April Fool

Already that long?

Seems yesterday that I finally put the final touch to the "guest room" and finally could free myself of the book boxes that were almost embedded in my floor around the house.

And instead here I am to tell you what happened through the whole month of April, a month full of news.

From were do we start? From the party obviously.

From the partIES actually, because it was immediately clear that the sum of all the people I know here in Brussels would have been impossible to place inside the flat even if I did shovel 'em inside.

As such a second party was planned a week later to accommodate the second serving of colleagues :)

From left to right: Gouda piggies, Herve mini pizzas, tactical Tramezzini

First party was almost in Fred's honor. That's right, my penguin brother always helping and trying to get enough Karma points to earn that cloud with view over the Mediterranean sea.

Melissa and Dana, my Texan friends were present as well. How? I did create a chat channel and left the laptop opened, Whoever wanted could drop a line.

There is a Geek living here, what did you think? ^_^

It was just after the parties that I realized that the guest room could still be bettered.

AGAIN?!

Yup my friends, you should know that there is no limit to mods if I'm at the wheel.

Remember the dead space that I had after putting the Benno CD tower? Well, it came to me that I usually borrow CD and DVDs with great liberality, but then forget always to whom.

As such I got myself a self sticking chalkboard and put it at the side of the library.

I made a little chalk tray starting from a little Tupperware I had lying in my kitchen ( would you believe it ? It was Ikea as well :D ), I just had to cut off the excess plastic and glue a coin under it.

Coin was needed for the following phase. It was all good and well to be able to write, but how would you have deleted the text? A little sponge with a glued magnet solved this issue and here is what the final result looks like.

I started immediately making a list and found out that half of my collection is around the world and the other half is made of borrowed material ^_^''.

Live and learn.

My brother visited me in the new apartment and could test the "guest room".

It worked, but I decided that something had to be done about the wall right behind the bed if I still wanted it to be yellow instead of brownish.

That is how the following delirium ensued...

Got your back covered!

It is not a big idea ( as all of my ideas) but it works and that should be the idea behind everything I do at home.

I took a cheap wood board that was roughly as wide as the bed and put Velcro all around it.

I then cut some foam and glued it on the board.

Day after I cut some fabric and after sewing a quick border I sewed the Velcro on it.

I'll spare you the pics of the sewing part, I'm not proud of it, you would not like them, it works and that is about all that is needed.

Till I do not learn to sew on a machine and buy myself one, there is not much more i can do about it.

4 screws later the structure was on the wall.

Two bonus results are met as well, first it covers the electric cable of the central lamp, second, it is completely invisible once the sofa is transformed.

My parents, visiting for Eastern, did appreciate very much that they had something warm behind their back when they were reading in bed.

That said I already know I will have to sew a second cover.

The fabric I choose is a paille like tick one, very warm and very uncomfortable in the coming summer ( guests won't like that).

That said like HELL I will start this second cover if someone does not teach me how to use a machine and borrows it to me.

Line starts on the right, any volunteers?

Gentlemen, battlestations!

Being a geek one of the focal points of my house is the living room were, as I already told, are concentrated three pillars of my free time such as the Wii, the TV set and the Popcorn media player.

This alone would be a more than acceptable reason to build a legen.... wait for it...dary living room, but reasons go even deeper than that.

My living room is not only the fortress of geekiness it is my guest bedroom, music room, and library, thus I will have to build libraries, I will need a HiFi system, a couch, armchairs, tables, bed tables with table lights and...

Okay stop everything we might have a problem...

Aggregation is not an option and thus the following delirium ensued.

If one thing is easy...

Okay I know I'm bad, but it is not my fault, no Sir it is not.

I blame the society, I blame my childhood and for sure I do blame both my parents.

Yes, my sweet falsely innocent parents that always wanted me to be creative, the one that taught me to search and find solutions in impossible places and that corrupted me buying me the Fisher Technik!

I plaid guilty your honor, those constructions block ( that almost nobody outside Germany knows) have changed my life.

Right after I did finish the basic model instructions book and I started to build what I did like buyinh toys became useless, I built them myself (mom still remembers the monorail train that run through my room :D ).

Slight issue of this , doubtlessly commendable deed, is that I feel compelled to find not needed solutions to problems that exist but could be solved easily buying the right piece.

But your honor, let's say it loud and clear, there is no victory in buying things.

Yet there is in building something, so...

... Why NOT complicate it?

... So the furniture of the living room had to be the synthesis of those necessities I listed and be cheap on top of that ( never understood because being a geek and having empty pockets goes together).

How to solve this?

IKEA, my favourite playground, offers a serie of options, but the problem was always the same, the sofa-bed took a good portion of the wall and from the other side bloody tip-up table stopped the library from cover the entire wall ( not funny to eat with your elbows hitting the shelves).

I thought it over and came to this solution.

The Billy book shelf has two models, a basic narrow one and one that is about twice the size.

I was so sorry I could not use the space right over the sofa-bed, but plain shelves were difficult to calculate and the only "bridge" element of the Billy series was too short ( it is made to pass across doors) to be put over the 4 feet and half of the sofa-bed ( The Grankulla, praised be it's name).

So guess what? The basic model I was talking of measures 6feet 6" and once put horizontally would have been a perfect bridge.

I was only worried that the sides of it would be too weak to endure a weight, but after a quick visit at Anderlecht's Ikea and some stress tests ( Perplexed look of the clerk that sees me trying to tear open a Billy library with my bare hands, will live in me forever ) I knew I had a deal.

The groceries list

Once everything was measured I just needed two big libraries, a little one ( bridge to be), two vertical extensions ( space is never too much) and a Benno CD tower.

I calculated that with the remaining wood I could build the two night tables so I thought about the lights.

Misfortune (luck?) hit and the model I had planned was sold out, so, without thinking too much of it I bought a set of three Inreda lamps ( I told myself that I would have found a use for the third one later).

Since I was already there, I bought a Poang armchair with the corresponding feet rest ( I know I look like a giant IKEA spot but whomever sat on that armchair will understand me perfectly :P ).

Once everything was brought home and up the stairs ( 400 sodding pounds, two stairs, twelve times, death wishes, lots) I put everything in a corner of of the room and waited for the Week End.

Sunday penguin Sunday

I really do not know what Fred did in a previous life of him, but to put on his path someone like me , must have been quiet the deed.

For the record he is admirably coping whit this situation and is loyally following in each idiocy my mind can come up with.

I suppose that he thinks that all the positive Karma he is generating should be enough for at least two Nirvana entries ( with extra popcorn and cola).

Quick note for the Lord, if those clouds with view on the Mediterranean sea happened to be free, my dearest penguin brother would appreciate very much and, come on, we both know he earned it :)

Thus there he was again, running at my help to waste another of his Weekends for the sacred penguin crusade.

And back to work we were

Fact about IKEA furniture is that their bigger models are almost all built in the same way, thus i do nearly not look at the instructions anymore.

This detail will matter later, as we noticed that we had inverted a couple of shelves ( TWICE) and we had to undo our work.

"What's the big deal?" normally nothing, but the illumination arrived right AFTER we had NAILED the furniture's back.

Some quick plastering and the issue was solved, but each time I come to the living room I'm overcome by shame.

Anyway, furniture 1




Furniture 2



After that a little cut ( as shown in picture) so that the form was regular and could be used as bridge.




Ten screws later and we could pass to the extensions.



That's it?

Yeah right as if you did not knew me by now...

Sofa bed now was right under the bridge and extensions were fixed, sweet, but were are lights and bed tables?

Two wood Planck have been quickly adapted and fixed to the Billy using two hinges.



Original project was to use two little chains to hold up the table, but Fred showed more taste than me and suggested two hinged wood triangles.

Here is the result.






To be sure that people did not receive a night table on the nose in the middle of the night, I used two magnets to fix them.

After I congratulated myself for the nice idea, I had to run to the shop to get two handles because the magnets were too strong and i could not open the tables again (I rock, I really do -_-'')



And here are the results.



Light at the end of the tunnel

Only the lamps remained, so I opened the box and found yet another surprise.

The Inreda lamps are thought as illumination system, thus there are no plugs at the end of the cords and everything had to be connected to a central transforming box.

It was too late to go buy some plugs and I did not want to start with the joys of home DYI electricity, so I had to have an idea. Quickly.

The lamps are telescopic and are mounted on little ball shaped supports so they can be angled in different ways.

Thus I decided to fix two right over the night tables ( First idea was on the wall, but I was scared people could rip them off standing up) and the third one right in the middle of the bridge, allowing for some good reading light over the sofa when needed.





Cable has been fixed to the wall as the box was and the result is almost invisible.

I'll hide it better later in case I needed to.

Last details

I put two metallic supports under the bridge, just in case the weight of the books would be too much and I still can put two more if it was not enough.




CD tower came next but I found out it left me an unused space, which I'm thinking how to use.



I addedd some glass doors to the extensions on top of the structure and consider the idea of putting doors to the lower part too.

Right now I'm a bit broke, so I'll do that later ( funny fact, the summed up price of the doors is higher of the cost of the entire structure without said doors ^_^'' )

A nice rug I could find in a shop not far from home to add a bit of color.



And a ray of sun light so that you can appreciate the whole work.



Half of the living room is done, opposite wall needs yet to be worked, but we'll see later that for..

Right now the house can be finally opened without shame, as such, it is time for a party.

Stay tuned!