Since Ted and I are trying to be "on the same page" when it comes to money, "teammates," if you will, in the financial business of the family, I have been reduced to one purchase a month for the home. The bad news is that this BLOWS. I like buying stuff for the house and one purchase a month is like a starvation diet. But the good news is that maybe the arrival of the credit card bill won't lead to WW III in the Tenthoff household anymore.
So what was October's big buy? New chairs for the table in the kitchen. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but when you consider that our current situation involves folding chairs from Costco:
that we bought when we moved in to replace the folding chairs from Bed Bath and Beyond that we had been using, it gets a little more exciting. At this point, all I wanted was four chairs that didn't fucking FOLD. Well, that's not entirely true. What I really wanted were the chairs that my mother has that she got from her mother. They are incredible, antique, quartersawn, T-back, oak chairs that have claw feet that match the feet of the table I have. However, it's become clear that I am going to have to pry those chairs out of my mother's cold, dead hands and I'm just not willing to wait that long. My mom's from hardy, midwestern stock and could end up living for another 30 years. So I started to scour the internet looking for a suitable substitute. I was amazed at how hard it was to find one. Everything was either a set of 8, 12, or even 16, and I only needed 4. Also, many were more elaborate than I was looking for - my table's not so fancy and I really just wanted plain chairs to go with it. Anything that I did find was outrageously expensive, like hundreds of dollars a chair, and usually across the country so they would have cost as much again to ship.
But I am an insomniac, which does have some upsides. For one, I have a lot of spare time at night to spend poking around the corners of the world wide web looking for my chairs. I knew they were out there somewhere, and I was right. I stumbled across them a few weeks ago, at a lovely looking store called the Hamburg Antique Center. A set of four oak t-back chairs. For $260. That's right, $260 for the whole set! Yay!:
I wasn't crazy about the rattan seats and they didn't have claw feet, but whatevs, you guys, I was PSYCHED. And the best part? The store is only 20 minutes away from where my father-in-law and stepmother-in-law live. And he's retired! So what the hell else does he have to do all day except run around New Jersey fronting me cash money and picking up my new furniture? Nothing, that's what! So off he went, and because he is as kind as he is wise, he drove over today to deliver them. And here they are around the table in the kitchen:
I am beyond excited. Of course, once one thing is taken care of, all I see are the next million things I want to do, like chuck the white bathroom etagere that's holding all the cookbooks, and get a frame for the painting to the right of the window. But right now, all I can think of is that those chairs don't fold. Baby steps.
XOXOXO
ABC
So what was October's big buy? New chairs for the table in the kitchen. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but when you consider that our current situation involves folding chairs from Costco:
that we bought when we moved in to replace the folding chairs from Bed Bath and Beyond that we had been using, it gets a little more exciting. At this point, all I wanted was four chairs that didn't fucking FOLD. Well, that's not entirely true. What I really wanted were the chairs that my mother has that she got from her mother. They are incredible, antique, quartersawn, T-back, oak chairs that have claw feet that match the feet of the table I have. However, it's become clear that I am going to have to pry those chairs out of my mother's cold, dead hands and I'm just not willing to wait that long. My mom's from hardy, midwestern stock and could end up living for another 30 years. So I started to scour the internet looking for a suitable substitute. I was amazed at how hard it was to find one. Everything was either a set of 8, 12, or even 16, and I only needed 4. Also, many were more elaborate than I was looking for - my table's not so fancy and I really just wanted plain chairs to go with it. Anything that I did find was outrageously expensive, like hundreds of dollars a chair, and usually across the country so they would have cost as much again to ship.
But I am an insomniac, which does have some upsides. For one, I have a lot of spare time at night to spend poking around the corners of the world wide web looking for my chairs. I knew they were out there somewhere, and I was right. I stumbled across them a few weeks ago, at a lovely looking store called the Hamburg Antique Center. A set of four oak t-back chairs. For $260. That's right, $260 for the whole set! Yay!:
I wasn't crazy about the rattan seats and they didn't have claw feet, but whatevs, you guys, I was PSYCHED. And the best part? The store is only 20 minutes away from where my father-in-law and stepmother-in-law live. And he's retired! So what the hell else does he have to do all day except run around New Jersey fronting me cash money and picking up my new furniture? Nothing, that's what! So off he went, and because he is as kind as he is wise, he drove over today to deliver them. And here they are around the table in the kitchen:
I am beyond excited. Of course, once one thing is taken care of, all I see are the next million things I want to do, like chuck the white bathroom etagere that's holding all the cookbooks, and get a frame for the painting to the right of the window. But right now, all I can think of is that those chairs don't fold. Baby steps.
XOXOXO
ABC