McHuston Booksellers

Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Category: Blog (Page 151 of 153)

Awnings and Yawnings.

March 22, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The cloudy-rainy weather makes me wish for an all-day layabout in bed, preferably with a good book! But the hiatus is over and the days of lounging around while waiting for the building to be completed are gone.

I missed the awning! And I’m happy to report that it has been restored to the front of the building. It comes a little late, rain-wise, but that’s all right.

As you can see in the photo, the former law firm’s identity has been removed from the front of the canvas. Of course, if you have a hankering to see that, you can travel back in time by way of Google Earth, which has not updated its images of downtown Broken Arrow since the Main Street Tavern moved in, and the Glamour Gowns and More building was remodeled.

The new McHuston Booksellers building is pretty much completed now, with only a few minor behind the scenes things. Weather-stripping the back door, for example.

Tables and chairs are scheduled for delivery today, even though they’ll have to be pushed to the side again to allow the moving of the remainder of the book shelves and cases. Bit by bit it is coming together.

I’ve already given a couple of pre-opening tours to the curious, and I wish I could do it for everyone. There is nothing like word-of-mouth advertising, and the more folks who see the wonderful renovation of this century-old building’s interior, the quicker the word will spread that the store is reopening!

The new question is – When will that come?

I’ve been telling people that it will take some time (and cooperative weather) to get the one-thousand boxes of books moved back onto the shelves. And that’s after getting the last of the shelves installed.

The checkout counter won’t take long to set up, and the sales systems are already in place and ready to go.

April 1st would be a good target date. Whether it is realistic or not is the next question. In the meantime, blogging-break is over and it is time for back to work!

Ishmael? No. Call me Manuel. Manuel Labor.

March 19, 2012 / / 0 Comments

It is a bit dreary outside with the first real springtime storm dropping rain as though it will all come at once instead of spacing itself out over the season. Inside, it is snug and comfortable.

No need to set buckets in the back to catch water. The old location – with its leaks and exposed fluorescent bulbs and stained ceiling tiles – is history.

Earlier, I closed my eyes after setting the drill in place and ran the bit through the new wallboard. Hated to do it, but it won’t show and the wall shelves must be anchored for safety. Half are completed and I’m taking a break to post this update.

I’m exploring old and new technology this afternoon and both went off without a hitch. It’s nice when that happens. Being both supervisor and laborer today, I had to find a way to lift a broken shelf into place to be repaired. You can see from the pictures that I managed it, and the unit is much more solid with the new woodscrews than it was with the thirty-plus year old commercial staples.

Even though the staples gave way from the sliding, wrenching, lifting, and tilting, the wood is solid. Heavy stuff. The section is six feet long, and you can check the construction in the picture (it’s the nearest light wood fixture). I was able to lift it onto the base by stacking a series of steps using extra shelves. I could raise one end, slide the lift underneath, and then move to the other side to repeat the process.

Eventually, I had raised the top to a level where I could slide it over onto the base. Drilling pilot holes and running in the screws was the easy part.

I’m wishing I could clone myself to give myself a hand (not applause, silly – just a little extra lifting power).

Raising something heavy is ancient technology – pyramid stuff.

I’m able to post pictures using something I’ve just discovered. My cell phone is equipped with Bluetooth technology, something I’ve heard bandied about, but never had occasion to investigate. It turns out my laptop has the same capability.

It took a few minutes to figure it out, but I got the telephone to talk to the laptop and transferred the pictures from my phone to the computer. Bam! There they are, without so much as a wire to carry them from one place to another. And I love that fact that it worked on the first go ‘round without a frustrating learning curve.

Now that the images are here and this note is ended, I’m back to the drill and electric driver to run a few more screws into the remaining shelf units. The last wall anchors will complete the installation of the newly acquired shelves.

A break in the rainy weather will allow me to start bringing the books out of storage.

Here we go!

Let the Books begin: McHuston Booksellers on Main.

March 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Let the work finally begin.

Not that there hasn’t been a lot of that going on already, at the site of the former Francy Law Firm on Main Street. It’s just that the work from this point forward is a different kind.

There won’t be professional carpenters, contractors, plumbers, and HVAC workers. Just me. And the volunteers. And there aren’t many of those.

But that’s okay.

It’s been a labor of love all along, running the bookstore in Broken Arrow. The book industry is changing almost every day, what with electronic readers, authors posting chapters in their online blogs, store closings, and a general decline in reading habits. There are still plenty of things being read, but a lot of the reading is online: blogs, websites, tweets, news aggregators, and Facebook updates.

That piece of paper, the final page of a small stack of numbered papers, has my signature on it. The lease is signed, and the official okay to begin moving items into the new location has been given, as of Tuesday, March 12, 2012.

That’s just shy of five months since receiving the official heave-ho notice from the previous landlord, who declined to provide a month-to-month rental arrangement to allow the bookstore to remain in operation until the new location was completed.

No hard feelings.

It just amounts to more work, moving for a second time those items carried into storage five months ago. And that work begins Tuesday.

Well, in all honesty – it could. Due to the timing, it won’t really get started until Wednesday to avoid a scheduling conflict – of all things.

Then, the shelves may be hauled out of the church where they’ve been stashed, to be reconstructed in the new location.

Books to follow that – but, all things in due time.

Let’s get the shelves rebuilt first. In the meantime, I snapped a couple of pictures of the exterior on my way back from signing the lease, showing the brick front without awning, and the trusty old Firebird parked in front. Click for a bigger view.

PS. The old Pontiac doesn’t look too bad for 16 years on the road, eh?

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