Tag Archives: chairs

Out of state searching.

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I thought we’d decided on the leather chairs for the barn we’d seen the day before and were heading down to NH to purchase them, but I was wrong. For a man who claims to hate shopping, it amazed me how many different furniture stores my husband wanted to visit. Day 2? We spent 5 hours driving and 5 hours fruitlessly searching. Granted there were some truly horrible choices.

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White pleather power recliner with LED lighted cup holders?

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That’s a hard no.

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As were these fake snake skin monstrosities. We spent over an hour wandering around one store only to have my husband give up on chairs and focus on the handmade tables crafted entirely from reclaimed wine barrels on the way out.

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And yes, of course he bought one.

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This chair? Goldilocks deemed it too shiny.

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This chair? God help me, he said it was too “crunchy”. I was ready to throw in the towel and live with an empty man cave corner when… after 11 hours of plunking his posterior in at least 40 chairs over the course of 2 days…. he decided he wanted to go back to Jordans and buy the very first chair we saw.

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So that’s what we did. But the first salesman in Maine had neglected to tell us was the New Hampshire warehouse didn’t stock them and we’d have to wait a month or so for them to come in. Grrr. But order them we did, from the NH store (no tax!) and we received a 10% military discount. We also removed the delivery fee by agreeing to pick them up ourselves. Total savings? $630. Was it worth the aggravation? The jury’s still out on that one.

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The search begins.

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The weather is getting warmer and that means the barn porch furniture needs to migrate from the man cave to its outdoor home.

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Which is going to leave a big hole in the room. Solution? Two manly leather club chairs and a table. Unfortunately this meant prolonged shopping excursions with the husband. And trust me… when it comes to picky, women have nothing on my other half. When we need new furniture, I usually do the scouting and narrow it down to 3 choices. Anything more than that overloads his senses. So imagine my unmitigated horror surprise when he suggested we make a day of it.

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Yes, that’s close.

Off we went down to Portland. First stop was Jordan’s furniture which is a truly massive multi level store. They had a nice selection of leather but nothing pleased the husband.

This was the first chair we saw and I thought it was perfect.

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The husband liked it, but wanted to keep looking.

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This chair? Too saggy.

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This chair? Too deep.

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This chair? Too small. Store after store after store and he didn’t like anything.

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Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a big purchase and I want him to be happy but after visiting 8 stores over the course of 6 hours, Goldilocks still wasn’t satisfied.

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The first chair had my vote and I lobbied hard. Nice grade of leather, perfect size, good color, and firm cushions. Husband wanted another look, so back to Jordan’s we went. He gave it a second test drive and agreed it was the best we’d found. I thought we were done and gave silent thanks to all the Gods I don’t believe in. Shiva, you rock!

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I positively swooned when the husband had a salesman print out an estimate thinking the ordeal was over…. but when my spouse found out their warehouse was in NH and there would be a $150 charge to deliver the chairs to Maine? He said we would drive to NH the following day. Five hours on the road, in his old 8 foot bed Ford pickup just to save $150. It will probably cost us that in gas.

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To be continued.

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Chairs are a beautiful thing.

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And we’re so in love with ours right now I fear they’ll be occupying blog space for a while.

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Do you know how nice it is to actually be able to sit at our bar?

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Trust me, after weeks of standing? It’s seriously nice.

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And yes, I admit a fair amount of alcoholic beverages have been consumed in the short time we’ve owned them.

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Note to self – clear off magnetic bottle opener before guests arrive.

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Ah….

Chairs.

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And then we got the call.

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The call that we’d been waiting 7 weeks for finally came.

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And we headed down to the workshop in Biddeford to pick up our custom made bar chairs.

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It was an awful morning, snow showers at our house and rain farther south.

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So I was bound and determined our haul was going to be tightly secured and fully covered for transport.

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These babies are heavy, so when we got home the husband had to haul them all out to the Man Cave.

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Made from 120 year old reclaimed Vermont barn boards, no two are the same.

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At first the husband was upset they didn’t all match perfectly, but that’s what I love about them.

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And they may not look it, but they’re quite comfortable.

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So yes, an inaugural beer was poured. At 10:45 am.

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And consumed while seated. Don’t judge…

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Though why the darn man wasn’t smiling I have no idea. He really was happy, but I guess you’ll have to take my word on that.

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Ka-Ching!!

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That’s the sound my checkbook made when we drove down to the design studio to purchase the custom made bar chairs my husband had his heart set on.

We met the two very pleasant Lithuanian immigrants who own the business and found they do interesting work.

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Their furniture is starting to catch on and has been written up in numerous magazines.

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Maine restaurants and businesses have contracted large orders….

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And its only thanks to Covid that they considered a small order like ours.

These are the 30 inch swivel pub chairs my husband fell in love with.

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Made from 120 year old reclaimed barn boards and strong enough to seat an African elephant, they’re remarkably comfortable as well.

The designers explained it would take 6 weeks to make our 6 chairs because they just had to lay off most of their people due to the virus. A huge order from L.L. Bean had been cancelled, which while bad news for them… was great news for us.

They were even kind enough to let us take a sample chair home for a test run.

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We sidled it up next to the (still unfinished since the contractor seems to have taken a powder) bar and the height was perfect.

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I’m hoping to match the front facing of the bar to one of the medium shades on the chair.

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If the builder ever decides to return.

A few days later when we brought the chair back, I decided I needed some matching shelves for my liquor bottles.

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They’ll look like these. The wood will match the chairs… which pleases me, and the brackets will be made from old railroad spikes… which pleases the husband.

Two shelves on either side of the bar window for a total of four. What the hell. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

Ka-Ching!

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My husband shops in the strangest places.

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On our way home from the antique mall the other day, we stopped at a bar.

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You’re shocked, I know.

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One Paloma in…

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The husband started examining bar chairs.

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They were tall, sturdy, rustic… and swiveled.

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Two Palomas, a cup of clam chowder ….

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A Cosmo and a Cajun fried chicken sandwich later….

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The husband decided he wanted these exact chairs for his bar.

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After tracking down the restaurant’s owner we discovered they were custom made by a company an hour and a half away….

So away we went.

To be continued.

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The search continues.

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The search for appropriate height bar chairs goes on.

And on.

And on……

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After 4 more stores  we found one.

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The husband gave it  a test drive and was less than thrilled, with the design and the comfort level, but at that point we were ready to settle. Problem was that chair was the only one….  in the entire store. None in the back. None at the factory.

But this?

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This you could buy 5 times over.

Wow.

The 70’s are calling…. they want their velvet back.

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We found this chair at the next store. It was the right height, but had a tiny seat that was surely designed by the Marquis de Sade.

At the 6th store we visited that day, when we despaired of ever finding anything… we sucked it up and realized we’d have to pay a small fortune and go custom.

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Working with a salesman, we chose this.

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I won’t tell you what they cost per, but trust me….. it was enough to make you catch your breath.

So just when we were ready to pluck down a massive down payment to get the ball rolling, we were told that due to the pandemic….. the wait time on production was 12 plus weeks.

We’d have to wait 3 months to sit at our bar? Damn.

I didn’t like it…. but I liked the swivel, large seated, comfortable, attractive option so I was willing.

Husband on the other hand, was not.

The search continues.

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Shopping is not for the faint hearted.

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Our search for 30 inch tall bar chairs has begun.

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And it’s not going well.

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24 inch counter height chairs abound.

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But apparently no one else (builds a two story barn with a farmer’s porch for storage, decides they rather have a spectacular man cave, spends endless months and thousands of dollars making it attractive, contracts out construction of a full bar and) needs taller than normal chairs.

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11 furniture stores later?

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Liquid sustenance at our local pub, and the husband came home with these instead.

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I’m seriously beginning to wonder if he’s going to live out there.

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