I've caught a used furniture bug. This shouldn't come as a shock to those of you who know me, as it's simply the next step in the evolution of my furniture shopping preferences. Three of four years ago when I first got an apartment and became interested in cramming it full of furniture my criteria was simply the cheaper the better. In keeping with this, I accumulated a fairly large collection of free furniture: two chairs that were discarded following the Olin Library remodel, a loveseat from one of the engineering societies, an old desk chair, and some of my parents' discarded furniture. Price was the main -- arguably the only -- criteria I used when selecting this furniture. It had to be free.

Then I began to slowly ramp up my spending, primarily on cheap new furniture. The results of this phase were a kitchen table with four matching chairs, a matching coffee table and end table, a desk, an entertainment unit, a dresser, and some bookcases. The results of this phase were mixed. The dinette set, coffee table and end table, entertainment unit, and desk were pretty successful purchases, but the dresser and the bookcases didn't hold up as well. This illustrates an important point. In the world of inexpensive furniture, there is a fine line between the bargains and the simply cheap. I think about it this way: a bargain is a purchase where you're getting more than your money's worth while the cheap purchases are those where you get exactly what you pay for. More often than not, the reason a piece of furniture is really cheap is because it is made of poor materials and will look and function poorly.

The simple solution to the problem of cheap furniture is to just throw more money at it, and that is exactly what I tried next. I didn't buy any $3,000 couches or anything, but I did up my price ceiling from around $200 to closer to $400. I was still looking for bargains, but in the absence of a bargain I was more willing to pay extra for looks. I'm very happy with all of my purchases from this phase of my buying -- notably a matching couch, loveseat, and chair; an entertainment unit; and new bookcases -- but I'm not as excited about how much money I spent on those purchases.

So there I was, used to buying nice furniture, but not willing to pay for it. The logical solution was to investigate the used furniture market. And I like what I've found. There are some great pieces to be had and you won't be emptying your piggy bank to get them. The big trade off is time. You have to be willing to commit to a lengthy search process with no guarantee of finding anything. And if you do chance across the right chair or the right table or the right whatever, you need to be able to act immediately. If you find a nice item, it means that you've chanced across the right combination of location, timing, and price. Those three are not too likely to stay fixed, and if you spend to long pondering a purchase, someone else will make the decision for you by buying the item your interested in out from under you. During the course of my search for a kitchen table, which I discussed in a previous post, I found three tables that I really liked, but the first two were sold before I made up my mind whether to buy them. So when I found the third, I acted quickly and I've been very happy with my decision. The table isn't perfect or even nearly perfect, but it meets my needs very well and it cost next to nothing.

I've now made another used furniture purchase. After I bought the new table, I wanted some chairs to go with it. I got lucky and, after a visit to four consignment shops in two states and some trips to sellers of new furniture, I found what I wanted on craigslist. Take a look at the chairs in the picture below:

I'm pretty happy with this purchase. The wood on the chairs matches the table very well (although I think the chairs are cherry and the table top is mahogany veneer -- but that mostly only effects that grain pattern) and I like the grey fabric. As our illustrious leader might say, "Mission Accomplished."

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 30 November 2005 at 1:31 PM

We've had trouble with obituaries today. It all started with George Best, the soccer star who died today. My mother insisted that, in addition to his prowess on the football pitch, he was also well known as the "fifth Beatle" who had been kicked out of the band and replaced by Ringo Starr. Of course, the fifth Beatle was actually Pete Best, but she insisted that NPR had called George Best the fifth Beatle.

After we cleared up the issue with Best, my mother began insisting that Pat Morita had dies today (true) and that he was only 55 (false). As it turned out, he was 73.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 November 2005 at 8:22 PM

This past weekend was a busy one.

On Friday I had dinner and drinks at CJ Muggs and then forced Jeremy, Ben, and Steve to play in a four-player TimeSplitters death match (a GameCube game).

On Saturday, I completed my search for a new kitchen table when I found a table that I liked at the Treasure Island thrift store/antique mall on Big Bend. This is a big deal because I've devoted a good portion of the last four Saturdays to visiting consignment shops, thrift store, and a variety of other furniture merchants. It turns out that decent-sized new tables are much more expensive than I'm willing to pay, so I decided to go the second-hand route. This was a partially successful decision, as I now have a decent-looking $50 table. (Here's a picture. The seller thinks it's a Duncan Phyfe table. It is in keeping with his style -- use of mahogany veneers and the three-legged pedestals, for example -- but I suspect its more in the style of Duncan Phyfe than an actual Duncan Phyfe creation. Regardless, the price was right.) But I'm now left with the problem of finding four or six matching chairs. I'm not sure that I'll continue with the second-hand route for the chairs though. Chairs are tricky because fabrics decay and frames take a lot of abuse that often leaves them in less than stellar condition. So I might try to find some inexpensive new chairs. But I'm not sure about that one way or the other.

On Saturday evening Jeremy, Ben, and I tried to see "The Squid and the Whale" at the Plaza Frontenac theatre, but all of their 7:00 shows were sold out. So we fell back to plan B and saw "Good Night, and Good Luck" at the West Olive 16. We got there early, which was good as the theatre looked sold out by the time the movie started. The movie was very good, but I thought it struggled a bit to build drama. It certainly had a message that it was pushing though: there aren't always two equal sides to every story and reporters can editorialize not only by pushing one agenda but by holding a false idea up as equal to an opposing truth. For full disclosure I should admit that I happen to subscribe to this theory and edit its fan club magazine, so that might have colored my take on things. But my number one complaint about the movie was the unbearably hot temperature in the top row of the theatre. It was like a sauna in there.

On Sunday Jeremy and I played some tennis and then a lot of football was watched and a lot of laundry was cleaned. Oh and I checked the mail on Sunday and discovered that my insurance agent thinks I can save $400 by switching my policy to a different company. So I'll be doing that today.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 November 2005 at 9:34 AM

This is too good not to share, and because The Week doesn't post all their articles online, I'm just going to copy it out here for you.

Microscopic bed mates
Before you put your head down on your pillow tonight, consider what's waiting for you there, says Newsday. A recent study at the University of Manchester in England sampled 150 pillows from different homes, and found millions of spores from up to 16 species of fungi in each one. "We really thought it was the kind of stuff you find on a bathroom wall in a damp house," says researcher Ashley Woodcock. "To find it in the bed you sleep in is really a surprise." The fungi were the type usually found in wet environments; Woodcock thinks they're attracted to the moisture produced by nighttime sweating, which can total 100 liters per person per year. And fungi are only half of what's living in pillows and beds. Thousands of dust mites also find a comfortable home in bedding; studies have shown that the average mattress gains a pound of two a year in feces excreted by dust mites, which eat the dead skin cells shed by sleepers. "You have a zoo in there," Woodcock says. Generally, the bed's tiny inhabitants pose no risk to healthy people, but for those with asthma or compromised immune systems the fungi can be life-threatening. Woodcock recommends washing bedclothes regularly in hot water and using feather pillows instead of synthetic ones.

This is from the "Health scare of the week" section of the November 11, 2005 edition of "The Week."

Comments: 3 Posted by david on 7 November 2005 at 6:49 PM

Dear John Kerry,

You lost the election. Please stop emailing me.

Cheers,
dgw

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 2 November 2005 at 2:51 PM