Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
A storage closet that will eventually hold most of my vinyl LP collection. 
The first phase of shelving; an "L" shaped section of bookcases on the right hand side as you enter the room.  The first two pictures are during construction; the other two are in completed form.  Mostly for hard-backs, the narrower bookcase to the right in the pictures is for paper-backs.  Originally, we estimated that we had around 2,500 books to accommodate, roughly 1,500 hard-backs and 1,000 paper-backs.  This turned out to be an underestimate  This bookcase took around 600 hard-backs and 400 paper-backs. 
A shot taken during the re-painting phase.  Thankfully, the walls and ceiling were in good shape, the sheet rock having been replaced by the previous owner.  They even insulated the outside walls! 
The second phase of shelving on the left hand side as you enter the room.  This took slightly fewer than the first phase; about 850 in all, plus 200 DVDs.  I have around another 600 paper-backs in a bookcase in the guest room, and we have about another 1,000 books for which we still need more shelving!  That is about 3,450 books in all.  On the other hand, recently we visited a woman, from whom we were buying several books, and she had over 20,000; so we are just beginners really. 
A detail of the construction.  The wood used is ¾ of an inch thick, and I used 12 inch and 16 inch wide boards that I ripped down to size.  Shelves are approximately 8 or 9½ inches deep for hard-backs and 6 inches for paper-backs.  Everything was sanded and then received two coats of primer.  Then sanded again before applying two top coats with a light sanding in between.  
The Bellova ceiling lamp that was already in the room when we bought the house.  In total, we have three of these in various rooms. 
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Library

Our c. 1860 House -

Upstairs Renovations

Firstly, some thoughts on books!  Mostly, we buy books we want to read, whether fiction or non-fiction.  Over the years, for example, I have built up a fairly large collection of science fiction paperbacks.  I also have a large number of non-fiction science books.  We also buy 20th century first editions, but this is more investment oriented.  Surprisingly, even books only 20 years old can be quite valuable if they are first editions in excellent condition.  Thus, for example, you may see a copy of Peyton Place on the shelves.  A first edition, first printing from 1956 in excellent condition is now worth upwards of $200.  We bought ours in a garage sale for $1, and it looks unread!