Now that the new living room furniture is in place, it was time to start shopping for coffee tables. Ours are old and mismatched and bear too many dings and cat scratches to be serviceable.
After our nightmare replacement of windows, and doors, and floors…. I thought this would be a breeze. I didn’t want anything special, just one rectangle for in front of the couch and two square side tables in a medium wood finish. Drawers or no drawers. Stylish or plain. Traditional or modern.
I was leaving my husband at home… so I knew finding something to please me would be much quicker.
Remember my perfect carpet? The expensive Karastan I chose on day one…
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The salesperson from the store where I found it (they have exclusive rights to the brand and none of the other places we’ve tried can sell it) has been staying in touch after giving us an installation estimate. When I finally told them my husband balked at the price and was looking around for something comparable but cheaper, they wanted to help and said they would check their inventory.
I received this message a week ago.. but didn’t tell my husband until he’d had his fill of fruitless floor shopping.
I’m evil that way.
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To be honest I didn’t think carpet was something you could barter… but you live and you learn.
And you can tell one of us is not having a good time.
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This is not my fault as I found the perfect carpet on day one… but my husband swore he could find something comparable for less money so we kept shopping.
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This was an interesting display.
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Made even more so by the fact it opened for samples.
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After another whirlwind weekend tour of flooring stores, my husband chose carpets he thought were close to the shade we wanted. Even though I (and numerous salespeople) assured him they weren’t.
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Ironically the two large sample boards he brought home were very close to the price point of my original choice which kind of defeats the purpose… no?
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And since none of them were the right shade (again), my spouse is slowing coming around to the realization he should have just agreed to my selection a few weeks ago and called it a day.
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.
Remember that fancy schmantsy toaster my husband gave me as a gift? The one with the ridiculous price tag and all those bells and whistles no one needs?
Well, it died the other day… 3 months past it’s warranty of course.
So before I could run to Wal Mart or Target to purchase a more reasonable replacement?
My husband came home with this…
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An even more expensive version with bells, whistles and flashing lights.
Sigh.
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Does it toast bread? Sure.
Will it live longer than 3 months past its warranty? Only time will tell…
In other news (not to mention definitive proof I’m old) I’m going to gush about a vacuum.
Or more precisely the adorable Dyson Omni Glide rechargeable stick vacuum.
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It’s small, easy to operate, disconnect and empty. The multi positional head is a dream and glides everywhere… effortlessly. Smooth fabric rollers won’t scratch our new floors and it has two suction settings to pick up His Lordship’s messes.
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….
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This one might work.
😊
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