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The REFORMA Children In Crisis (CIC) Project was created by librarians who witnessed an inhumanity and felt compelled to act. There are several articles out there that introduce the great work of this project. However, for this piece, I wanted to bring in a perspective that captured the spirit of the movement — the very personal connection the members have to the work they do. Ricardo Ramirez is a Senior Library Assistant for Youth and Spanish Services at Butte County Library in Chico, California. Below is a personal narrative about his experience.

I started working on the REFORMA CIC in the summer of 2014. It was during my second semester as a MLIS student at SJSU, and in the very early stages of being a parent, that the contemporary plight of refugees from Central and Latin America came to the forefront of my attention. Because at the time I did not have a television, it was from following social justice non-profits on Facebook and being networked on social media with activists and educators, that I began to learn the issues affecting these refugees, and moreover, the fact that so many of them were unaccompanied children from some of world’s most dangerous regions. The keyword here, is children, very much like my own child, who would like to climb up on my lap while I did my graduate research. I was not surprised to learn that this type of child migration existed, but it was shocking none the less, and especially painful to see the conditions in which they were detained by immigration agencies. At the time I had just finished a pair of papers, Counter-Storytelling in Young Adult Literature and Braided Histories: Beyond Collected Biographies in Children’s Literature, both of which explored how “non-traditional” narratives can provide young people in hostile environments valuable resources and emotional support. A flicker of hope and inspiration occurred: I am a position to offer some type of support…

Before I had submerged myself in statistics of the crisis, before I understood the demographics of the refugee children, there were a handful of photographs that moved me. It is important for me to mention this because I was in the early stages of raising my own child and also deeply involved in the early learning programming at my library, and from that particular vantage point at that time in my life I was constantly motivated to explore how young minds could be shaped by positive learning environments and play. The photographs that I saw of the refugee children were in stark contrast to what I saw on a daily basis, and what my ideals were for creating spaces where children and families can thrive and explore. Far from learning environments, most child refugees from Central America are detained in spaces that are dark and heartbreaking. I held my own child as I encountered these images, and I knew that the one thing I could do for them was to extend my hand and my heart. I imagined a consortium of librarians and educators providing school, storytimes, and performance. I had witnessed on a daily basis how a genuine smile, a song, a story could brighten the spirit of child who was attending their first storytime, or listening to their parent hum a melody they had never heard before. As I daydreamed about all of this, in Austin, San Diego, Miami, Fresno, and in other parts of the country, librarians, the kind who have spent their entire library careers as advocates for the underserved and unrecognized, gathered their energy and came together to form what would become the REFORMA Children in Crisis Task Force. Somehow, because I raised my hand when they called for members, I was pulled in by their gravitational force, and have been along for the ride ever since.

Addressing the literacy and information needs of these children is a part of a complex issue. Children and teens who are fleeing from violent regions face extreme hardships that can cause a lifetime of trauma. Books and outreach are an important step. Librarians like Ady Huertas and David Lopez, two all-star members of the CIC Task Force, have provided outreach to detention centers and refugee shelters by providing books and programming, as well as giving tours of their libraries, library card sign ups, and summer reading programming. In both cases, they were supported by their local REFORMA chapters and members into action. Ady Huertas’ proximity to the US-Mexican Border Region and her connections with Tijuana librarians like Rosa Maria Gonzalez, has enabled our outreach to expand not only to refugee children, but also children and families who are living in extreme geographic and socio-economic isolation. 

It is eye opening work, that can be exhausting. But what it has done for me is to be constantly vigilant for causes of the underrepresented and populations of young people that have experiences that we may be unprepared to deal with. Challenges exist. At the core of the CIC is a continual fundraising and advocacy effort for a cause that is perpetual and variable from region to region. Add to this, working against a strong re-emergence of hostility towards migrants and refugees, librarians who serve youth and families have a strong responsibility to be inclusive to new communities and be prepared to provide resources that are focused on their evolving needs. Yet librarians and educators must also be able to create programs for all in their service areas that reinforce community building and positivity towards new immigrants. This can be as simple as taking the time after a storytime to personally welcome a new family with warmth and gratitude because they are spending their family time with you.

The most important thing about all of this, for us as information professionals and resource providers to children and families, is that refugee children are living their lives in a state of uncertainty. They don’t know if they will ever find a safe refuge, here or anywhere else. All take great risks to migrate towards safety despite increased violence and persecution on their route to the United States. Refugee children from Central America, much like their counterparts from distraught regions in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, have no other option but to keep moving away from violence. There is no home to return to. In the past few years many of us have been inspired by public libraries that open their doors to act as a refuge for communities in pain. At the same time, we are heartbroken by imagery of children in detention and being passed from nearly capsized fishing boat into the hands of rescue. What is at the heart of the CIC mission is that some relief is possible in this, be it through the gift of a book that a child can take with them on their journey, or in the outreach that we can offer as they prepare to resettle into a new life that has more hope for them.

To learn more about how you can get involved, visit the REFORMA Children in Crisis Project website. 

Sylvia Aguiñaga, LSSPCC Committee Member 

Ricardo Ramirez, Senior Library Assistant for Youth and Spanish Services, Butte County Library, Chico, CA

The post The REFORMA Children in Crisis Project: A Personal Account appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Photo by Sylvia Aguinaga

Why code

I’m Mexican-American and grew up with very traditional, hard-working parents who constantly reminded me of the importance of creating a stable future for my family and myself. As an ALSC Special Populations Committee member, my job is to make sure programming remains inclusive—reaching all children and informing all parents, including the Spanish-speaking.

In order for Spanish-speaking parents to support and encourage their child to learn to code, they must first understand the importance of code in today’s world. That is why it is critical to provide approachable Spanish-language resources and craft a clear message.

In the advertising world, they say a good ad communicates one benefit of the product. As copywriter Luke Sullivan puts it, Jeep = rugged, Porsche = fast, “and Volvos, they’re…what? If you said ‘safe,’ you’ve given the same answer I’ve received from literally every other person I’ve ever asked. Ever.”

What can we say about code?

It’s an intimidating question: code is so many things; in our daily lives, code is seemingly behind everything. That’s why it’s so important to teach kids – and it’s also why it’s so difficult to explain to their parents.

There’s one benefit of learning code that can stand out to our audience, parents who care deeply about their children’s future.

Code is money.

More than 1.7 million programmer-specific job opportunities will be available in 2022, with average salaries over $83,000. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) jobs are the fastest growing in the U.S. with 71% of these jobs involving computers.

Promising children an opportunity to learn code could be the most effective way to promise them a future. Once we communicate this clearly to parents, they will be interested. They’ve always wanted a future for their children.

As children’s librarians, this has been our goal all along too. Literacy = opportunity.

What you can do

If you slam a kid in a chair and make them stare at a wall of code – a black screen filled with ///{“symbols”;} and cryptic jargon – they’ll likely react like any of us: “what?”

Fortunately, there are tons of great resources for bringing digital literacy to children.

My favorite is Scratch. Scratch is a free programming language for kids (ages 8 and up) that lets you create games, music, and animations. It is visual-based. Kids drag and drop different elements, and link them together like Legos.

Essentially, introductory languages like Scratch get children thinking in a code mindset. Not only working logically, but playfully – learning to tinker, examine, explore.

The past few months I’ve partnered with Joanna Fabicon, a Children’s Librarian at Los Angeles Public Library, to help develop Coder Time (see resources linked below!). Coder Time is a weekly coding club launching this month at the Central Library and in after-school programs at elementary schools across L.A. Our goal is to inspire kids to do meaningful things with computers.

Each “chapter” of the Coder Time curriculum is paired with books that will encourage kids to explore their library and discover content that will in turn inspire them to make something they will love.

Another big goal of Coder Time is to empower librarians to facilitate their own coding workshops by using librarian-gathered and curated content. Coder Time materials are licensed under a Creative Commons license that lets you tweak and adapt content to your own community.

To truly bring digital literacy to children, we need library-created content and programs. Often, librarians outsource coding workshops to experts. Though well-intentioned and certainly helpful, these workshops don’t do enough to serve our public. Like reading, coding is a practice, a way of being in the world. Coding programs need to be a regular, fully integrated part of the library – not something tacked on just to cover the bases.

For this to happen, librarians need to be comfortable with and familiar with code. But as programs like Scratch show, this is no obstacle. You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to—as you ask of your young patrons—be willing to learn.

Beyond $

Like reading, the benefits of coding are deeper than money. Coding gives children a creative way of looking at the world. It empowers them to make, rather than passively consume. It encourages them to work together.

With a clear message, our voice can be heard by parents. In turn, all children can make their voices heard with technology.

Resources

Code for Parents (Spanish)

Code for Parents (English)

Coder Time Zine (English)

Sylvia Aguiñaga, LSSPCC Committee Member

The post Code for Parents appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Thousands of unaccompanied refugee children fleeing violence in their home countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have crossed the United States border and turned themselves in where they are being held in detention centers and placed in removal proceedings. In June 2014, at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, REFORMA (National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos & the Spanish Speaking) decided to form the Children in Crisis Task Force to get books into the hands of these children while their future is determined. The Children in Crisis Task Force Co-Chairs are looking for ways  to partner with immigrant youth centers. Co-Chair Patrick Sullivan states, “Vendors are waiting in the wings ready to donate books.” Through monetary donations REFORMA is ready to purchase books, backpacks and school supplies.

In September 2014, National REFORMA President Silvia Cisneros personally delivered the first shipment of donated books to McAllen, Texas. In October 2014, Theresa Garza Ybarra, President of REFORMA’s Estrella de Tejas Chapter coordinated a second shipment of donated books to Karnes City, Texas. REFORMA is currently working on a third shipment to Artesia, New Mexico with REFORMA de Nuevo Mexico Chapter President Flo Trujillo. Task Force Co-Chair Oralia Garza de Cortes says it is a slow challenging process that is important. She states, “(REFORMA) is the first group to put books into the detention facilities. No one has done that before.”

Sullivan says that the next phase of this project is to determine what REFORMA can do to help local chapters help newly arrived children in their region who have been re-united with their families but are still under order of removal. Some REFORMA chapters are already doing this such as Los Angeles and San Diego Libros. For example, Ady Huertas, Teen Center Manager for San Diego Public Library’s Central Library, is working closely with local community organization Southwest Key. They have a couple of centers that provide temporary housing and education for youth in transition. They arranged one class visit consisting of 2 centers and 3 classes with 20 youth aged 8-17 years old. Huertas gave them a tour, library cards, and introduced them to library resources. She also gave the youth free Spanish books and some incentives. She is now coordinating a second visit and hopes to schedule regular monthly visits. To her surprise, Huertas even received thank you notes in English! Huertas explains that libraries have a role in servicing this segment of the community. Huertas states, “We’re trying to introduce the library as a safe place and in cities anywhere where they end up, they should look for the local library and get resources and technology for free.”

Photo by Ady Huertas

Libraries have traditionally reached out to immigrant populations to help them navigate their way in a new country. Garza de Cortes notes that this population is different in that they have refugee protected status. When asked about the next steps, Garza de Cortes responded, “(We need to) create more awareness of our role and responsibility as librarians to provide accurate information for the families and work with agencies to be able to help them better understand the power of libraries and power of books to help children change their lives.”

To find out more information about this project or make a book or monetary donation, please visit the Children in Crisis site here.

Additional Resources:
* Tan, Shaun. The Arrival. A.A. Levine, 2006.
Tan, Shaun. Emigrantes. Barbara Fiore, 2007.
Graphic novel of the immigrant experience. Available in English and Spanish but completely wordless.

Art from “The Arrival”. Image from Shauntan.net

* Department of State. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Office of Admissions Refugee Processing Center Affiliate Directory : From Boise, Idaho to Wheaton, Illinois, this official directory lists the many service agencies working directly with refugee children.

* Southwest Key Programs: Immigrant Youth Shelters : Information and map locator for shelters run by Southwest Key that temporarily house unaccompanied minors.

_______________________________________________________________________

Ana-Elba Pavon is the Branch Manager of Oakland Public Library’s Elmhurst Branch in Oakland, CA and is writing this post for the Public Awareness Committee. You can reach her at [email protected]

3 Breakout Latino Olympians

5 Latino Olympians and their inspiring moms

10 Latino Olympians to follow on Twitter  #Latino Olympians

10 Things you don’t know about your Favorite Latino Olympians

12 Amazing Latino Athletes

History make Latino Olypians

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Yesterday, Cathy Cohen published an article with the Washington Post titled, Another Tea Party, led by black youth?” In it, she shares,

In my own representative national survey, I found that only 42 percent of black youth 18-25 felt like “a full and equal citizen in this country with all the rights and protections that other people have,” compared to a majority (66%) of young whites. Sadly, young Latinos felt similarly disconnected with only 43 percent believing themselves to be full and equal citizens.

In the video below, Cohen further  discusses the involvement of black youth in American politics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Posted with permission. (c) 2010 University of Chicago

Our first non-structural purchase for the new house - a very cool little clawfoot tub for Jo's bathroom. It's mostly in good shape. The inside is just dirty and doesn't need to be re-enameled.
But what kind of maroon stores an iron tub on its side in the grass? Luckily it wasn't out there for long. One whole side is rusted, but it doesn't go too deep.
Here it is flipped upside-down and ready for a good scrubbing with a wire brush.
I was all ready to start hitting it today with the naval jelly - assuming that it would take several tries to get off all the rust, but once I finished with the wire brush I realized that it will probably only take a few applications. I'm not ready to paint it yet, and I'll want to prime and paint as soon as I get the rust off, so we're putting this on hold until we choose flooring for Jo's bathroom and the color for the outside of the tub. I can't wait! And (as Jo would say) I'm not being sarcastic. I really mean it.

Jo and I woke up yesterday to a world covered with ice - and no power. The ice was beautiful - crystal clear and very thick.
So thick that it weighed down everything in sight. We heard lots of branches snapping all morning, and I got to watch a big branch break off one of our tall white pines - and crush a smaller sapling on the way down to the ground.
Jo especially liked the way all the junk on our deck looked, encased in ice. I thought the chairs were especially pretty. I'm not sure you can see it in the photo below, but the whole underside of this chair is dripping with icicles. Very cool.
So no school and no power. That means no heat, so Jo and I were"trapped" in the very small living room where we could huddle near the fire. We read some books, played some games, drew in our sketchbooks, and nibbled on snacks from the pantry. Jo helped out by giving me a backrub while I struggled to start a fire. (Alan is the fire master.) Jo also drove me insane with her constant chatter. Here's a sample. . .
Jo: "Emma, [that's the cat] you're a fartbutt."
me: nothing
Jo: "Mommy - did you hear that? I called Emma a fartbutt! Ha ha ha! That's so funny! I called Emma a fartbutt! Did you hear that Mommy?"
me: groan

And then, at the end of the day while we snuggled under a blanket in the firelight and watched night fall with no lights or candles on inside, Jo comes out with this. . .
Jo: "Mommy?"
me: "Yes Jo?"
Jo: "I don't think this is really our house."
me: Hmm. I'm thinking that this actually makes sense in a way. This is a mobile home very badly abused by the people who rented it before we bought it. The sellers had to remove (and burn) all the floor coverings and only half of the plumbing works. We haven't unpacked all of our boxes from the move last April. This isn't really our home - it's just the place we live while we build our dream home. But I don't think this is where Jo is going, so I say, "What do you mean Jo?"
Jo: "I think this is actually a clone of our house and we can't tell the difference."
Huh. How can the person who's unbelievably tickled by the word "fartbutt" also ponder cloning and (sort of) alternate realities by firelight? She's a mystery. And I mean that in the best way possible.

Not a lot of crafting happening lately - because we've been busy working on our house. We've had fabulous weather lately so we finished siding as much as we can reach without scaffolding. AND we painted. AND we cut the battens that will cover the seams between panels. Let me tell you - ripping 3" strips from 4' x 8' sheets of siding - each sheet weighing in at over 70 pounds - was no fun at all. But they'll look beautiful when they're up. Here are a few pics showing where we stand so far.

I loved the way the wavy shadows looked on the crisp lines on the side of the house so here's a closer pic of that.

Isn't that pretty? Someday, after we've moved in and planted a bunch more trees, the whole house will look like this.

Now we've got rain coming in so I'll be spending my free time in my sewing room instead of out working on the house. I can't wait to finish the handwarmers!

We've done a couple more day's work on the siding of our headquarters, so here's a quick update.First we laid down another spread of gravel. It's much easier to work on a gravel bed than it is to work on mucky red clay. Jo vogues for the camera in her snazzy overalls.
It's been cold lately so we work while the sun is shining on us. Here we are at the end of the day - one row of panels put up. Alan huddles with his hands in his pockets for warmth. As soon as the shade moves onto our spot we get COLD.
Today we got to work on the next row of panels. I am the Head Measurer in Charge of All Things Mathematical.
Doing around the windows involves lots of measuring and tedious cutting. We're going to cover all the seams and around all windows and doors with three-inch battens painted the darkest shade of gray.
Alan is Chief of Hammering and Heavy Lifting. We managed to work our way around the house today to get a start on side #3. Our hope was to get two rows up on that side too, but the shade came and froze our fingers - time to go in and light a fire. We've been having a fire in the fireplace every night and it's really awesome - and necessary for warming up cold bones after working outside.
Jo never seems to get cold. She actually helped shovel quite a bit of gravel today and then repeatedly climbed the pile of gravel to the North Pole - or sometimes the West Pole. I'm not sure who lives at the West Pole, but Jo visited several times this afternoon.
And here we are at the end of today. We're taking a break tomorrow but we'll be taking advantage of the nice weather forecast for Wednesday to get some more done. We're going to do two rows of panels all the way around the house, paint them, and put up their battens. Then we rent scaffolding and start on the higher-up rows. Ah. . . something to look forward to as the weather gets colder and colder. . .hoisting 70+ lb. panels of cement up three stories of scaffolding in January cold and wind.

It's been a while since we had a Gratz Industries HQ update here, I know. I'd like to say that it's because we were very busy--which is partially true--but our frequent Project Runway and Project Barbie posts belie that. The truth is, not much has happened to the house since it was handed over to us. It got door hardware, and a spiffy new trench with little landscaping flags and everything, but the house still stood in its underwear--until now.


Doesn't look like a thousand dollars worth of siding, does it? But it is. This is cement board siding called HardiBoard. They make it with wood grain and faux board molding, but you know we're too weird to do it straight up like that. We have a very different look in mind, which we'll get to in a minute.

Jo is leaning on enough siding to do about one and a half exterior walls--give or take a few panels. We overbought (we hope) for the first wall both because we're new at this and want to make sure we've calculated right, and because we're going to rip some of that stuff to become the battens, the little strips that cover the siding seams. We figure we can use any overage on the next wall anyway.

Work began by hefting the dang things into place and then hammering them into the sheathing already on the house (hidden behind that "BreatheEZ" housewrap there). Each of these panels is 4 x 8 feet, and weighs about 70 pounds. I kid you not. Lifting them into exactly the right place is a four person job, for which of course we only have two people. Nailing them is a one-person job, which allowed a particular persona non grata to take a shot of my butt. (Which is better than seeing the bald spot on the back of my head, I guess.) Jo likes playing in the rocks we put down to keep the mud from splattering back up on the house, but I was able to enlist her help eventually:

Jo's pushing the paneling flat for me while I nail it in.

Each side of the house is exactly four panels long. Coincidence? Perish the thought. We deliberately designed the house so that we could use 4 x 8 panels without having to cut them. Until we come to the windows, of course. We chose to start with the back wall, here in the shadows, for that reason--only five windows, and not until we get up high. (This is the northern, cold wind side, which is why there are fewer windows. It also faces the woods.) The other reason we started with the back side of the house? Years of weekend warrior experience have taught us a very important lesson: always begin with the least visible place you're working on--that way all your terrible initial mistakes are hidden and by the time you get to the visible stuff you know what you're doing.


Does this tool belt make me look fat?


Two full rows finished! That's as high as we're going on each wall until we rent some scaffolding, so we can spend as little time (and money) on it as possible. Now it's time to paint the stuff!


Remember what I said about us never doing things nice and easy? Our grand plan is to paint each of the 4 x 8 panels one of three shades of greenish/gray, to give the house a graphic design kind of look. Here's our game plan, printed out in the four walls of the house:

The top left is the back wall, the one we've started with:

Those dark lines in between the panels are the battens we'll have to attach to keep the elements out and hide the seams.

Wendi begins with the lightest color paint, and I get revenge for that butt shot. Woohoo!

And the paint goes on. Wait! It's the same color as the primer! Dang. Still, has to be done, just not as satisfying as the other colors:

Now we're talking! The paints haven't dried yet, so the two lighter ones look very similar. That will change.

And here it is later in the day as the sun sets over the mountain behind us.

We're 1/14th of the way there!

Oh man, that's a depressing thought.

This morning we received ten tons of gravel. Seriously - ten tons. Want to know what ten tons of gravel looks like?You might think I just threw Jo in there for scale - but she was actually my happy helper today. She helped scoop up gravel (I used a shovel and wheelbarrow, she used a bucket) and spread it out behind the house. We're going to do this all the way around the house to keep the rain from splashing clay mud up on to the soon-to-be-installed siding. I'd rather use mulch but it's not a good idea to mulch right up next to the foundation, so we're using gravel instead. It will look a lot less stark when we get some plantings in. Hydrangeas are at the top of my wish list, but that won't happen until next spring. For now we're one step closer to putting up siding. . .

We really want to get started on the siding of our house, but first there's a low spot in our yard that quickly becomes a large lake when we have a lot of rain. Before the ground freezes we'd like to take care of that problem, so we've started digging a trench to install one of those landscaping drainage pipes. The trench needs to be about 70 feet long - that's a lot of digging. It's really the kind of thing to hire a backhoe or rent some kind of trenchdigger for, but we don't have enough money for that right now. We do, however, have enough money to buy a mattock.And Alan has a willingness to wield it.So here's the trench when we started yesterday - before that Alan was digging it out with just a spade. Aaack! And ow!Now we have a new system that works pretty well. Alan hacks everything up with the mattock (including breaking up very large chunks of quartz with the pickaxe end of the thing) and then I come along behind him with the spade and shovel out the loose stuff. We dug about 14 feet yesterday and we think we have three more afternoons of work on this. Then we get to order a truckload of gravel. Yay!
We had thought to get some digging done this afternoon but it's raining. No backbreaking labor for us today!

So far all the progress on the new house has been cleaning up the big pile o' crap in the front yard. In addition to the pile of big stuff there are also nails scattered all over the yard. I decided to put Jo to work picking those up and I offered to pay her a nickel a nail. Silly me! I should have looked closer and taken a guess as to how many nails are actually there. So far she has picked up 416 nails. 416! That's $20.80 so far and there are still a LOT of nails lying around out there.
And here's the best part. . . guess what she bought with her money? A book. And not just any book. It's brand new and it's called The Chronicles of Spiderwick.We've already read all five of the regular Spiderwick books (we haven't read the new one yet) and Jo has listened to the audio recordings several times. She also has the Field Guide which she PORES over. As soon as she saw this new book in the store she was entranced. It's a Dragonology-style companion to the world of the Spiderwick Chronicles with pull-out maps and lots of little pockets with special treasures in them. She loves every page.
These books are just fabulous. The writing is terrific - short, action-packed chapters that are great for reading aloud a chapter (or more) a night. The books are just scary enough - lives are actually at stake which makes for an edgier read than what Jo is used to - but not scary enough to induce nightmares. She does, however, keep the last book in the series turned face-down because the cover is very scary. Which brings me to the art. Gorgeous! Every bit of the package is perfect. Jo especially loves that the interior art has captions - which she likes to read to me. Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi are a perfect team.
As far as extras go - the website is terrific with a great printable trivia game. I'm also looking forward to the movie. I'm a little nervous that it might be too scary to see the creepy monsters on the huge big screen, but Jo is so in love with these books that we will probably risk it.
My favorite part? Ever since we read the books, Jo occasionally comes up and whispers in my ear, "Click clack, watch your back!" And she loves the silly insults that Hogsqueal throws out. Candy butt? Awesome!

As of Halloween 2007, we are now the proud owners of one half-finished, unusable home. The last half of the money has been paid to the builders, and we're now officially dirt poor again. It looks like there will be no Christmas for one little girl this year--but that's all right, we'll just tell her she's been bad and that Santa doesn't love her anymore.

So the first thing we did as new homeowners was to put door handles and deadbolts on the doors. Have you shopped for door handles lately? These things can be expensive. We bought three door handles (two for the exterior, bottom-floor doors and one for the door to our third floor porch) and three deadbolts. Total cost: $230! That cost per square foot keeps inching up and up, but we'll end up saving on things like labor and expensive cabinetry in the long run.

We're making a list of all the things left to do on the house (because we like lists), and next up is the exterior siding, which we'd really like to get up by winter to help protect the house. Oh, and there's the big pile of crap in the front yard we want to go through to salvage anything useful . . .

It's been quite some time since we had a Gratz Industries HQ update for you, but truth be told, there hasn't been much new. In fact, we think the builders are almost done with their part of the work, which means it's almost time for us to put on our hardhats and get to work on all the things we left for ourselves to do. Like the plumbing. And the heating. And the electricity. And the exterior siding. And the interior drywall. And the . . . you get the picture. Right now, ambitiously, we're hoping to be living in the new house by April. One of us may have to take up prostitution to afford that, but hey - you do what you have to do.

Here's our first-floor deck, flanked now by two windowed garage doors. We had a large, all-glass garage door in our Atlanta loft, and we loved it. These partial glass doors are a concession to the colder climate, but should give us an amazing open-air feel two-thirds of the year. (The porch will be screened in too, so no bugs!)

Here's the view from the inside. You'll be able to see green through there once the mobile home is dragged away. Well, it will be brown dirt we'll see first, but we'll bring the space back to life. This interior space will be our kitchen, dining room/library, and living room, with the garage doors as a rather dynamic backdrop, methinks.

Here's the front door. We couldn't put windows in this wall because of the stairs, so we put one in the door!

The third floor got doors too. Here you can see the French doors in the bedroom. They're boarded over right now to keep them closed--there's no hardware in any of the doors yet.

And that's it for the update. There can't be much left, but the builders haven't been by in a while, and we're no hurry to call them up and ask where they are because if they're done we owe them the second half of the money. 8-/ We have it, we have it - but the longer we wait to give it to them the more brief the time we have to live with levels our bank accounts haven't seen since we were in college. Yikes! So, um, maybe I can sell another book this month . . . I know I have some old stuff laying around here somewhere . . .

Not much new to report on the new headquarters. Last week the place was spiffed up, and these short walls were added to the second and third floors. The builders had left them until last to facilitate moving large boards up and down through the open spaces without having to scale (or spear) the walls.

They also added a rubber seal on the third floor patio--which also happens to be the second floor roof. At least a quarter of the roof, that is. I'm sure we would have thought of that ourselves. After the first major rain.

Can I say again how glad I am that Marvin and his crew are doing this phase of the work? Now, if we just had more money, we could pay them to do the REST of it. As it is, we're going to have to wait for the money to come in in chunks. (Think of them as . . . book-sized chunks, if you will.) In a way this will work fine though, as we wouldn't have time to finish the rest of the house right away even if we had the money. Then again, if we had the money, we could just pay someone to finish it . . . wait, I think this line of reasoning is becoming circular.

Time for your house update fix! Now that I'm back, we'll have more frequent updates. (Ahem.)

It's finishing touches time.The windows are in but the doors--both traditional and garage-type--are not. We expect those this week. But the roof is complete!

Inside, some little things are being finished up, like the odd triangular wall created by the hipped roof.

One side of the sheathing--and a tiny top part of the other side--to go.

The interior third floor bedroom walls got their sheathing too. You used to be able to look out through the wall joists of the bathroom there into the trees. Now it's a bit more private.

The trash heap outside is growing! We've asked Marvin if we can have this. There's a lot of good scrap here. I know I can at least make a wood shed out of some of it, and we may possibly be able to complete some of the work that will remain under the eaves with some of the plywood sheathing scraps piled up inside. Waste not, want not!

So today I was merrily typing away at some fascinating email for work when I suddenly heard a deep rumbling sound from outside. It wasn't thunder - it was the sound of a big panel of metal roofing being hoisted up three stories of scaffolding. The workers were starting the roofing!
And they got about a fourth of it done.
Sorry the pictures are so bad. It's very hard to take a picture of the roof. Unless you're a giant, I guess. Have I mentioned that we REALLY love this roof? One of these pictures is called Roof 083. 83! And that's not even counting the batch called More Roof. Sheesh. But here's one more picture to remind you how beautiful it is from the inside. . .

The windows are in and it's starting to look like a real house!
I love this wall of windows looking down from the top porch into my office/studio.
And here you can see the same windows from the master bedroom.

Lots more progress on the roof today - but it's a side of the roof that's impossible to photograph so instead I'm posting pictures of. . .

All the windows that were delivered.

Lots and lots of windows!

Ta-da!

Holy cow--cathedral ceilings!

Originally the roof was going to have insulation in between those rafters, with some kind of ceiling underneath that like drywall. But Wendi and I loved the look of those rafters so much we asked Marvin and his crew if we could put the insulation on the outside, and then put the metal roof on top of that. It's doable, and they're doing it.

That means our roof will always look like this. Too bad the walls won't! I love the way that looks.

These shots are on the third floor, of course. This is the master bedroom/Alan's office. The two rooms will be separated of course, but we're arranging that. For now, it's one big open room, and it's really neat to be up there.

Superstar!

Up top, the house got a little crown. (A topknot, perhaps?) I didn't know what that was for, until today:

It was the beginning of the secondary rafters on the exterior of the roof. The insulation will go between those, and will be capped by the green metal roof. It has created a double-tall board on the overhang, which is interesting. Our house may look like a large mushroom. We were going to call this The House that Books Built, but perhaps we'll have to call it the Smurf House.

Time to walk the (aluminum) plank, me hearties!

The sheathing on the roof has begun.

The first layer got put up today on two of the four sides of the roof.

Here you can see the edging on the rafters.

And a bit further out, where you can see they've already added the house wrap to the sheathing up there.

Then late this afternoon two new things got delivered: the roof insulation . . .

. . . and the green metal roofing . . .

. . . in various sizes. It all looks great, although . . .

. . . I'm not really sure what this is, or what it means. Is it a Blair Witch thing?

The tropical storm to the east brought a little rain our way, but not before the guys got some of the rafters installed.

These will be trimmed down, but it makes for a nice picture. I'm hanging out the window in the rain for this shot. I just want you to know what lengths I go to for you.

And here's where those boards start!

Cool, huh? These are the rafters above the master bedroom.

The next day we had blue skies, and the guys went to town.


Wendi laid down where the bed will be to see what the ceiling will look like. Jo laid on her tummy to see what the floor looked like.

A corner full of rafters.

And a peak of rafters.

One more quadrant to go - the hard one, over the two story hole.

And the long shot! Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in roofing.

Sorry. I've been waiting for weeks to use that headline. Give yourself extra points if you get that reference. (Without the click-thru to Wikipedia, of course.)
Monday was roof day! Well, partially.

Early in the day we could see that one of the roof beams was going up, so I poked my head out the front door of our temporary digs and snapped a couple of in-progress shots.

Then after we returned from a trip down to Asheville, we snuck out to get some close-ups:

It was another scaffolding day - this time to reach the peak of the house.

Where four of the long special-ordered boards meet and descend to the four corners of the house.

But the roof beams weren't the only thing the carpenters raised today. They also got around to putting up the wall of windows that looks down from the third floor porch into Wendi's studio. Very cool.

And they also built the little toilet room in the master bedroom. After many years of shaving, showering, and brushing our teeth next to the toilet, we wanted it more isolated from our ablutions. Now it gets its own water closet, while the double sinks will be out in the bedroom and the shower will be enclosed in the opposite corner.

More roof beams tomorrow, Seymour!

More progress on the third floor.

The new tall wall in Wendi's studio -


The braces for the porch.

The wall from our bedroom to the porch. A set of double doors will be here.

And the long shot. It looks huge, but it's actually close to the same square-footage as the mobile home! It's that it's monolithic and not stretched out. And that the landscape all around is practically denuded.