The Library

We used to have a living room in the basement that was Mr Bird's dream room.

From the day I met him he always wanted a theatre room in his house.

When we moved here he set out to meet that goal. We brought the big blue couch down stairs along with a puffy love sac on which to lounge during movies.

He installed and wired complete in wall surround sound speakers. When the movie had a scene with a train it sounded like it came from one side of the room to the other. When there was a fighting scene I ducked for cover from the bullets that seemed to be coming from behind me on the left.

Mr Bird built a ceiling mount for his state of the art projector. He then ran wires through the ceiling to the closet which held the computer, the brains of our television watching experience. Have I mentioned he's a genius? I have no clue how he did all this stuff.

Somehow he got all of our movies on his hard drive and with the click of a button our favorite movies and shows were at our fingertips. He downloaded some program that works like TiVo, except free. We watched any show we wanted totally commercial free, and since the shows were recorded we watched them on our time table.

We never missed an episode of our favorite programs.

It took a long time to get his set up just how he wanted it. It took drilling holes through sheet rock to run wires, patching and painting said holes, hunting down remotes that would work on his computer/recording program, hours of converting movies, researching the best equipment and painting a screen, complete with wooden trim, right on our wall.

It was like going to the movies in our own home.

Until the projector died.

(See the movie screen and speakers on the wall?)

Suddenly we were faced with a delima.

For over a year, since we got nose deep in home school, it was getting harder and harder for me to justify a whole room of our home being dedicated to T.V.

We were cramped for school space, but we made it work. We got a huge book shelf for up stairs to store our rapidly multiplying books and school supplies. We held school at the kitchen table or in the office or in the living room on the big blue couch.

When the projector died (after my mixer and camera and several other highly priced plastic items also bit the dust) we were slow in making plans for its replacement. At this point we loved the set up, but were not watching much T.V. at all. We'd watch a movie together with the kids about once a week and it was never on during the days anymore. Mr Bird and I would sit together after the kids went to bed and fight over who got to watch their favorite shows (for some reason he did not want to watch Oprah or The biggest Loser with me).

After it was gone a few weeks we realized we did not miss it much.

On a whim we decided to wait a year to replace the projector and then see what happens.

A few weeks after that we decided we really could use that space for a library.

Our school supplies and books seem to be growing faster that our kids. We have found ourselves with boxes of books with no homes on the shelves.

So we acquired some new bookshelves, a child size table big enough for art projects and puzzles and these:

Mr Bird made the kids chalk boards. He did this way back in February. They've been hanging in the living room and we use them all the time. They are the only thing from the living room that will keep its home.


Did you know Home Depot sells chalk board paint? You can paint anything you want with it and you have an instant chalk board. The best part is that it comes in white and you can choose from many fabulous colors to tint the paint.
No ugly green or grey for us!
We decided to give our library an Americana theme, hence the red and blue chalk boards.
Each kid gets their own chalk board, so no fighting.
The rest of the library is still coming together. Today Mr Bird tore down the projector screen so he can paint the walls back to their original color. I have lots of plans for our little library, I'll have to post as they all come together.



It's Mr Bird great? He so selflessly gave up his dream for the sake of his children.
He is such a good man, I feel so blessed to have him, forever no less!
Plus, is there anything hotter than a man with
Power Tools?