Getting into the Movement

During our long weekend together (which felt so incredibly good to be able to be wrapped up in Mr. Library’s accomplishments and our love for each other), Mr. Library and I sat down to take a look at what we are going to need in our potential new apartment.  Okay, so I did most of the research.  Mr. Library did a lot of the sitting.  But either way, we found that the major gap in our apartment needs came in the form of something large…

Furniture!

Oh.  Yeah.  That.  The things we need to be able to have people over or sit down.  Oops.  In reality, there wasn’t any time for Mr. Library and I to pick this sort of thing up over the past six years.  We both lived in dorm rooms during undergrad, and I lived in a furnished dorm apartment in grad school (don’t judge… it was free!).  Mr. Library bounced from apartment to apartment in Cambridge, and as many of you may know, moving furniture in a city isn’t the best idea.  All of his apartments, just for this reason, were pretty well furnished.  So, no furniture acquisitions were needed.  Until now.

I put up a board topic on Weddingbee to see where other ladies and gentlemen had gotten their furniture on the cheap.  Trust me, with a wedding, a honeymoon, a teacher’s salary, an unemployment, student loans, and a new apartment to pay for, brand new expensive furniture is not on the top of our must have lists.  Thankfully, we don’t need that many pieces; we really only need the larger essentials like a couch and a dining set.  We both have bureaus and desks for an office.  I have a chair that can be put in the living room for one person to sit in (sorry hunny, it’s pink), and he (bless him!) has an air conditioner for the summer.  We already have the bed that I purchased earlier in the fall when I decided that the twin bed I had had since I was seven didn’t cut it anymore.  Not too shabby for the college nomads that we were.

I got quite a few replies to my post, most of them saying that I should look at Craigslist.  Call me crazy, but Craigslist has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since the Craigslist killer was one town over from my grad school location (and Bridesmaid Al’s mom from Hawaii called to make sure we weren’t harmed).  Furniture from Craigslist?  Really?  Like, really really?  As it turns out, yes!  Really really!  Now, this isn’t going to turn into a story about how we found brand new furniture at amazing prizes and bought up everything I clicked on, but it turns out that there are some nice pieces that people want to sell at pretty reasonable prices.  I contacted a few listings and waited for emails to come as I went back to Maine on Sunday night.

I mentioned our new furniture plight to my parents Sunday evening, and because of the glory that is Memorial Day (thanks to all who served!), yard sales were everywhere!  Too bad I missed a bunch during the actual weekend, but Mom Library, Dad Library, and I jumped into the car and went in search of some local people who may have some furniture to sell.  We were really only looking for wooden furniture as buying someone’s mystery couch makes me queasy (seriously dude, what is that stain?!), so we kept an eye out for dining sets.  Our first stop was a mile down the road, and… Jackpot!  There was a cute little Farmer’s table with fold-down leaves on both sides and four chairs.  There were some spots that marred the finish of the wood, but all in all, it was a good find.  The man wanted $75 for it, which was reasonable for the set, so we kept this in mind as we went in search of other options.  As we drove away, Mom Library said that if I didn’t buy it, she probably would.  Huh.  I’m competing with my own mother for furniture.

The next locations either didn’t have anything or had something with crayon all over the bottom.  I’ll pass, thanks.  The first option kept looking better and better.  Once we had circled the town and come up with nothing, I went back to the first location.  I called Mr. Library on the way and asked for his thoughts.  “I trust your judgment.”  Thanks hunny!  With the seal of approval, I got the cash out of the ATM and went back with Dad Library to load it into the truck.  The man must not have remembered what I looked like because he said he had sold it to some other lady, but it turns out it was me all along.

So now this baby is ours:

It needs to be sanded and refinished, but for its age, it’s in fantastic shape.  Dad Library, Mr. Library, and I will be sanding it all down and staining it with a darker color.  It might take a while, but I think it will be a great project for all of us to work together on.

Next stop, COUCH!

What have you found you needed as a cause and effect of marriage?