The Project Grows!

This summer has been wonderful! The weather has been nice, and the typewriter project keeps growing!

I put out some feelers (Craigslist and Reddit postings), and I've gotten a couple responses. Someone from our area contacted me this morning about a couple machines in perfect working condition!

I also am working out the details with someone who restores and sells typewriters, who is willing to donate and ship some for the project (unfortunately, he lives too far away for me to drive and meet him face to face--perhaps in the future)!

This is the sort of thing that makes me enjoy the internet in general and love the typosphere in particular. It's easy to "lose faith in humanity" when you read YouTube and news article comments, but most people are good and interested in the good of others.

I'll update with more specifics as things progress!

More good news!

While looking for a bookshelf to use in our home, I found a 4-shelf unit that was cheap and sturdy, but needed a bit of cleaning up. I went ahead and brought it home (along with some other things, some for the classroom and some for the home) from our parish's rummage sale. It looks like it was used for garage storage, so I pulled it apart, cleaned it up, glued the joints, and replaced the nails that held it together with screws. This morning, it's feeling much sturdier, and it's ready for a coat of paint.

The downside is that the shelves aren't quite tall enough for books (aside from smaller, paperback sizes). The upside? It's perfect for typewriters! For the last weeks of 2014-15, I had three typewriters taking up disproportional space on my bookshelves in the room. There wasn't enough space to store them vertically, and they didn't stack well. This shelf will be great to hold about a dozen machines!

By the way, I mentioned Reddit. If you're unfamiliar with the website, here's a quick description:  it started as a news aggregator site (like Digg, Stumble Upon, etc.) and has grown exponentially. There is a Subreddit, or subsection devoted to just about any topic or interest under the sun. Content is all user-generated (and Subreddits are all user-created). If you are interested in typewriters, check out /r/Typewriters; it's a great community, and you can find many helpful links and discussions about identification, repair, maintenance, and just general information. Users frequently post their "new" machines, so it's a great place to see all types of typewriters!