Picture of New Couch

Here's a picture of our new couch. Of course, the cats have made themselves right at home on it! The gray cat is Sid, and the black cat is Doc. I collectively refer to them as "the boys." I had originally intended to have the couch more in the middle of the room facing the fireplace, but Doc thought the back of the couch was a fun place to scratch. I moved it up against the windows that face the deck. I am glad that I didn't start building bookshelves before getting the couch because I have changed my plan to accommodate the new couch placement. I'm going to build two tall shelves, one on either side of the windows. They will be as tall as the windows, and I am going to build a bridge over the top to connect them. I'll keep some of my antique books up there and some lighter decorative objects.

By the way, the purple thing on the back of the couch is a stuffed triceratops. Here's a fun fact: the the state fossil of South Dakota is the triceratops.

Dinosaur in the Library

I finally found a dinosaur for my library. Although I'd scoured eBay, I could never find a good dinosaur statue. I happened upon one while looking at couches at Steinhafel's. We still haven't picked a couch for the library, but we do have a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I put it in front of a six-foot tall bookshelf for scale.

Of course the dinosaur isn't the only plan I've got for my library. I plan to add a couch and an additional chair (there's a purple one there now). I'm going to build a wall full of floor to ceiling bookshelves to house my ever-growing collection of books. At last count, we had over 600 books. The particleboard bookcases just aren't doing the job anymore. Most of the shelves are warped under the weight of the books. I'll probably sell them or give them away on Craig's List after I finish building my shelving system.