i spent the whole afternoon and evening cleaning the front of the house up, cleared out the next area to get in order and crashed late in the evening, and have been doing some loose ends over night. i have listened to most of the 14 cds i pulled out, and have pulled out ten more, for tomorrow or the next day:

80-90s warner/sire/elektra/atlantic for the historical lists:

ministry - psalm 69

cure - wish

tori amos - little earthquakes

mike oldfield - tubular bells III

ministry - land of rape and honey

jane's addiction - nothing's shocking

later time-warner reissue:

mbv - isn't anything (creation release)

others:

white stripes - elephant

i mother earth - earth, sky and everything in between

i mother earth - dig

those are the next ten for the lists.

there's a litter of kittens sleeping outside my window and i've caught the mother cat checking me out, but the mother cat doesn't seem to be that concerned about me. if anything, it may have been asking for food from me, but it was completely silent in it's interactions. it's twice the size of the previous cat, but is the same colour. is it possible that the cat came back, with kittens? there's a certain eye blinky thing that cats do when they appreciate and trust you, and it's understandable that it was doing that after i pulled it out of a vent. i think this cat might have come back here anyways. i'll need to figure this out in the next few days.

i took some pictures of the front space, which i'm call the library, this morning:

this is walking out of the studio into the hall towards the door (the library), where i've installed all of the shelving:

you can see the three cd shelves and the big book shelf. the white shelf on the other wall is going to be moved out of there and replaced with a second black book shelf. there's going to be a stationary bicycle in front of it, beside the couch, or on the other side (i might put a small table there, instead).

this is my current reference library, which i need to catalog and rebuild (it should be twice that size).

i was skeptical about these cubes for books, but as you can see they're just about perfect for library-style reference or text books, which i have a lot of and have long needed something like this for. this is an overdue solution. that system of ten cubes was $30 and i bought three of them. three of six rows are QA comp/math textbooks, but there's a cube full of law books and a row of history books, along with the various other topics i've dabbled in (physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, philosophy, engineering, music, economics, politics, anthropology, etc). it's very incomplete but is not a bad start and it's nice to get it all out of the boxes after way too long.

this is the (previously) broken cd shelf:

i got that big cd shelf on kijiji for $5 in the last basement. it was the perfect size, so i decided that it didn't matter that it was falling apart and crumbling, i'd just glue and tape it together. i was able to hold it together through two moves, but the young person that helped me move last time tried to prove his strength by lifting it straight up, which was dumb, and it caved in. so, it's been sitting in pieces for months. it took some effort to put it back together with glue, tape and finishing nails, but the thing about this shelving unit is that the back is extremely sturdy, so it will stay upright so long as you can get it connected to the sides. the bottom is really cosmetic. that will be full of cds soon enough.

next to that is the small cd shelf:

when i found this on the curb, i had to rebuild it with liquid wood, and i cut the shelves out of an older shelving unit, but it's held ever since. i was using this for books in the last basement. it will have cds down here. that's an old box of warped cassettes and dvds i've never played. don't buy me dvds...i never watch things....

this is a picture of the window on the bottom front side of the apartment, which i fixed the screen on, cleaned up, sealed for holes, realigned and put the curtain in for. 

that's an old curtain i've had for a long time and a new heavy duty curtain rod with rod holders that are screwed into a blind holder device that was already screwed into the wall.  so i didn't have to make new holes for the curtains because i could just screw them into the things for the blinds. there's some push pins in the walls that exist to get the curtains away from the window to let the sun in (good during the winter). there are some blinds i found here in a box in the back.

this is the main cd shelf, which i ordered from walmart, with a few more cds on it, in the wall perpendicular to the previous wall i was discussing.

i still need to build customized shelves for this. the height is ideal. there will be a 4th cd shelf placed right beside this one, where i currently have boxes of cds sitting.

this is the little bit of wall beside the main cd shelf:

it currently has cds that are on their way to the shelf (about 75% of total, with the other 25% in the other room) and shelving on it's way into the garage to get cut. i will eventually put a 4th (1st) cd shelf where those boxes are. the four shelves together should hold me for quite a while, if i can stay here.

this the second of two small shelves i brought in here and found outside:

 

i was not able to save this one the way i saved the other, until this month. it's good, now; ii just need shelves. this unit, however, is going in the studio and will hold various electronic devices not being immediately used. i will put a second cube shelf for more textbooks here, and probably put a stationary bicycle there as well. this location is good for the bike because of the placement of the stereo dead ahead, in front of the couch, so i can listen to music while exercising on the stationary bike. the only piece of exercise equipment i need or want is a bike, but i may put some effort into looking into it.

this is a picture coming up on the front door.

i will prefer to use the side door to come in and out and use the garage internally and to take bikes in and out, so there will be little to no traffic in and out of here in the long run, but there is now until the side door gets fixed. i will not expect to worry about boots or shoes through here much. there will be a carpet on the other side of that door, and i may put one in here, too. it should be seen more as a hallway and less as an entrance. all of that area was aggressively caulked and sealed to plug holes and drafts..

i recently found this third small shelf on the curve, which is actually in good shape and just needed to be wiped down:

you can see the door on the side, one of my bicycles in the back (for now), the charging table in the cubby hole and the wired video doorbell system installed on the wall. i am using this new small shelf for now as temporary storage to hold items going in and out of the garage, but it may end up holding boxes of items intended to be used in the garage (bike tools, guitar tools).

this is the charging table:

i don't actually know what that table is supposed to be for. it might be a desk, it might be a changing table or it might have some unclear religious significance. it was here when i moved in. the bicycle will be moved behind the door soon, i just need to fix some things in the garage first. you can see the extension cord, with usb charging outlets, as well as some rechargeable batteries and a rechargeable power drill. coming in here soon will be usb a and c hubs connected to anything that charges (and isn't a bathroom item), from cell phones to cameras to vacuums. this area was also aggressively caulked and sealed for holes. there is enough space to put a chair in here, which is where i'll install the pc i bought as a video security system.

this is the new bottom of the door:

there is a 3 inch gap under the door which apparently leads into the insides of the house, allowing entry into the unit from in behind the wall, which i want to seek to avoid. this gap would be a source of cold air in the winter, bugs and potentially rodents, although i've seen no since of them there. i stuffed the gap up as best as i could with plastic packaging, crazy glued cardboard over it, covered over it with packing tape and sealed over it with weather proofing. this may appear to be borderline stupid at first glance, but the weatherproofing should keep the barrier sealed so long as there isn't a parade of winter boots, and there shouldn't be. any entry through the front door should actually leave boots and shoes upstairs and off the rugs, but almost all entry should be through the side. i need to be cognizant of what this is, but so long as i'm careful about it, it should hold and should act as a temperature and pest barrier.

some upgrades to the door itself:

i installed the door blocker, which is rated for 800 lbs, and half of the chain. the component on the door was actually already there, so i just screwed the other part into the frame.

what i'm doing today is installing the remaining shelving in a corner of the recording studio outside my bedroom and hopefully setting up the main stereo system in front of the couch. the only stereo i've had in here to this point is a small system in the kitchen intended for watching youtube and listening to standalone cds on. this was all cleaned up and caulked before i slept last night, left to dry.

my studio shelf (with cds and other media for studio use or from studio production) goes in the corner backing into the bedroom, a plastic organizer with cords in it goes on the far side of the outlet and that white bookshelf goes on the close side of it.

the studio shelf:

the cord organizer:

the white shelf, again:

while i'm at it, here is a picture of my couch, in front of the stereo system that is about to get set up. 

that clears out the bulk of the apartment and just leaves the studio and the side entrance.

i'm focusing on the large amount of shelving first because the majority of clutter i have had in here since i moved in is items that exist in boxes and will end up on shelves - cds, books, devices, effects, cords, computers, etc. when i get these last shelves in place, i'm going to pick a pile of boxes up off the ground and put them on the shelves. but i had to fix the walls before i could move the shelves into place, and i had to do various things in the bathroom and laundry before i could fix the walls in the main area. i think i have enough caulking to finish, now. i'm really almost done.

i didn't want the garage to be last, but it's going to be almost last, unfortunately. i do necessarily have to finish the garage before i can clean out the front because that's where most of it is going, and now i have to wait for the weather to dry out first.

i have a lot of little things to buy in these areas - tables, shelves, etc. i'm far from done. i've pointed these things out. but i'm getting much closer to a space that is installed and functional to work in, rather than this mess of boxes and clutter waiting to get organized.

i just have a huge amount of belongings and i need a large space to organize it all effectively. this is actually almost ideal for what i need, but it required a tremendous amount of work to fix up properly. i am getting much closer, and the next update will be even better.