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Housely update
Mar. 15th, 2004 08:12 pmThe fit of activity seems to have continued. Over the past week I brought down the rest of the boxes of paperbacks, put them on shelves and alphabetized them. I still have three boxes labeled "miscellaneous" that need to be interfiled, and I need to break down the other half of the boxes, but the bookshelves are starting to look complete.
After my initial excitement over the bedroom furniture at Costco, I decided to do things a bit more methodically. Pat and her sister Carol came over and measured the bedroom and available spaces, then (after dinner) we went to Costco and pronounced that the cherry furniture was too dark, and the maple furniture was on the light side, but if I was going to paint the wood trim as well as the walls, the only thing I had to match was my waterbed (which is oak, I think). I went as far as having the guy at Costco fill out an order form, but since I'd forgotten my purse I couldn't actually buy it that night. (I don't usually carry a purse, but Costco only takes checks and AmEx, and I keep the checkbook in the purse.)
The next night I'd decided I'd go to HOM Furniture and see what they had before jumping in. I went through their entire selection of bedroom furniture, and the one that appealed to me the most was a set of pine furniture. I was a little dubious about pine, because it's a soft wood, but the style was nice and the price was actually less than the furniture at Costco. Of course, since I was comparing pine to maple, this wasn't terribly surprising. What I really wanted was the set of oak furniture with the choice of eight different finishes, but since that was over $4,000, it was a nonstarter.
After that I looked in at Buck's Unpainted (unfinished furniture that they'll finish to your specifications for a price, plus finished stuff for sale), and while I didn't find any bedroom furniture that really appealed, I think I'll go back when I'm looking for living room stuff.
The next night I went back to Costco and looked at the furniture again. By this time the guy doing the furniture orders recognized me. After looking at it for the last time, I decided that the pine furniture was of a shape and size that would fit my needs better and I was going to buy that.
So off I went back to HOM. Since I can't do anything immediately and decisively, I decided to take one more look around at what they had. This time I found a set of alder furniture that I'd somehow overlooked earlier. (Alder is a hardwood, related to maple.) It was $500 more expensive than the pine furniture, but almost the same price as the maple furniture at Costco. It had nice deep dressers, dovetail construction, and dust protectors between drawers. And it was made of solid wood. The other two sets I'd been looking at were as well, but many of the sets at HOM were veneer and plywood, which was how they kept their prices down.
So on Thursday I ended up buying the set of alder furniture. They had all of it in stock, but I asked them to hold off on delivery until the room is ready -- I'm going to strip the wallpaper in that room, too, and paint the walls. I'm dithering over whether I should replace the carpet as well. I've been holding off on doing the rest of the house while this generation of cats is still around, but they don't seem to have brought any abominable habits into the bedroom.
And I'm going to have to move the waterbed in order to get all the furniture into the room. That'll be fun.
After my initial excitement over the bedroom furniture at Costco, I decided to do things a bit more methodically. Pat and her sister Carol came over and measured the bedroom and available spaces, then (after dinner) we went to Costco and pronounced that the cherry furniture was too dark, and the maple furniture was on the light side, but if I was going to paint the wood trim as well as the walls, the only thing I had to match was my waterbed (which is oak, I think). I went as far as having the guy at Costco fill out an order form, but since I'd forgotten my purse I couldn't actually buy it that night. (I don't usually carry a purse, but Costco only takes checks and AmEx, and I keep the checkbook in the purse.)
The next night I'd decided I'd go to HOM Furniture and see what they had before jumping in. I went through their entire selection of bedroom furniture, and the one that appealed to me the most was a set of pine furniture. I was a little dubious about pine, because it's a soft wood, but the style was nice and the price was actually less than the furniture at Costco. Of course, since I was comparing pine to maple, this wasn't terribly surprising. What I really wanted was the set of oak furniture with the choice of eight different finishes, but since that was over $4,000, it was a nonstarter.
After that I looked in at Buck's Unpainted (unfinished furniture that they'll finish to your specifications for a price, plus finished stuff for sale), and while I didn't find any bedroom furniture that really appealed, I think I'll go back when I'm looking for living room stuff.
The next night I went back to Costco and looked at the furniture again. By this time the guy doing the furniture orders recognized me. After looking at it for the last time, I decided that the pine furniture was of a shape and size that would fit my needs better and I was going to buy that.
So off I went back to HOM. Since I can't do anything immediately and decisively, I decided to take one more look around at what they had. This time I found a set of alder furniture that I'd somehow overlooked earlier. (Alder is a hardwood, related to maple.) It was $500 more expensive than the pine furniture, but almost the same price as the maple furniture at Costco. It had nice deep dressers, dovetail construction, and dust protectors between drawers. And it was made of solid wood. The other two sets I'd been looking at were as well, but many of the sets at HOM were veneer and plywood, which was how they kept their prices down.
So on Thursday I ended up buying the set of alder furniture. They had all of it in stock, but I asked them to hold off on delivery until the room is ready -- I'm going to strip the wallpaper in that room, too, and paint the walls. I'm dithering over whether I should replace the carpet as well. I've been holding off on doing the rest of the house while this generation of cats is still around, but they don't seem to have brought any abominable habits into the bedroom.
And I'm going to have to move the waterbed in order to get all the furniture into the room. That'll be fun.
