{"id":7359,"date":"2020-04-04T10:22:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T08:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=7359"},"modified":"2020-04-18T11:19:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T09:19:18","slug":"unser-buechertauschschrank-drei-jahre-spaeter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2020\/04\/our-open-bookcase-three-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Open Bookcase: Three Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Three years ago, we set up a little book exchange cabinet right in front of our home. Back then, I already blogged about it<\/a>. Our little cabinet was only able to withstand the weather of the first winter to a limited extent, so we had to rebuild it. I also wrote about that<\/a>. Now another two years have passed, and I don\u2019t want to miss the opportunity to give another update on our little book exchange cabinet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For the body of our cabinet, we had used an old kitchen cupboard back then. We built a roof on top of it and painted everything nicely. However, chipboard is not made for outdoor use, and even with paint, moisture seeped into the wood during the first winter. At that time, we added small feet underneath the cabinet, since the wood had soaked up water from the ground, and the books in the lower corners had become moldy. Even with these improvements, after three years, it had reached the end of its life. The screws of the hinges, which we had replaced, tore out of the rotten wood, and indeed, the doors were the Achilles\u2019 heel, since they are opened and closed countless times. We had already added a rubber seal between the doors, but even there the cabinet had become leaky, and especially on rainy days you could tell that the books were a bit damp when taking them out.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Since our book exchange cabinet is very popular, with people stopping by all the time and lots of books being exchanged, we didn\u2019t want to simply dismantle it without replacement. We considered building it completely anew from solid wood, but that isn\u2019t exactly cheap once you add up the material costs. On the other hand, we didn\u2019t want another temporary fix, because that would just mean more work again soon, and the investment would only stretch out over several years.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Then my better half played her trump card and asked her dad for help. And it\u2019s worth mentioning that he really knows his stuff and probably has the best set of tools in his basement any DIY enthusiast could dream of\u2014and he knows how to use them, too. In short: a book cabinet built by my father-in-law could probably survive several natural disasters. In no time at all, he built us a new cabinet using weatherproof wooden panels that are usually used for car trailers. My wife\u2019s brother also contributed some heavy-duty hinges that allow the doors to open wide. Once the weather finally became a bit warmer and sunnier, we painted the cabinet, and now it shines in its old new glory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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When Storm Sabine was announced, we were worried that the cabinet might topple over, since it\u2019s a bit taller than the old one. But once again, we got the father-in-law service: he bolted the cabinet onto the trash shed, so now it can\u2019t tip or fall over. That\u2019s a premium solution, you have to admit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here you can see how our book exchange cabinet has changed over the years.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n