An Empty Nest - R2BC

For a moment we wondered why we needed wanted new furniture.

When a system works it works. And this is one of my reasons to be cheerful this week. I'm on the linky over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum as usual for a round of cheerful blogs.

1
The Other Reason
The weather has been in the 20sC all week. No coats, no heating needed, windows flung open... OK, I won't rub it in and we are forecast a couple of rainy days next week.

2 
The Expensive Clarinet
The Clarinet is turning out to be extremely expensive. We walked down to the music shop to buy a packet of 10 reeds (for 85 nis) and we came home having ordered two new sofas (considerably more than 85 nis). Honestly, we just popped into the furniture shop to have a look and to check out the comfort of some of the cheap sofas I'd seen online. (The cheap ones are not comfortable btw.)

Going ....

In fairness I've been looking at sofas for a long time. My sofa was bequeathed to me by a lady who bought the wrong size for her enormous apartment. So she had it moved to my apartment and she ordered a bigger one. I'd had it for about 17 years.

It was hand-made and very good quality but nine years of children using it as a climbing frame had made the cream fabric decidedly grubby. And the down filled cushions were always slipping onto the floor and needed puffing up all the time. I took the grubby cover off and threw out the cushions. I put an old foam mattress covered in a fitted sheet, for the seat, and acquired new cushions with my free gift voucher from when I bought my fridge. I'd turned a very expensive sofa into a student couch.

... going ...

But it was still bulky to move and so I hardly ever cleaned under it. Though it was all right that it was 2 m wide, the arms flanked out taking up another 15 cm at each end. When the room is only 3 m wide this was an annoying waste of space. It was just heavy and too big. I wanted something lighter, smaller, cleaner, more practical, and less brown. We are trying to get away from the brown.

I ordered two two-seaters on legs so that you can clean underneath them. These are everywhere atm. I don't know if it's because people want lighter, airier spaces these days (to go with all the trendy decluttering and minimalizing?) or if it's because people want something that the robot can hoover under. (The Robot - that automatic disc that goes round your apartment and hoovers for you while you're out.) Anyway, they are daintier and four people can have an armrest or two people (us) can lay out on them. They arrive in two weeks.

... gone.

The sofa and the armchair had to go. As the sofa was free to  me and was bereft of cushions (I let them have the mattress and its sheet cover but not my cushions) I decided that the best way to get rid of it without the cost of paying removers to take it down three flights of stairs, was to give it away on facebook. I also offered the chair that has a big bottom-sized dent in the seat.

I tidied up and took photos of the sofa as it was offered (undressed) and also with the cushions on so people could see what it could look like when dressed. It looked really nice and cozy. We almost wondered why we had even bought new furniture.

There was a lot of interest from facebook but in the end three Filipinos turned up at 10pm with an old car. Between them they got the sofa, and the chair, downstairs and tied onto the car at no expense to anyone. They drove off at about 3 mph with all their lights flashing. The sofa on top and the chair sticking out the back.

DD cried. She hates change.

It only took five hours! Who knew?

If I'd known it would take only five hours to clear the living room I'd have waited until the new sofas were on their way. I thought it might take a couple of weeks to find someone who wanted the old furniture and then to arrange a convenient time for the removal. I know I could have given the guys who brought the new sofas some money to take the old sofa down but I was being cheap and I wanted it to go to a good home, not left by the bins. (Although people also take used furniture from by the bins).

So we'll hang out in the bedroom for a while and dream about our new living room. And hope it arrives early.