A New Furniture Experience

The last time my wife and I bought new furniture was shortly after returning from Israel just before we moved into our apartment in Bala Cynwyd. At that time we didn’t have anything and the selecting was more about what was the best price rather than the quality of the items. In the end we were actually pretty lucky and we were able to find some decent quality pieces for clearance prices at JC Penney.

This time around, our decision to buy furniture was more of a luxury than anything. While many of the items that we already owned still had plenty of life left in them, we wanted to find pieced that we really liked and while we had a budget this time around as well, it was a completely different shopping experience. With a few ideas in mind we stopped at a couple of stores before we ended up at Raymour & Flanigan where we spent hours finding the furniture that would last us for many years and fill our new home.

That was also another driver in our decision to go furniture shopping. We were moving into a much larger place. Bigger than any other place that we have shared since we have been together. It wasn’t about a couple of pieced here and there like our last rental, we had to fill rooms. After all, we were going from a 3 bedroom townhouse where one of the bedrooms served as my wife’s office into a 5 bedroom home with two additional spaces we planned on using for our respective offices. We definitely had our work cut out for us.

What worked in our favor was the fact that we could easily divide our old bedroom furniture to fill two of the guestrooms and with our son taking one of the others and the last one being converted into a playroom with the old family room furniture, we were able to reuse the majority of the furniture we already had. What remained was the new family room, the master bedroom, the kitchen (just a table and chairs), and, after some convincing, my new office. It was a manageable list once we sat down and figured everything out.

We knew what we wanted to get. Well, we at least had a rough idea. And, budget in hand, we worked with one of the sales people at the Exton location and found all the pieces and filled all the rooms with the furniture that we wanted to see in our new home. After picking everything out and finding everything we needed our budget was looking to be in danger but after some friendly haggling we were able to fill our dream home with our dream furniture while staying on budget. It really was the final piece to finally finding our home!

Overdue Project

Of all the projects that have been talked about at the lodge time and again there is one that piques my interest each time that it is brought to the forefront of the conversation. The discussions have been ongoing about reallocating different spaces in the lodge to fill our various needs one of which is moving the Secretary’s office to the main floor. I fully support this idea but I also do my best to stay out of the back and forth unless someone asks for my opinion. After all, it is just a room, I can do the work no matter where there is a place set aside in the lodge whether it remains in the back of the basement or it is right off the main hall on the ground floor. The change would be nice but it doesn’t really matter.  

Not long after being raised I began spending a fair amount of time in the basement assisting the previous Secretary with the various tasks that fill the weeks between gatherings and the nights after the meetings. For all of its flaws, it has always been a bit of an escape for me. However, when I assumed the office shortly after that, it was painfully clear just how much work needed to be done in the space to simply make it functional again. And in my first year as Secretary, the situation didn’t get any better when a leak was discovered streaming down the outside wall. Needless to say, the “organization” project never got back on track after that and I rarely venture below grade these days.

That is a projects that is long overdue… finding some sanity in the office and turning this old fallout shelter (designated by the town years ago) into a fully functional working space not just for me but for any of the brothers who need a place to privately meet at the lodge. What it really comes down to is setting aside the time, convincing a few brothers to do the same, coordinating with the Trustees to sort the material crammed within the walls, and cleaning out the entire room. It actually might be best to just hit the reset button and start from scratch.

We need to consolidate the furniture and figure out what is really needed in the space. Part of that will be consolidating the filing cabinets after sorting through the draws full of files with the Trustees overseeing this operation. And finally, it is about simply getting rid of all the trash and clutter that has accumulated over the years from old phone books and computers to empty boxes and brittle desk organizers. It seems like a quick and easy endeavor but I know that it’s not. This is going to take some time and some significant effort but I do have a plan together to finally get it done next year. Let’s just hope that it sticks on the calendar.

Cursing At The Furniture

For the past several evenings I have been able to get out of the office at a normal time and head straight home without having any other obligations in the evening. There was also a few free hours the past couple of weeks. This “free” time was quickly cashed in so that we could finally get everything put together and moved into place in the baby’s room. By the end of the day I was really wishing that Babies R Us had offered assembly when we ordered online. 

All of the furniture arrived earlier this month and has been sitting in pieces in the middle of the room. It is not that putting together the functional jigsaw puzzles was complicated it really just came down to finding the time to read the directions and putting them together. The first attempt to do so came last Saturday when hutch pieces were strewn across the floor and I started screwing the pieces together. Ten minutes later the initial project was put on hold as the pot metal hardware bent and broke thanks to a few holes that were drilled too deep. This was only the beginning of the cursing at inanimate objects portion of the day.

After a quick trip to Home Depot for some replacements and spares, we got back on track putting things together. I built the furniture and my wife supervised… our son isn’t old enough to help lift things yet. It is a model that has worked in the past so why mess with it. An hour in and the hutch was put together and attached to the dresser. I could see my wife’s eyes light up as the first piece was put into place (and then put into a new place when we reconsidered the layout.

The crib and changing table was next. It is safe to say that directions are not the company’s strong suit as there were numerous instances of putting together, taking apart, and reassembling parts where the instructions were clearly left to interpretation. However, with the sun slowly setting and the lamp we found on clearance prolonging the work day, everything finally came together leaving only the glider still in its box.

The glider and ottoman proved to be, by far, the easiest items to build and within 20 minutes of putting the crib in the corner, the room was complete. My wife, both tired and eager, soon followed by letting me know of her plans of where she wanted to place the pile of things that we received at the baby shower. By the time we went to bed that night, some of those things were already in place.

Now we are down to the details. Getting the clothes cleaned, organizing the shelves, decorating the walls (thanks to the clearance sections at Babies R Us), and stocking the room with many of the things that we will need for our son. It is all coming together and while many of the things are in place and ready, I am sure that there are even more things that we are forgetting about and will only remember once we need them. Until then, we will get everything else together and wait for baby.

Box Bombardment

What happened UPS? 

Last week the packages began arriving at our townhouse. It started with a few small items that I pulled from out mailbox as there were a few items that we ordered for the holidays. Of course, this is in addition to the numerous things that we purchased for the house, crammed in our car, and carried up and down stairs. The latest deluge is a result from the large items from our baby registry being left outside our door.

Each time one of these large boxes arrived my wife would get that look like the father receiving his ‘major award’ in A Christmas Story. Of course, she would have that look as I was carrying or pushing the box up the stairs and into the baby’s room. Let’s just say that it really isn’t fun when the 110 pound box barely fits up the stairs and you spend the majority of the time just trying to navigate the corners while keeping it from tipping back.

Now we have all of the furniture in the townhouse without any help from UPS due to their not being allowed to bring things inside of homes. And everything has been finagled up to the second floor with the only exception being that of the dresser which it simply too big for one person to maneuver. We are going to have to unbox it first and have at least two people carry it up the stairs on its end… it is the only way that we are going to be able to make the turn.

Thankfully there should only be one more big item that will be delivered in the coming weeks as we have another couch due to arrive this week. This too will have to be taken up stairs but this time to my wife’s office to serve as the guest bed for when we have overnight out of town visitors. Hopefully it is like the other couch and I can simply take it up in pieces and assemble in the right place.

There will also be a continued package bombardment as the due date approaches and the baby continues to accumulate more and more items. But at least we are nearly done with the items that we wanted to get to complete our new home. Everything is finished in the basement (at least everything that I had planned on putting down there), my wife’s office is nearly done, and the first floor is full of all our existing furniture. The baby’s room is the only one that will continue to accumulate a heck of a lot more stuff… stuff in all different sizes of boxes.

Some Assembly Required

It really is that simple!

These days, unless you are buying high end furniture, there is going to be some assembly required whenever you purchase larger items for your home. Over the past week, I have been putting together all kinds of items for the new place and while time consuming, it might be the most relaxing part of the move. There is something that seems to be lost on some people when it comes to using your hands and building something.

I have always been this way even though my career doesn’t require physical labor I still enjoy the actual act of creating and watching something take shape. This is part of what drives the writing process for me because whether I am typing of actually writing, it is still using my hands to shape my creation. And although I do so without an instruction manual, the results have been decent thus far.

But that doesn’t satiate that urge completely. There are times when I look forward to really working with my hands and building something or putting something together. I can, most of the time, turn my brain off for just a little while, follow the instructions, and watch the desk, couch, table, chairs, bookcases, etc. take shape. It is the simple process that relaxes me while also rewarding me with something useful in the end.

These are the moments when I can take my time and make sure things are done right. There really is no debate on how something so simple is put together. The odd thing is that whenever I say something like this I usually get weird looks from people especially the ones that firmly believe that anything that you have to put together your self will fall apart before you get any good use out of it. This is definitely untrue.

Like many projects, if you take the time to put things together correctly, tightening every screw and fastening all the joints, these pieces of furniture will last for years. While I cannot dispute the superiority of solid wood furniture over particle board, the basic fact of the matter is that if you ensure that the structure is solid, they will last. I have seen many instances where things fall apart regardless of material because of shortcomings of the constructor not the structure.

Some boxes remain in our home waiting for me to set aside the time to put them together. Others have already been emptied and the items built. So there has been some assembly required over the past week but nothing that I haven’t done before as many of the pieces that we had moved I put together years ago and they are still just as sturdy as when I first constructed them. That might be the most satisfying aspect of the whole thing.

Familiarize Yourself With A Nonalcoholic Screwdriver

It has always amazed me when I have come across people that don’t know how to use basic tools like a screwdriver or a hammer. Throughout my working life in particular, every once in a while I have had to fix various things especially at the office which remained in disrepair because no one knew how to fix them. I am not talking about major projects. I am talking about basic maintenance items such as wobbly desks and chairs to office doors sticking. Anyone who took basic wood shop would know how to fix these things.

Oh wait, that’s right, kids don’t take wood shop anymore.

People, in general, don’t know how to work with their hands anymore. It is too easy to call someone or replace something than invest some time and thought into how something can be fixed.  This is an issue that is only going to get worse over time as each succeeding generations learns less and less about how to complete small hands on projects around the home or, in this instance, office.

I find it relaxing to sit down with a project, tools in hand, and make something functional again. Sometimes it’s as simple as tightening a hinge or removing the wiggle from a chair while other times it could consist of assembling furniture or building a complete lower. Other times I have done some basic mechanical and refinishing work. By no means do I consider myself good at this but I can get the job done with adequate results.

However, I do know my limits. I do not mess with plumbing or electrical. Most of that kind of work is still beyond my basic knowledge at this point. For those projects I do call in a professional but I try to be there and observe what is being done in case there are minor things that I can pick up and deploy in a pinch.

This is something that everyone can do and should do as it provides you with a small amount of self reliance and know how that can’t be taken away from you. Too few people know the satisfaction that this can bring when you fix something with more than just duct tape. When you fix something in a way that lasts it is always a reminder of what you can do when you take the time and put your mind to something.

In the end, I think this all comes down to two things: a desire to learn and a willingness to work. We would all be better off if we could get more people to fix the things that break instead of just complaining on Facebook and asking for recommendations for a replacement. It really is that simple.

Take the time to educate yourself and start from the beginning if you need to. Basically, if you can’t differentiate between a flat head and Phillips head screwdriver just ask someone and start from there. There is no reason for your only exposure to a screwdriver having been at a bar.