Archives January 2022

As part of my ongoing quest to build display and storage for my sports card collection, I purchased a vintage card catalog from the library at Iowa Wesleyan University. It turned out to be a fun day trip to drive to Mount Pleasant, with stops in Dubuque, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids to check out bars, restaurants, and local card shops.

Once I got there, I thankfully had help to load the extremely heavy card catalog into the trailer, but also to load all of the individual drawers separately.

Once I made it back to Wisconsin, I unloaded the card catalog and moved it into the guest house. I had to remove the metal legs to reduce the height, and then I added a new wood veneer on the sides to cover over some scratches and other damage that it had taken over the years. It fits the space really well, and the drawers are the perfect size for sports cards!

Here are a few more photos of my overall card storage and display areas, split between the card catalog plus other shelves in the guest house, and part of the library:

After the deck, three season room, and hot tub projects last summer, the next step in outdoor construction at the Verona house is going to be an in-ground pool. There will be concrete steps to walk up to where the pool will be from the hot tub area:

I’m working with Patio Pleasures, the same company that did the hot tub, and the pool itself is being built by Optimum Pools. It will be a 32×19 “free-form” pool (meaning kidney shaped), and will have a large concrete deck and fence around it. Here is a rendering of the structure:

And here are some photos of a (much smaller) version of the free-form pool from Optimum:

Construction is scheduled to start in June 2022! In the meantime, it’s still winter in Wisconsin so I’ll have to settle for enjoying the new hot tub.