Praise be to the Baby Jesus and His Momma AND His Daddy! And to all my doggy and babysitting jobs!
It's from Ashley Furniture, we bought it ON SALE, came in AT BUDGET, and though it ain't fancy, it's comfy as hell, cute and PAID IN FULL. And did I mention it was ALREADY PAID OFF? Or that I have already purchased adorable accent pillows from Crate & Barrel?
So, with the impending arrival of our couch (which is not officially a couch until Meghan tests its quality and promptly falls asleep on it, so I will need to arrange for that), and in light of the incredible generosity shown by family and friends this past weekend, there are lots of new household-y things around. Consequently, there is nesting to be done. And folks, I'm digging it big time.
Somehow, throughout all the lives I have lived, I have not managed to acquire very much. I basically moved here with two large suitcases and a carry-on (after shipping my music and beauty products, natch). I once had a gorgeous dresser, but I had to leave it behind in the Muppet's storage in Manhattan. I'm sad that it's not with me, because I was so proud of it, but I'm happy that the Muppet has it and will love it as much as I once did.
That was my first purchase off of Craigslist and it was a stunning success. I was so happy to OWN something pretty and nice.
My following forays onto Craigslist were all positive experiences, actually. One produced an apartment (though it was ghetto fabulous, I do still have fond memories of it before it all went HORRIBLY WRONG), and then I acquired bedroom furniture in almost new condition (which we still use and are about to reFAB), as well as a set of well-made, copper-bottomed pots and pans (which I am passing down to Irene to make room for my new Emerilware All-Clad WOOT).
I had no reason to believe that further Craigslist experiences would be any different than everything that led up to them. Of course, I have been known to be wrong before, though it IS rare. This week, I had my first really bad Craigslist experience. One which I will be paying for over the entire weekend and then some.
You see, Dan and I have lots of clothes. He actually has more than I do, but that's because his fondness for Bill Cosby sweaters has not waned in all these years. In my excitement surrounding all our new household items and our new couch, I went searching on Craigslist for a much-needed dresser. And I found one that I thought looked adorable and sound. I inquired after it and offered $20 less than the asking price in exchange for picking it up that night. My offer was accepted. YAY! ANOTHER PIECE OF BIG GIRL FURNITURE! And! $25 off!
On my lunchbreak that day, I scooped Dan up and together we braved Home Depot. In one hour, we managed to acquire all the painting supplies we would need to not only transform the hotly anticipated dresser, but also our current bedroom furniture, which could stand to look more uniform and updated. All my OCD is coming out right now, isn't it? Yeah.
Anyway, we picked it up from a woman who owned a cat. In short order, we got it home, something wasn't right, we opened the back of it up, found it to be broken and fractured and not really that well-made at all, I was forced to admit to acting before I thinked, then we took a shower, did it, fell asleep, and when I got to work the next morning, I had a fight with my mom who wanted me to threaten the poor woman with small claims court if she didn't do right by us and refund us some money or take the damn thing back, and I didn't feel as though it needed to be escalated to THAT degree but she kept pushing it and BECAUSE of my ire over that particular argument, I proceeded to fire off what I thought was a rational, logical email requesting recompense. It may have had an edge, but in no way did I think it was harsh.
She called me. I called her back and she told me I had basically ruined her day. "That was quite the email." We then proceeded to have a conversation that stunned and frustrated me to no end. I have never, in recent memory, had a conversation with a truly vacant yet certifiably crazy person until last night. We could not agree on an appropriate course of action and I hung up the phone overwhelmed by the desire to NEVER SEE OR SPEAK TO THAT WOMAN AGAIN.
And so it has come to pass that I purchased a broken dresser for too much money, and that in its current state it cannot even be placed upright until we get it reinforced, but that once it has been the recipient of my tender care and world-famous tenacity, it will be glorious and the heavens will sing down unto it that this dresser has reached its full potential. And that the Crazy Cat Lady will never cross my path again.
Here are a few snapshots of what we'll be dealing with this weekend and beyond:
It's sideways on the dolly. But you can see the potential, yes? It's going to be painted a white color called "Divine Pleasure" by Behr. Divine indeed!
The back of the dresser with its bones bared. Tragic. And all scuffed up on the sides, too!
The most important piece of the whole thing, fractured in two places, broken in more than a few. Crazy Cat Lady claimed that she could not understand these pictures. I could see that if she was unfamiliar with this piece of furniture. But she owned this FOR YEARS.
1 comments:
Is it too late to offer you a free and much better dresser. Because Dave has been threatening to get rid of his and I will gladly hand it over. Seriously!
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