Good nuf

So like I mentioned yesterday I have been scouring Craigslist for replacement living room furniture for a couple weeks.  Originally I was leaning towards getting a big sectional but transportation of something that big would have been a major pain in the ass.

A couple days ago I came across a listing for a leather sofa and loveseat for a dirt cheap $200.  Even though the ad didn’t mention anything about the pieces reclining, they looked like they would.  I emailed the seller and asked if they reclined as well.  He said they did indeed, two recliners in both the sofa and loveseat.

The one obvious wart was a small tear in the one footrest but after seeing I could grab a leather repair kit for $20 if I felt like fixing it, the wart didn’t bother me. Beside the price, which was ideal for my current financial situation, I hoped the two pieces would actually fit in my Tacoma in one trip.

So I made arrangements to head directly up to Fort Myers after work to check out and hopefully buy the furniture.  I got up there right around 6.  The seller had called me en route and already had his 16 year old boys move the stuff out to the driveway for me.

I instantly liked the seller who is a Lee county cop.  He told me how he had his rotator cuff worked on 10 days ago, he hurt it bench pressing.  I quickly discovered we had similar fitness interests.  In addition to lifting weights he also bikes and runs, in fact he ran the Hooters Half Marathon as well, albeit 10 minutes slower than I did.  🙂

So I gave the furniture a quick look over, making sure all of the recliners worked.  In addition to the tear in the one footrest there was some additional scrapes and minor tears on the back of the sofa that look like they came from being pushed against a wall.  Both pieces also looked like they could use a thorough cleaning, something Paul admitted had not been done in a long time.  So I decided I liked the stuff enough to move ahead.

Now typically, all Craigslist transactions involve offering the seller less than he posts on the web site and the seller offering to sell it for somewhere in the middle of the two numbers.  Well although I am pretty sure I could have knocked a few bucks off the price, I felt the $200 was such a reasonable number that I didn’t feel right about asking for a further discount.  I know Jeremy will mock me for this but it felt right to me.  To be honest the guy almost seemed surprised I didn’t lowball him and instead started counting out the ten 20 dollar bills.

I felt even better about giving the guy asking price when he had his two boys do all of the loading of the furniture on my truck.  My concerns about it all fitting proved unsubstantiated.  After putting the tailgate down the sofa fit in the bed.  Then the boys hoisted the love seat over the side of the truck and placed it upside down in top of the sofa. We then utilized two of my heavy duty ratcheting cargo straps in a criss-cross pattern to secure the furniture.

It felt very solid when we were done as it needed to be since I was going to be heading home via the interstate.  I thanked Paul and his boys and headed home. The trip home took awhile since I decided to keep my speed below 65 mph the entire way.

On the way home I left a message for my neighbor across the street, asking if he was available to help me get the stuff off the truck and inside the house.  He saw me pull in the driveway and walked over to lend a hand.

I felt bad asking him to help as he told me his one shoulder was pretty much wrecked.  We did our best to move the stuff utilizing primarily his good arm.

Getting the stuff in the front door wasn’t too bad, requiring us to just tilt the pieces a bit to squeeze into the front door jamb. We dropped the sofa and loveseat in the general vicinity of where they were going.  I thanked Steve for his help, without him the stuff would still be on the bed of my truck.

I didn’t waste any time and moved my “new” furniture into place.  The loveseat was pushed against the wall and the sofa at a 90 degree angle, out into the living space.  The table I got from my great aunt years ago that has been banished to the guest room actually serves quite well as a combo end table for both pieces of furniture.

I then took turns sitting in each recliner.  Mom had sent me an email (after I already purchased the stuff) warning me that I better test the recliners first.  She said in her furniture selling days she saw many units with built in recliners that would not stay reclined with a tall person on them.

Well these recliners do more than just kick up the leg rest when releasing the handle.  They also recline backwards as they also slide forward.  I had absolutely no problem in the reclined position and found that position quite comfortable.

The two pieces fit my space quite well.  However with the new layout the sofa is a couple feet further back than with the old stuff, leaving a HUGE open space in front, perfect for Wii/Kinect activities but a bit awkward looking otherwise.  I need to throw either an over-sized ottoman or a coffee table in that space eventually.

I looked at my new living room layout with pride.  Making the space liveable for a mere $200 is a big win as far as I am concerned.  That was really the only immediate need furniture item I was concerned with.

I Face Timed Ali later to show her the furniture.  She agreed it looked good and fit the space well.

Tomorrow morning I am picking up Ali super early to drop her off at the airport and then drop the dogs back off at the house.  Ali is heading out of town for a few days for work.  Originally she was going to just pay the expensive long term parking at the airport. I told her it was dumb to waste money at this point doing so when I am perfectly fine being her transport to and from the airport.

It will be interesting to see how the dogs like the new furniture.