While we’re (none too patiently) waiting for the new living room furniture to be delivered, it’s time to turn our attention back to the bedroom.
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The newly trimmed windows and sills are in…
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The new door has been installed…
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With its pretty morning reflection.
So now we need to get rid of that horrible dusty rose carpet the previous owners chose and replace it with a nice neutral beige.
I did a little preliminary shopping and fell in love with a Karastan.
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Of course I did, it was the highest quality and most expensive available. Unfortunately the husband did not fall in love with the price and wanted me to choose something less pricey.
So began our carpet shopping saga.
You know the drill…store to store to store trying to find something comparable. He thought it would be easy.
He was wrong.
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He brought this one home, but it was too grey.
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He brought this one home, but it leaves those awful striped vacuum marks.
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He brought this one home and asked Lord Dudley to choose, but nothing matched the quality, softness or color of my Karastan.
Day 7, the last full day of our southern anniversary vacation started like the previous 6… with a card.
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This trip was our gift to each other so I opted for a card a day instead.
I’m thoughtful that way. 😉
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It also started with the malfunction of my very last can of (the now reformulated and totally awful Aussie instant freeze… may a pox fall upon their houses and render every last one of the executives bald) hairspray.
Oh, the horror!
With my drastically unsecured hairdo, we headed out that morning to buy a thank you gift for our neighbor who was caring for Lord Dudley Mountcatten in our absence. On the way out of the store I chuckled at the appropriate license plate of the elderly owner.
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And speaking of moss…
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We decided to make the most of our last day and return to the Botany Bay preserve to fully explore Boneyard Beach at low tide.
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Passing under that gorgeous canopy of trees again on the way in.
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It never got old.
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Our previous two trips to the beach were shortened first by loss of daylight and then by rising tide.
We hoped for better viewing this time.
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I know the pictures don’t do it justice…
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But you have to trust me, this place was amazing in person.
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Even with bad hair and high winds.
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The skeletal remains of all those trees made it feel like another planet.
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Or maybe this one after some kind of Planet of the Apes scenario.
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Look…
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My husband smiled, so you know it was special.
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I swear if I lived in this area I’d be here everyday…
This last entry will be an easy guess, but it comes with a story.
These aren’t old family pieces, but they’ll always hold a special place in my heart.
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Many moons ago when my husband retired from the Marine Corps, money was tight. He’d bounced around from job to job but couldn’t really find anything he enjoyed. I was working part time for a property management company but it didn’t pay well.
He’d sent out a lot of resumes but until something panned out he was driving truck. Big rig, long distance hauling. I hated it as he was gone all week, but it kept us afloat.
On one of his weekends home we went to a lovely antique store where I saw the above items. They’re chickens, so my eye was immediately drawn to them. If I remember correctly they were about $125, which 30 years ago… we didn’t have to waste.
But my amazing husband scrounged the money somewhere, put them on layaway and drove back to the store every week until he paid them off so he could give them to me for my birthday that year. The poor man probably skipped a meal every day while he was on the road in order to buy me that gift… so to me they’re priceless.
Day 5 of our 40th anniversary trip dawned sunny and warmer.
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Which was such a welcome change I actually got the husband to participate in … and (half) smile … for a morning balcony selfie.
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On the itinerary that day? Charleston.
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By way of Toogoodoo.
At first I thought the nav system in the overpriced Lincoln was drunk…
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But no, the road exists.
Toogoodoo: The name given to the creek and the area by the Bantu (African) slaves who worked the sea island plantations surrounding it. The word translates loosely as “I have plenty/ My life is bountiful”.
A sentiment that resonated with me all day.
Charleston is a southern city I’ve always wanted to visit and in a little over an hour, we were there.
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We skirted the harbor…
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And drove down one of the most famous neighborhoods.
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Filled with lovely homes…
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All facing the water.
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Unfortunately right after we started driving we ran into a detour due to storm damage from the night before. So we zigged and we zagged in our giant monster rental and elected to ditch the traffic for a walk.
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This is the most popular park in town and thankfully pretty deserted off season.
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It sits right at the mouth of the busy deep water harbor…
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And don’t you dare let Fido off his leash.
$1087 seems like an arbitrary sum, but whatever.
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We hopped over puddles and made our way to the park’s most popular tourist attraction.
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The pineapple fountain.
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Pineapples are a symbol of hospitality and you’ll find them everywhere in this friendly city.
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This is probably a beautiful shot in summer when the sun is high…
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But I couldn’t quite capture the canopy angle properly this time of year.
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Done with the park, we strolled.
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Charleston is an old city with beaucoup traffic and very little parking. Take my advice, put on a pair of comfortable shoes and walk…
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It’s the only way you’ll get a real feel for the place.
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We were headed for the French Quarter and the magnificent Rainbow Row so beloved by Instagrammers.
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I couldn’t wait to explore, so of course my husband had to strike up a half hour conversation with this nice gentleman who had a strange car.
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In case you’re wondering, it’s a Figaro built by Nissan in the early ‘90’s. Only 20,000 were made and he said his wife had to have one. It’s a tiny little thing but after battling the in town traffic with our luxury behemoth rental, I’m sure it’s perfectly suited to life in Charleston.
Not wanting to waste any precious time on our week long vacation, day four threw a monkey wrench in my carefully planned trip.
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We woke to overcast skies, an egret in the pond and a forecast of what turned out to be a mini hurricane. Heavy rain, high winds and dangerous surf are not prime beach resort conditions.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, I burned breakfast. Again…. due to the stupid flat surface stove that had two burners in one.
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High level heat if you turned right, high level heat if you turned left. This proved too much for my under caffeinated morning brain to handle and henceforth, the husband was on his own when it came to eggs.
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But at least the dish sponge was happy.
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Not having walked the beach since we got there, I forced my spouse onto the sand before the storm arrived. That’s his arm to the right of the photo, pointing out which unit was ours. I’m not sure why as we had just exited it and I was unlikely to forget that quickly.
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My husband is not a beach guy, not an idle walker. He needs a destination and purpose…
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I told him pleasing his wife of 40 years should be motivation enough.
😉
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We had the beach to ourselves, but it was cool, dark, damp and hellaciously windy.
He didn’t believe me when I told him how hard it’s been to find fabric for the furniture he chose so I’m continuing to show him firsthand.
Seeing is believing after all.
In my search I’ve discovered that even though different stores sell the same brand, they’ll often have different fabric available and I’ve made it my mission to check them all.
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Hence our trip to Waterville to a small but 5th generation family run store.
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Their showroom is a two story barn from the 1800’s.
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And while they didn’t have the particular style set we wanted, they can order it…. at what turns out to be $600 less than their larger competitors. Free delivery included. I’m all about supporting small local businesses so this is where we’ll purchase it.
If we can ever decide on a fabric.
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Green is still nonexistent. And even the blues that I didn’t really want are muted. But I pulled and pulled hopeful something would catch my eye.
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This photo perfectly portrays how thrilled my husband was to be on the journey.
🤣
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I’d tentatively narrowed it down to these two with the husband bored out of his mind behind me.
Until…
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He discovered a huge computer loaded with the company’s app.
With it you pick your style…
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And punch in the fabric number for a peek at what it will look upholstered. He had fun with this for quite a while, laughing at how horrible some of the patterns were. But when I gave him the number for the fabric I was considering?
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I stopped laughing because he said the cushion had two eyes staring at him.
Since I’m not on board with any of the hideous fabrics associated with the living room set my husband chose, shopping continues.
I stepped it up a notch last week and took him to an Ethan Allen showroom. And aside from the fact it was the smallest store we’d been to, they only had one hard backed sofa.
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Which was too low, too square and too soft for my Goldilocks spouse.
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Factor in most of their couches were over $5,000 a piece, even the simple ones like this, and it was a hard pass.
Next up was the store where I started my search with my girlfriend a few months ago. They had two sets I thought might work.
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But Mr, Picky vetoed this one because of the T shaped couch cushions.
Really?
At this point I thought he was just being obstinate on purpose and didn’t want new furniture. But when I brought him to set #2….
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Hard backed, rolled full arms, not too deep, available with firm cushions.
Could it be?
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A long discussion was had with the (very patient) salesman about features and quality…
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These arms were an eighth of an inch different in size… noticeable to no one on earth except my husband who worked quality control in the Marine Corps.
But despite the glaring anomaly, the husband agreed that this set might work. They even had the pattern he’d picked out at a previous store, seen on the back of the chair above.
I vetoed that as it was probably too light for our white walls and rather liked this one.
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When I asked if I could bring a few swatches home, I was told yes… for a price. For a deposit of $50 each I came home with 5. The $263 to be refunded to my card when I returned them.
Geesh.
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Lord Dudley seemed partial to this one.
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But as I suspected…. it’s too light and bright for our all white walls not to mention my husband’s feet on an ottoman.
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I need more contrast of color and though I really didn’t want blue….
My husband rolled his eyes and scoffed at the idea of me not being able to choose a fabric for the sofa he liked among a hundred and fifty choices so I decided to let him experience the joy of fabric selection first hand.
Since we needed to find a different brand of furniture, shopping began anew.
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Can you tell how thrilled he was?
He didn’t mind that couch, but vetoed the square arms.
The salesperson said it could be ordered in a rolled arm style….
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And we were off.
Standing in front of that brand’s wall of fabric, I started pulling patterns.
The following comments are his.
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Too swirly.
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Too wavy.
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Too blotchy.
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Too hippie dippie.
45 minutes later, he started wandering around and picked these.
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Too bad they belonged to a brand that didn’t sell a couch he liked.
The designer in residence took up our cause at that point and pulled this.
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The husband?
He said it looked like television static.
Almost an hour and a half in, he was done…. and pointed at this.
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“That one.
Get that one.”
I thought it an odd choice, but the salesman plugged it into the creation app and the husband was so sick of the process he approved.
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I argued that it would be too light a pattern for an ottoman not to mention our white walls and opted to take the swatch home.
The husband? He opted for a bar because the whole thing had driven him to drink.
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Cranberry gin fizz for me.
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Two beers and a disappointing French onion soup for him.
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My crab cakes with spicy remoulade were wonderful.
Fortified with lunch and alcohol… we kept shopping.
Our home base for the anniversary trip was a two bedroom condo at Wyndham Ocean Ridge on Edisto ( Ed-iss-toe) Beach. Mid way between Charleston and Hilton Head…
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It’s a quiet, laid back mostly residential beach community without all the tacky water parks and touristy crap cluttering most southern coasts. It’s the undiscovered country and that’s just how we like it.
When we arrived at the resort and checked in, we were given a unit on the golf course. We travel through our timeshare so sometimes it’s a crap shoot where we’re placed. But seeing that my husband has the gift of gab and makes friends easily, we were quickly reassigned to one of the deluxe units in the best area. (Me dropping the 40th wedding anniversary bomb may have had something to do with it as well. 😉 )
If it hadn’t been January, in the height of the off season this wouldn’t have happened. The Bay Point association is the primo spot of the entire resort and people book them two years in advance.
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The peninsula itself is Edisto Beach with private homes all around. The areas in green are the resort and it was a crazy set up. One second you’re on the resort, the next you’re on a private road. As you can see by my arrow we were right at the tip on the water.
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Our condo was in the middle on the top floor, which in reality is only the second but you have to climb 4 flights of stairs to get there.
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It was clean and spacious.
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With a decided seaside decor.
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It was newly remodeled with carpet that looked like waves.
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And had a pretty sweet view from the bed.
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And speaking of views…
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One look out the balcony and I was a happy camper.
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Off season with an entire beach to ourselves. It doesn’t get much better than that.
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Second bedroom. No, we don’t use it… but if you book a two bedroom unit you get two baths and that my friends is the key to a long and happy marriage.
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Master bath. This was mine in case you were wondering.
😉
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We settled in and unpacked.
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Very pleased with our South Carolina home for the week.
Living room furniture shopping with my husband continued, even though it ceased being fun a while back. Nothing pleased the man and I was doubting we would ever find a set that checked all his boxes. Until we walked into… of all places… Lazy Boy.
I despise recliners and that store wasn’t even on my radar, but damned if it wasn’t where he finally found a couch he liked.
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Rolled pillowless back, good length, solid arms.
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It looks almost identical to the set we have now… which I didn’t really want, but he’s worn me down with his fussiness and I’m ready to cry uncle.
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Miracle of all miracles you can pay a few hundred dollars more per piece and get the firmest damn cushions on the face of the planet (think park bench comfort) which is his number one issue.
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They’re actually temperpedic, like the mattresses… and that sealed the deal for my spouse.
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He’s not smiling, but trust me…. Goldilocks was pleased.
Up next? Fabric.
😊
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