Billy Built-ins: Filling the Shelves

We have a finished product, which includes lots and lots of empty shelves (a homeschool mom’s dream) and happy helpers posing in front of it.  And, a picture of my biggest helper and a photo bomber.

On the far left, we have our board games. Well, most of them anyway. Some of them are still hidden away in a cupboard. In the cute old fashioned trash cans (from IKEA), we have Lego and Wedgits.

Above the computer area, I have teacher supplies, so, I put them up a little higher to discourage the kids. Behind the computer I have a stick on blackboard. I love this. One day, I hope to have blackboard covering the entire area behind the computer, but I’m not sure that will ever actually happen. In the meantime, this will have to do.

Next we have shelves containing part of our collection of fiction. We have stickers on the binding of the fiction books to make it easy for the kids to put them away. The books are sorted by reading/interest level and each shelf has a different color sticker. On the bottom shelf, each of the kids has a magazine holder and a binder. 

On the top shelf on the right, we have oversized books and the books I currently use for teaching.  The shelves beneath that hold various craft supplies, coloring books, activity books and white boards. Apparently, I didn't take a picture of these shelves right after we filled them, because these shelves are definitely showing signs of use, compared to the other photos.

All the cute buckets and containers hold various school supplies, craft supplies, etc. This is the beginning of the non-fiction collection (which continues on beyond the built-ins). Yes, I have them all filed using the Dewey decimal system. I found myself buying books I already had or just not being able to find books I needed. So, years ago, I broke down and spent the time to catalog my books. I’m so glad I did.

One last shot of the awesome lights on top of the shelves. I do keep things on top of the shelves as well. 

And, a picture of the whole shelf setup.

Built-in Billys - Part 1

This post is late in coming and I haven’t had the time to get all the information into one post, so we’ll have to go with installments.

We are blessed with an awesome great room in our home. Our kitchen, dining room and school room are all one big room. I had this huge amount of wall space in the school room. While, it is great for hanging maps and such, I knew it would look so much better and be more useful if we had built in bookshelves.

Quite honestly, it wasn't hard to make it look better. One of our “bookcases” was an old entertainment center with no sides. My husband made it in high school, so we’ve been carrying it around all these years (it’s partner is in my bedroom closet), but we finally gave it up for this project. We put it on the street with a “free” sign and it was gone in an hour. And, junk always ended up all over the hearth. Just being real, here.

I didn’t really have the expertise to start from scratch, but found that there are many blogs and tutorials for built-in Billy bookcases. A couple of the blogs I referred to most often were:

http://www.justagirlblog.com/billy-bookcases-diy/

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/billy-bookcases-to-built-ins.html

The IKEA hackers page actually has the exact layout that we used for our shelves. I like that the wide bookcases were interspersed with small bookcases to break up the monotony. And, the area for the TV in the blog worked perfectly for our schoolroom computer.

We host a home fellowship every other week, so squeezing in a home renovation in our meeting room was tricky. I purchased the shelves from IKEA, and, when, we had a 3 week break between meetings, I got started! Books went into boxes and the school table went onto the back patio. This is one of those times I’m thankful for beautiful Southern California weather in November.

The first task was to put together the IKEA bookcases. The kids loved helping with this.

Next, we removed the baseboard along the wall we planned to place the shelves.

After they were all put together, we set them against the wall to make sure they would fit. 

In the next post, I’ll get into the details of how we installed the shelves.

The Steps of a Good Man

For several months, I've been thinking about writing scripture on our stairs.  You know how you see those clever pinterest posts or other internet ideas that you think are great, but you never get around to doing them?  Well, I finally got around to doing this one.  First, I had to decide which scripture to do. As I was perusing the Bible for a good candidate, I came across the perfect scripture. It is one of hubby's favorite scriptures and it's perfect for the stairs.

I wanted to surprise my hubby. So, when he went to a Bible study conference for a few days, I knew this was my chance. Of course, this was a late night project.  I had to do it after the little guys were in bed.  So, sometime after midnight, I started painting scripture. When I got done, I realized two things: 1 was that I needed to make the words on the top step higher up so they could be seen from the ground level; 2 was that I had skipped a line. O.o So, after scrubbing off almost half the steps, I redid it.  And, I must say, I was very happy with the final results.

This is the view from the front door.

 Ps 37:23-24

23 The steps of a good man are ordered by Yahweh,
And He delights in his way.
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For Yahweh upholds him with His hand.

Food

I am excited that our garden is going so well. God is truly blessing it! I have always had a brown thumb and never managed to keep a plant alive. But, with the help of God and my kids, it seems to be going really well this time.

The bees are busy in the melon patch. (Can you tell I love my melon patch?)

We have some pumpkin flowers now.

And lots of watermelons growing. A couple weeks ago, they were tiny. It's so cool, even tiny, they looked just like watermelons. Now we're discovering some nice sized watermelons. I can hardly wait to taste the first homegrown watermelon.

And Rebekah went into the melon patch and found cantaloupes! The little cantaloupes look weird - kind of like a hairy cucumber. But she found some full size ones that just need some more ripening.

And, remember that cow I blogged about in June? This is what half of it looks like packaged up and put into a 20 cubic foot freezer. That was one big cow! 500+ pound of grass fed beef. Woohoo!

Jalama Beach

Almost every year, we reserve a group campsite at Jalama Beach. That alone is a feat. It usually takes hours of calling to get through on the reservation phone line. But it's worth it. We love this place! It is so beautiful.

Someone has to watch the little guys while everyone else sets up the campsite.

We spend a lot of time at the beach. The water is really cold, but that doesn't seem to stop the kids. And, when Daddy gives boogie boarding and surfing lessons, that is extra special.

There is also an estuary that the kids love to play in. The water is a little warmer there. They found a raft and enjoyed playing on that.

This is more Arianah's style of water play. She really didn't like the beach or the estuary.

Of course, eating is an all-important activity. That's what camping is all about. After all, where else can you eat cereal and milk out of the box?

Maybe a wrestling match with Daddy.

Checking out the wildlife. Now, this first picture is of everyone inspecting a dead, half decayed turtle. Yuck! I will spare you the pictures they took of it.

Arianah likes most animals, even if it's a black beetle or a friendly squirrel.

The camp fire is popular, even if the beach wind gets smoke in everyone's eyes. Praise & worship, smores and roasting hot dogs are all important at the campfire. Jim outlined the base of the firepit with lights so we wouldn't be tripping over everyone's feet.

All activities pale in comparison to a baptism! My brother got baptized while we were camping. How awesome is that? Jim gathered all the kids to make sure they all understood what God's word says about baptism. Then, Jim, Taco and Grammy went out into the water while Taco went under. After that, we layed hands on him to ask for the Holy Spirit to fill him up.

And, while we relax at the campsite, there is plenty of time for just hanging out with family and friends.