Loralee's Fancy: Polly wanna... ?

I've heard that parrots—pet parrots—when they are lonely or distressed will pull their own feathers out, sometimes all of their feathers.

This is what I did to my front hallway last Saturday:

Yes, when Bruce is away for long stretches of time I start to tear my house apart. Of course, I had been planning to do this ever since we moved in, and chances are that I would have started it all by myself even if Bruce was around. And then I would have wanted him to help me finish the whole project. But since he's not here, I will have to repair the damage myself.

So the plan—part of it—is to expand the hallway bookshelves. These shelves used to be a pantry (with lame-O bi-fold doors), but I had other things in mind for them.

Here you can see that I am, indeed, really bad at before and after pics. This picture is after I had already removed most of the books so I could start on the current project.

When we moved in one of the first things I did was have Michael remove the bi-fold doors so I could put books on those shelves. Unfortunately, since it was a closet, there are spaces on the sides where books are stacked, but nearly impossible to get at. So the other day we removed the books, and all the junk (including my wrapping-paper boxes) that was under the bottom shelf, and then I removed all the moldings from around the doorway.

Once the moldings were gone I took a hammer and pounded a hole in the wall to see what I would find in there. I knew there'd be a wire because that's where the doorbell box is (to the top left of the closet/shelves).

Can you see the wire inside the hole?

What I didn't expect was to find three wires in there. The brown one is the doorbell; I'm guessing the blue/white ones are for the heating in the ceiling. (Who was the brilliant person that came up with electric, radiant ceiling heaters? Heat rises!) I will have to figure out how to work around those wires. Hm.

Well, after I'd moved all the books, and I'd torn out the moldings, and I had punched a hole in the wall, and I found I was presented with a new puzzle, I needed a break. So I went into the living room where all my books are in totes or in stacks, and I saw our World Book Encyclopedia set. We bought it from the library when they were tired of it, and it's a pretty cool set; beautiful...except for the ubiquitously ugly library stickers.

What do I keep saying about before and after photos?

In my tired and slightly frustrated state of mind I thought, "I wonder if I can remove those stickers. An unsuccessful attempt to take them off couldn't make the books any uglier." Which goes to show you that I was not thinking clearly, because it certainly could have made them look worse. Fortunately they came off pretty easily with a little help from a rag soaked in Goo-Gone. And they really do look a lot nicer. (But, apparently, I didn't take an "after" picture yet, so you will be dying in suspense until later.)

Well, here is the progress on the wall/shelf project:

removing the drywall

All of the outside drywall is gone now, and Ryan did a little cleanup for me. Notice that there are two wall studs right next to each other on the left side (actually on the right side, too) of the opening. I will have to figure out how to remove most of the exposed wood you see. How to get it out without landing it all on my head? Hmm. Time to go remove more stickers from books.

Now most of the inside drywall is gone, and so is one of those 2x4 studs.

With all the studs removed, and all the drywall torn out, I could finally start taking out the shelves and wall cleats. I still have to figure out what to do with some scary-ugly nails that are hanging down from that top board...

And here is where I finished up this afternoon: