Diary of a Dollar Diva: Being a grown-up

I'm sure everyone has one. A piece of furniture they hate more than anything. It sits there all mockingly saying, "I'm so ugly but you need me so you can't get rid of me".

I have a piece of furniture just like that. It is a really old desk that I have been carting around with me since I was 17 years old. It's heavy, it's ugly and I never actually use it as a desk. It is a gather all for junk and I've wanted to get rid of it for quite some time but haven't had anything to replace it with.

A couple months ago I voiced my opinion about the desk and the corner it lived in. Ian whole-heatedly agreed that we needed to do something about the desk and "the corner" (insert ominous sounding music here).

It didn't take me long to form an opinion on what needed to be purchased in order get rid of the desk. A china cabinet to house all the beautiful things that are going to be coming our way in 5 months - 1 day. In fact, the set of china that I got for my birthday has been in its box since I got in and every time I saw the box I got sad that I had nowhere suitable to put it. Two problems solved: the desk could go and we would have somewhere appropriate to house or china and crystal when wedding gifts arrived.

Ian was a bit of tough sell but he soon saw my way of thinking and jumped on board.

Translation: I pouted.

Next step was to locate such a piece of furniture in our very pathetic price range (anyone want to give us a nice piece of furniture for a smile and hug?). We went on websites like TheBrick.com and Sears.ca and found things that we liked but the attached price tags were a bit more than we could afford, or in some cases a lot more than we could afford. Ever.

I kept a watchful eye on craigslist because I have had good luck there before but two months went by and the only things that popped up were things that should have stayed in the 80's. Bad things...*shudder.

I had given up. I was stuck with the desk. It was going to haunt me to my dying day. Stupid desk.

THEN: there was a glimmer of light.

I checked craigslist one night when I was bored and was shocked to see a hutch/buffet combo in seemingly good condition for $45. It wasn't ugly, it wasn't from the 80's and we could feasibly pay for it. WHAT?!?!

I ran into the bedroom with the laptop and made Ian look right then and there. He agreed it had potential. I said it's got to be better than the desk. He agreed. Only problem was the posting was from 4 days prior, that's what I get for getting lazy with my craigslist stalking.

An email was sent anyway and we both went to bed very soon after, me praying that the furniture gods would smile on me and an email would be waiting in the morning saying that we could still view the hutch.

I must have been in good graces with the furniture gods because they did smile on me and the email I hoped for was in Ian's inbox the next morning. It was on. Within 48 hours we arranged a time for pick up and the use of a truck to actually bring it home.

We arrived at our friend Kristy's place on the appointed evening to pick up the truck and get the keys from the owner, her lovely boyfriend Austen. Ian decided that the canopy could stay on because, "this thing can't be that big and I'm SURE it will fit".

So we drive out to Oak Bay and find the hutch... it is that big and it doesn't fit. So back to Kristy's to take off the canopy that is bolted on. Austen isn't home. doh! A quick phone call later and we are informed that he will be home any minute. The canopy gets taken off and off we go again.

We were about put the hutch part into the truck when suddenly one of the glass doors leaps out of the hutch and smashes on the drive-way. We are talking totally shattered. Now something you need to know is, the owner has left it to us to pick up this rig and is not home, thus we have no access to a broom and dust pan. A bit of recycling-bin-diving later I came up with an empty Kleenex box and a Thrify's bag. I think I did a pretty good job but we called the owner to give him a heads up, just in case.

Anyway long story short we managed to get the thing home without further incident and into the living room. At this point it was 10:30pm on a Sunday night and we both needed to go to bed. So the rest if transformation would have to wait. It actually ended up happening over the next few days. I snapped a few pictures of the process so you can look at my apartment as it went from chaos to not so chaotic.

This is all the crap the used to live on and in my desk... hence why I could not rid myself of it without a suitable replacement.