When I was going through my divorce, there came the point that I had to leave my marital home and get my own place. The situation at the house just became too volatile in the midst of the divorce to stay. For my own sanity it was time to move out. I spent a good bit of time trying to find a place that both my kids could have their own bedroom, but was still within the elementary school bus run area. It was quite difficult, but I did eventually find a place. I put down a deposit and started packing things up.
I had decided that I didn't want to strip my home of the furniture and other trappings, as my kids were still going to be there, and frankly since I was still paying the mortgage on the house by myself, I was going to be in and out of the house to sometimes put the Wee One to bed. So, I was on a quest to refurnish a new place, from top to bottom. I had a budget of $8000, and I needed EVERYTHING. From shower curtains, to trashcans, to vacuum cleaner, and that little scrubby brush to clean the toilets, and an extra fire extinguisher.
I went to quite a few furniture places. I really didn't see much that I liked. The place I was moving into was tiny, and most of the furniture I saw was oversized couches and large heavy framed beds. The irony is that I went to one of the cheapest furniture stores in the area to look for a toddler size bed, Value City, and it was there that I found everything I liked - except a toddler sized bed. I suppose in hindsight, if I were to have traveled 100 miles I could have went to an Ikea store, and I think I would have found a lot there too. I'm not sure it would have met my budget requirements however.
I traveled up and down the aisles of Value City picking stuff out that I thought would work. The kids rooms were the easiest. The kitchen was also easy...I liked the pub style tables they had available that could close up to a small square, or extend to seat 8. My living room was a little tougher. I wanted a small loveseat because the space I had to work with was small.
I then called my Bestie Friend, and she decided to come over to help me pick stuff out. I had already been through the store once on my own, and had an idea of what I liked. I needed her help with my room though. We went up and down the aisles, discussing normal best friend things, and commenting on the hideousness of some of the items they had. We also took it upon ourselves to redecorate and stage certain areas, because they had it all wrong. My sales guy was a real gem; he was helpful, but not overbearing, and he was funny. Or rather, he thought we were funny -which of course, we were. He let us pick out what I wanted and wrote stuff down, but also gave me the space to make decisions on what I wanted without him hovering over us. At one point I was looking at beds. One caught my eye because it had a padded headboard which was kind of like this one here..but it wasn't a platform style bed..it had four legs.
I like to sit up and read in bed...but of course there were other innuendos that were made as we discussed the pros and cons of this bed. As we stood there discussing stuff, I said, well can I try the bed? And the sales guy looked a little surprised and said, "Uh sure!" and then he made a hasty retreat and said he needed to go check on availability of some other things I liked.
So, I climb on up top of the bed, and I shrunched myself up to lean back against the nice pretty padded headboard... and the entire freaking mattress catapulted up into the air. I shrieked and my arms went flailing to either side of me, paddling in the air trying to find something to grab hold of. I was folded into a V position, my back firmly pressed against the headboard, my legs plastered on the mattress, and my generous rumpage firmly ensconced on the edge of the mattress which had slid down below the headboard to the floor. My Bestie, being the nimbleminded hero she is, quickly flung her body onto the bottom half of the mattress, effectively righting the mattress to its former location. The only problem was..I was now WEDGED in between the mattress and the headboard and I was floundering about. I managed to extract myself and roll with a graceful thud onto the showroom floor, where my Bestie and I promptly broke down in hysterical fits of laughter accompanied by snorting.
Eventually our salesguy made it back and I was able to finagle a 10% discount off my entire order for the BED INCIDENT as I informed them that I could have been seriously injured. Apparently the guys that set the beds up failed to put the rail support under the top half of the bed.
What Value City is not aware of however, is that I believe my daughter inflicted about $800 worth of damage to floor models when I took her to see what I was thinking of buying. My child is a Mini Me. First off, she has the same taste as me. She picked the same kitchen table/chairs, the bunkbed, and even the dresser for the Wee One's room. She loved the bookshelves I picked. But my child is a walking klutz, and in the course of perusing the store aisles, inadvertently, many things fell apart. She opened the door to a buffet table console cabinet and the entire hinge popped off and she was left there holding the door all askew. I heard her whisper in a hissing voice. "MOM...." I looked over and got the door back in place and said, 'I don't think you did that, the hinge was just bad." She was trying out bunkbeds, and climbed to the top and peered over the edge, and knocked over a picture hanging on the wall with her head. She opened up a dresser and a knob came off on her hand. I chalked i up to ...well we are AT Value City...this stuff isn't the best quality, and as witness to the BED INCIDENT, I don't think the workers put this together all that great.
But here is what we ended up with in the living room. This is the living room furniture deposited back into my house. It looked just as awesome in my little townhouse though! I absolutely love it. Even if my WackaDoo Sister claimed to my distant family members that my Handsome One boyfriend has brainwashed me and my house looks like a biker bar with all black furniture. Its not all black. I have a wood coffee table there..and a flower pillow. ;)
