A people house has things like… stairs

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

As our long time readers will no doubt recall, I ruined the dramatic impact of the kablan’s exit in this post by noting that he was going to come back at some point:

“To touch up the paint in the downstairs bathroom.”

Well, yesterday turned out to be the big day.

The kablan scraped off the paint where it had cracked, spackled, and then put on two coats of paint. Instead of posting a picture, I refer you to this post. The walls now look exactly as they did then. (Hopefully, this time they’ll continue to look like they do now…)

Meanwhile, while he was here, the kablan put the leftover steps up on the wall as shelves:

As you can see in the above picture, there’s actually one more step sitting on top of the bookshelf below. That fourth step – or shelf, if you will – was meant to be the top step and is therefore not as deep as the other steps. So, if we want to put it up on the wall, we need to get different brackets.

And that’s about it for now.

Have a good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

P.S. In case you were wondering - no, the carpenter did not come today, but there’s always “tomorrow”…

Judging our books by their covers (or, rather, their spines)

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

I hope you all had an easy fast and are now enjoying your music/fleishigs/haircuts… and, of course, your laundry! (For the record: we just started Post-Tisha B’Av Load #3, aka “BA”H - A Drop in the Bucket”.)

Some of you have inquired as to the state of the playroom. I’m pleased to report that although we’re not yet finished, we’ve certainly come a long way.

For instance, the library committee* managed to finish sorting and shelving the playroom books, as you can see here:

And here:

And also here:

To our pleasant surprise, we found all sorts of books which we had forgotten about. Also, now that everything is classified according to official OSS rules (that is, the Our Shiputzim System, of course!), it’s now much easier to find a specific book.

The Our Shiputzim editorial board would like to take this opportunity to thank the library committee for their fine work. In particular, the board is highly appreciative of AMG’s bookbinding and repair efforts. Go, AMG!!!

That’s about it for now, but don’t forget to watch this space for future updates.

Have a good afternoon from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

P.S. To those of our readers who are traveling abroad this week: Have a good and safe trip, and please feel free to check in while you’re away.

________

* Library Committee: Chair – Our Head Librarian; Members - AMG and TSG

A new twist on the words “storing it on the computer”

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!!

We begin this evening’s posting with a special shout-out to our reader in Sweden. Clearly, this has become a truly international blog with an audience which spans the globe.

As you will – no doubt – recall, when we last met, YZG and his talented team of assistants had brought some of the shelves up to the attic. Since then, they made considerable progress.

Please follow me as we head upstairs to see what they have accomplished so far.

Unfortunately, attic views just don’t have the same je ne sais quois (I told you this was an international blog!) as roof views. But, as we say in this country, “zeh mah she’yesh”.

On that note, allow me to present -

Attic view #1:

Attic view #2:

Attic view #3:

Attic view #4:

And, attic view #5:

“But what does all this have to do with the title?!” some of our readers are surely wondering by now.

“Good question!” I respond. “I have two more attic views, which should explain everything, but first, I want to say good night.”

And, so: Good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

P.S. Here is attic view #6:

And attic view #7:

Let's shelve that plan for now

There's nothing more boring than a blogger who, after not posting for a few days, briefly returns with a lame excuse and an insincere apology for neglecting the blog - only to once again abandon the poor, lonely blog and the faithful, long-suffering readers.

Alas, such appears to be the case here. However, in our defense, we should note that we did post a request for future topics here. Yet, the response was limited to a single comment (to be found here).

So, unless - or until - several other readers chime in with suggestions for future topics, posting is likely to become even more infrequent and the entries are likely to become even less interesting, as our renovations slowly begin to wind down.

In the meantime, let me bring you up-to-date:

On Friday, the carpenter arrived to re-measure the attic-stairwell-formerly-known-as-our-hole. Hopefully, he'll be returning some time this week.

Also, on Friday, ASG washed the playroom floor, and everyone managed to remove all the toys and books from the living room before Shabbat. Unfortunately, the pictures of the playroom have not been cleared for publication. (We haven't yet decided how we want to organize all the playroom furnishings.)

In other news, the kablan is off to Europe on vacation for a few days, which gives us about a week to empty ASG and AMG's rooms in advance of the painting. To that end, YZG and AMG once again hosed down the attic, which had become dusty again due to the installation of "Our Stairs: The Sequel", in general, and the carving out of the top stair, in particular. Afterwards, they used bleach to wash the floor and then started bringing the shelves up from AMG's room.

This is what the attic looks like now:

And:

And that's where we're holding for now.

As always, watch this space for future updates, and feel free to leave a comment*. We love hearing from you.

===============

* In response to a reader's query about comments to old posts, let me explain ("no, there is too much, let me sum up") that all comments - even those left on the older posts - come directly to us.

Content? Where we’re blogging we don’t NEED content

Yes, I know. Long time, no write.

The problem was that there really wasn’t much to tell. In fact, there still isn’t, but don’t worry. I won’t let the fact that I have nothing to say stop me from posting.

We begin with a brief (or maybe not so brief) survey of the assorted holes and cracks which have been patched up since our last post.

Here are some pictures from the attic:

And:

And also:

But, wait! That’s not all. We also have this picture:

And this picture:

There are, of course, plenty more where these came from, but there’s only so much excitement one can handle. So, please follow me outside. (I’m going to have to ask those of you in the back to please remain with the group. Thanks.)

Let’s see. We have this picture:

And we have this picture:

And then there’s this picture:

And, of course, this picture:

And last, but certainly not least, there is this picture:

I suspect that by now we’ve lost most of our audience, and so I believe that those of you who have stuck it out until now deserve some sort of bonus (or tchupar, if you will). How about a couple of pictures of the top attic step?

Here’s one:

And here’s another:

Wasn’t that fun?

In other news, YZG (with some help from ASG) sealed the hole up temporarily with some old particle board:

And, finally, the kablan told us that he’s giving us a present. He wants to make us some shelves out of the extra steps. Here are the brackets which he brought over before Shabbat:

That’s about it for now.

Enjoy your cheesecake and have a chag sameach!