Saturday morning I awoke with a surprising amount of energy and the determination to make progress in some area of my life. Progress would be good. My thoughts turned to furniture.
Naturally.
When I moved here, I brought with me several seating options. I had a folding table with four chairs. I had a comfy computer chair. And I had my recliner. Isn't it usually the male who has a beloved yet unsightly recliner that he is determined to hold on to not matter how many aesthetic rules it violates? That is not to say that my recliner is unsightly, far from it. It is comfortable, some vague sort of tan/brown that often strives to become a shade of something else when the light hits it. I inherited it from my father and it has served me well. Many a book has been read, many a movie watched, many a sick day has been spent in its lap.
However, one recliner does not a living room seating arrangement make. The computer chair is also utilized as a kitchen chair, as the counter triples as a desk and eating area. That leaves only one piece of furniture in the main sitting area. For awhile you make do. And for awhile the folding chair is okay, camping out on the floor is do-able. You are so preoccupied with other things.
And then one Saturday morning you wake convinced that you cannot spend one more Sunday forced to sit in the bedroom while Fearless Hero watches football in the living room simply to have a comfortable place to stretch out and read the paper.
I had waited too long to come to this realization, so as I booted up my computer to start our search, I was determined that we find an affordable loveseat by the end of the day. An unrealistic expectation, clearly, and one that might lead me to experience even more frustration (even though my quota seemed to be full up at the moment). It was an impossible task, really. Or one that would force us into buying something we would soon regret. Something with a farm scene or a bold floral pattern.
After spending some time on the Internet looking at local furniture retailers, we quickly decided that there wouldn't be any affordable options buying a new piece. Someday we would watch the sales, drive all over town to furniture stores, test out innumerable couches, bicker over color, hem and haw. Today was not that day. So we turned out attentions to Craigslist. For those of you unfamiliar, it is an online community where people advertise for jobs, housing, items to buy and sell etc in over 450 cities. It is a regular stop for me on my job search. I had never used it to sell or buy anything but had heard many stories of peoples' successes.
We began our search. We found several promising options and also found a number of amazingly ugly pieces of furniture. We measured and had meaningful discussions about color options we could live with. We contacted the sellers of the non-ugly options and were surprised by the quick responses. Other people have Crackberrys too! By the afternoon the owners of our favorite option contacted us and we made arrangements to meet.
We drove to nearby Santa Monica. I tried to hold on to the last shreds of rational thought, i.e., to not get my hopes up to actually be successful with the first couch we see.
Rational thought is sometimes overrated. We found the owners' apartment, chatted with the friendly couple, sat, inspected, surreptitiously smelled, agreed to buy, loaded it up in Fearless Hero's truck, paid the nice people and drove home. The whole process, including the 25 minute drive each both ways, took an hour and five minutes.
We vacuumed and cleaned the heck out of it before we brought it into the apartment. We rearranged, reorganized, and recognizing that we had now severely limited the available space in our living room, rededicated ourselves to combating the clutter that would overtake us if we were not vigilant.
It is a neutral tan color, with a micro suede covering. It is about 5 feet but if you put your feet up on the armrest you can stretch out comfortably. It is in great shape, doesn't smell funny, has no obvious hideous stains, and doesn't look like we settled. And not a barn or a flower in sight.
And the cool decorative pillow that our friend Becca gave us as a wedding present matches it perfectly. Kismet.
Naturally.
When I moved here, I brought with me several seating options. I had a folding table with four chairs. I had a comfy computer chair. And I had my recliner. Isn't it usually the male who has a beloved yet unsightly recliner that he is determined to hold on to not matter how many aesthetic rules it violates? That is not to say that my recliner is unsightly, far from it. It is comfortable, some vague sort of tan/brown that often strives to become a shade of something else when the light hits it. I inherited it from my father and it has served me well. Many a book has been read, many a movie watched, many a sick day has been spent in its lap.
However, one recliner does not a living room seating arrangement make. The computer chair is also utilized as a kitchen chair, as the counter triples as a desk and eating area. That leaves only one piece of furniture in the main sitting area. For awhile you make do. And for awhile the folding chair is okay, camping out on the floor is do-able. You are so preoccupied with other things.
And then one Saturday morning you wake convinced that you cannot spend one more Sunday forced to sit in the bedroom while Fearless Hero watches football in the living room simply to have a comfortable place to stretch out and read the paper.
I had waited too long to come to this realization, so as I booted up my computer to start our search, I was determined that we find an affordable loveseat by the end of the day. An unrealistic expectation, clearly, and one that might lead me to experience even more frustration (even though my quota seemed to be full up at the moment). It was an impossible task, really. Or one that would force us into buying something we would soon regret. Something with a farm scene or a bold floral pattern.
After spending some time on the Internet looking at local furniture retailers, we quickly decided that there wouldn't be any affordable options buying a new piece. Someday we would watch the sales, drive all over town to furniture stores, test out innumerable couches, bicker over color, hem and haw. Today was not that day. So we turned out attentions to Craigslist. For those of you unfamiliar, it is an online community where people advertise for jobs, housing, items to buy and sell etc in over 450 cities. It is a regular stop for me on my job search. I had never used it to sell or buy anything but had heard many stories of peoples' successes.
We began our search. We found several promising options and also found a number of amazingly ugly pieces of furniture. We measured and had meaningful discussions about color options we could live with. We contacted the sellers of the non-ugly options and were surprised by the quick responses. Other people have Crackberrys too! By the afternoon the owners of our favorite option contacted us and we made arrangements to meet.
We drove to nearby Santa Monica. I tried to hold on to the last shreds of rational thought, i.e., to not get my hopes up to actually be successful with the first couch we see.
Rational thought is sometimes overrated. We found the owners' apartment, chatted with the friendly couple, sat, inspected, surreptitiously smelled, agreed to buy, loaded it up in Fearless Hero's truck, paid the nice people and drove home. The whole process, including the 25 minute drive each both ways, took an hour and five minutes.
We vacuumed and cleaned the heck out of it before we brought it into the apartment. We rearranged, reorganized, and recognizing that we had now severely limited the available space in our living room, rededicated ourselves to combating the clutter that would overtake us if we were not vigilant.
It is a neutral tan color, with a micro suede covering. It is about 5 feet but if you put your feet up on the armrest you can stretch out comfortably. It is in great shape, doesn't smell funny, has no obvious hideous stains, and doesn't look like we settled. And not a barn or a flower in sight.
And the cool decorative pillow that our friend Becca gave us as a wedding present matches it perfectly. Kismet.
1 comment:
Congratulations on this achievement! It looks very nice! It's the simple pleasures....
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