Half of the Bookcases Are Built

Jim Friestad says that Society members have volunteered nearly 1800 hours in the bookcase-building project.  And what an amazing accomplishment to date!  Four bookcases, each 21' long, each with 98 shelves, have been completed, except for their crown moldings.  All of the books from the stacks in the old wing have been removed and placed in those new bookcases.  The old bookcases have been disassembled and reassembled in the new wing.  The new storeroom and server room floors have been tiled.  Furthermore, everything has been removed from the old computer room, except the telephone, and stored temporarily in the new storeroom, and the business office and meeting room have been relocated temporarily in the Fireplace Room.  Lastly, the exterior infrastructure (drain lines, electrical conduits, and irrigation lines) are being installed in the former rose garden.

Jim and Marj Friestad celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary in the library (where else?) with Kathie, Laila, Gary, John, and Louise in front of the new bookcases already loaded with books from the old stack room.

Adrian lays tile in the new storeroom.

Gary Matz disassembles the last of the bookcases in the old wing.  The bookcase beneath the windows will also be moved to the new wing as soon as more new bookcases have been built there to accept their books.

Installation of drain lines in the garden.

Bookcases Take Shape and Book Moving Has Started

Two major pieces of news this week:  On Monday, the electricians turned on the lights in the new wing, and the assembly of bookcases is sufficiently far along that books were transferred from the old wing to the new bookcases on Tuesday.  Here are some pictures of that move and progress.

Louise Matz and Jan Cloud take advantage of the new lights to sort books in the new wing until construction noise drove them back to the quieter old wing.

The numbers on the new shelves correspond to identical numbers on the old shelves, so that the books are kept in order when moved.

And here is our Librarian Kathy Morgan filling the new shelves with old books.

Marj Friestad was part of the crew to shelve books, too.

Emily Aasted and Marjorie Wilser review their plans for the move.

Adrian adds red tile window sills to give the windows a classy look.

The landscapers are digging ditches for drains, electrical conduits, and irrigation lines.

This project sure generates a lot of trash!

Meanwhile Betsee Talavera and John Fritsche install bookshelf supports on panels that will go into the last four bookcases.

The Bookcases Are Underway!

Indeed!  We had quite a gang of volunteers at the Sahyun Library today.  It was almost like a party - a work party.  One group sanded another batch of moldings for the edges of bookshelves, three guys installed shelf brackets, two fellows continued fine scale trimming of some of the bookcase panels, and the remainder spent almost the whole day assembling the bookcases themselves.  Pictures speak louder than words.  Behold!

Looks like sanding 90 bookcase moldings is fun!

Jim Friestad is plotting the positions of drill holes in some of the panels that we've spent weeks cutting, sanding, priming, staining, and varnishing.

Steve Martin assembles one of 56 floor boxes that will support two bottom shelves each.

Paul Cochet, Lars Heuchert, and John Fritsche install shelf brackets on a sunny day among the roses.

Lunch pause in the new stack room.

John, Gary (seated), Jim, and John assemble two of the 56 bookcase bays, 16 of which contain a shear panel for stability in the event of earthquake.

And at the end of the day, look what we've built:  6 of the 16 earthquake bays!  The piles of panels give an idea of what is left to do - and then some!!

In Preparation for the MOVE!

          We are very close to moving from the old wing to the new - believe that or not!  Much must happen first, and it is happening.  The painters are almost finished painting the stack, computer, storage, and Fireplace rooms.  The electricians are close to finishing installation of light fixtures in the stack room, AND the bookcase crew has made a test assembly of part of a bookcase!  Enough parts and pieces have been cut, sanded, stained, and varnished to assemble four of the eventual eight book cases, and that assembly will commence THIS WEEK!  When those bookcases are assembled, we can MOVE BOOKS.  
          We are about ready to MOVE the business operations from the old wing into the Fireplace Room temporarily until the librarians' office is completed.  In the meantime, the bookcase crew is finishing the last of the pieces needed for the second four bookcases, exterior work has begun to level the grounds, dig trenches for drains, irrigation lines, and electrical conduits.  
          Yes, a lot is going on just now, and we'll be calling out for help very soon to move furniture, assemble those bookcases, and move books, because until that work is completed, renovation of the old wing cannot commence.  So thanks to lot of volunteers who have already put in over 1200 hours on the bookcases alone, we are just about ready to MOVE into the new wing!!  Come on down and enjoy the fun!!  We can use YOU!! 

A painter stretches to put the finishing touches in the entry way.

John Fritsche and Bob Lynn make some final cuts with the panel saw.

A sanding crew works on the last of the bookcase panels.

The garden has been cleared of weeds and smoothed out to plot the locations of walkways, drain lines, electrical conduits, and irrigation lines.

Each shelf in the old stacks has been numbered for the eventual MOVE to the new stacks.

And here we are - a successful test set-up of three bays of just one of  the new bookcases!

Anyone know this bird that was on Louise Matz' car?

Continuing Indoor and Outdoor Progress

The electricians were called to an emergency job elsewhere today, so completion of light fixture installation will be delayed until next week.  The painters returned today, and landscape contractor Thierry Fray and his crew came for a final conference with landscape architect Cheryl Jensen, and contractor Tony Suhrer before digging trenches for drains and electrical conduits next week.  The bookcase crew is shooting to begin assembly next week, too.
Perhaps the biggest news today is that the cherry tree has about a dozen big, ripe cherries on it!

This painter is priming the walls in preparation for painting tomorrow.

The electricians have some more work to do with these overhead fixtures in the stack room.

Cheryl Jensen, Tony Suhrer, and Thierry Fray consult over landscaping plans.

Cheryl, Thierry, and his crew get into details pertaining to location of drain lines, downspouts, electrical conduits, and sidewalks.

And here is the bookcase crew sawing, sanding, staining, and varnishing - as usual.

The New Wing is Nearing Completion

The boys have focused on getting the stack room completed so that we can begin to assemble bookcases soon.  Thus, the texture coating and painting are completed, and the electricians are hard at work installing light fixtures, outlets, and switch plates in the stack room.  When they are finished, we can begin to assemble bookcases and then move books to clear the old wing for its renovation.  Meanwhile, a little more texture coating and all the painting awaits in the research room, the fireplace room, the storeroom, and entryway.  And the bookcase work continues.

Part of the exterior is getting a plaster surface instead of brick.

We'll have plenty of light when the electricians finish their work.  See the nice texture on the walls and ceiling and their color.

Jean, Gary, and Emily sanding, sanding, sanding . . . .

We have several hundred powder-coated steel bookshelves, and each must have a strip of molding applied to its front edge.  Here's the set up for that work.  From left to right:  The molding strip with its unfinished backside; clamps; the wooden jig to hold the shelf upright; and on the jig is a blue tube of en expensive glue that glues anything to anything; and in the jig is the shelf.  The bottle on the right contains acetone that is applied to the rag in the lower right corner to clean the surfaces of the shelf and molding before gluing them together.

The molding strip is glued and clamped to the edge of the shelf and allowed to set about 30-60 minutes.  We have enough clamps to do six shelves, one after another, but see the previous blog to see how many shelves need to be done.  If all were placed end to end, they would equal one-half mile, or 560 total shelves!  (That's also a half mile of molding that had to be cut to length, sanded, stained, and varnished with 3 coats of Varathane!)

The Storm after the Lull

Although the bookcase building has been going right on schedule, building construction progress slowed over the past couple weeks because of scheduling, miscommunications, and inspections, but here we go again.  The dry wallers got back to work with some cool tools that allow just one person to mud and tape all the joints in just one day.  Very impressive!!

Jim caught Art in the act of sanding one of the panels that will support the computer bench.

About 300 bookshelves, each neatly wrapped in butcher paper, are piled up here waiting to be unwrapped, have a strip of red oak molding glued to one edge, rewrapped, and stored back in this room until the book cases are assembled. 

George is using a remarkable tool that applies mud and tape simultaneously to the cracks between the sheet rock panels.  Before he could start, the dry walling had to be inspected to see that the nail spacing accords with City building code.

Shortly after mudding and taping, George smooths the tape and removes excess mud with a wide blade putty knife.  He has another tool to cover the nails.  This fellow really knows what he's doing and takes great pride in his work.