I present the finished product. Includes four vintage phones! Two from Portland, one from Natchez, and one from Denver, all in different colors. I love vintage phones. Personal to dad: note the framed sheet music on the right.





While I was at it, I decided to organize the rest of my office. Here is a rare photo of my desk without the five Melophobe-related notebooks that are usually splayed across it:



Plus a close-up of my award/ID badge/press pass display:



Finally, my vintage East German typewriter, vintage radio, and my only non-vintage phone:



And the sign above my door:



There you have it, the great office redecorate project of 2011 is now complete.