Furniture Frenzy, 02 August 2013

Today I set out to buy marshmallows, graham crackers, and bug spray, and I came home with an antique cabinet and a pirate chest.

It's a simple explanation, really.  The four of us are preparing for our second-ever family camping trip, so the kids and I hopped in the car this morning to pick up some essential supplies (AKA fixings for s'mores).  But before we hit the market, I suggested we detour to our favorite local thrift store ("charity shop" for the non-Americans) to see if we could find a toy box for the kids.

Toys in our house generally have places to live, but there's one corner in our living room that has become Toy Pile and Weapons Dump.  Light sabers, Nerf swords, and sundry pieces of armor don't fit neatly into drawers, so they gravitate to the Pile; it's also true that it's faster to clean up the room by tossing things onto the Pile than it is to neatly organize the many robots, blocks, magnifying glasses, bits of string, and large plastic insects.

Come on now.  Look at that face.  How can we go on unceremoniously tossing this guy into a pile?

It occurred to me that a great solution would be to have a box into which to throw things--a kind of Enclosed Pile, if you will.  The kids also thought this was a great idea and the three of us felt optimistic as we walked into the thrift store just as it opened.  Then--

Eureka!  Right inside the doors I immediately spotted the perfect...antique cabinet?

"Mom-meee, stop looking at that thing and let's see if they have a box!!"  But the magic of solid wood, dove-tailed drawers, and burled grain had already cast its spell.  Suddenly I realized that what I needed more than anything else--s'mores included--was this cabinet.  Nevermind I wasn't quite sure where to put it or what to keep in it.  "Mom-meee!" G looked at the price tag.  "This one's expensive!  Why are you looking at it?  Stop looking at it!  Come over heeeere!"

Granted, anything over $5.00 is expensive to a 6 year old, but it certainly wasn't in my planned expenses for the month, so I sighed and moved on to the suddenly dull quest of finding a toy box.  By contrast, the boys' excitement had skyrocketed.  "Look!!!  We found a pirate chest!" they cheered.  Sure enough, there was a bright blue trunk with rusted latches and riveted leather handles...with a price tag that didn't shock G.  It had our name on it, for sure!  Our quest was at an end.

But the cabinet...oh, so pretty...  I wandered around the store with the boys for a couple more minutes, stalling with the hope that an obvious reason to buy the cabinet would come to me, but in the end we left the store with the toy chest and without the cabinet.

During the drive home, the kids prattled excitedly, but I was quiet.  "Do you guys know what I'm doing while I'm being quiet?" I eventually asked.  "I'm praying about whether I should get that cabinet or not.  I think I should go home and think about it and talk to Daddy first."  G commented, "That sounds good," (he really didn't want me to make a U-turn) and went back to discussing which of their treasures they should pack into the chest.

Once home, we got the toy box happily settled into its corner.

The kids have never been quite so keen to clean up before!

But I was still thinking about that cabinet at the thrift store.  Apparently, I've inherited my mom's gene of collecting eclectic, second-hand furniture.  (A rough tally reveals that three-quarters of the furniture in our home is pre-owned.)  So just like I saw my mom do many times, I took some measurements in the room, did some visualizing, and finally called the store to see if someone had erstwhile purchased the cabinet.  No one had.  I noticed the time had hit Jay's lunch break, so I called him to discuss it.  (One doesn't like to bring home large pieces of furniture using their husband's paycheck without consulting their husband first.  Whatever did my mom do in pre- cell phone days?)

Incredibly, between the two of us we decided there were more reasons to buy the cabinet than not to buy it!

• Place to put it?  Check.
• Drawers functional?  Check.
• Helpful storage space?  Check.
• A good look for the room?  Check.
• Long-term usability?  Check.
• Rachel have a good track record of not buying useless furniture?  Check.
• Rachel have a good track record of picking out nice furniture?  Check.
• Cabinet worth passing down as an heirloom to our children and their progeny during the next couple hundred years?  Possibly...

Truthfully, that last point didn't come up in my conversation with Jay.  But the others did, and I got the go-ahead to add the piece to our room.  With bated breath, I drove the agonizing 15 minutes to the shop where--lo and behold--the cabinet was still there!  Just as I walked up to it, another lady laid eyes on it and reached out her hand to open a drawer.

"Oh actually," I boldly said, "I'm buying this right now."  Did her one-word response of "Oh," indicate a broken heart and fizzled dreams?  Did it concede crushing defeat in the face of a clear victor?  Or was it simply a polite thing to say to an over-eager shopper with bulging eyes?  Pretty sure my eyes were bulging.

At any rate, brokenhearted shoppers aside, today I came home with a pirate chest, an heirloom cabinet (why not call it like it is?), and the required marshmallows and bug spray.  So what conclusions do I draw from this tale?

1. Getting to thrift stores right when they open is dangerous ideal
2. Old-fashioned trunks look like pirate treasure chests to 6- and 5-year olds
3. Impulse-buying isn't the only way to end up with a desired thing
4. Whether I ended up with the cabinet or not, the process--prayer, thinking, waiting, discussing--was helpful
5. I'm turning into my mother
6. But hey, my mother had good taste

Even the tea set on top is Mom's.*

So campers beware!  Preparing for your next adventure into the great outdoors could lead to a shopping tale worthy of the high seas.  ARRRR!

*The lace on top of the cabinet was my MIL's; the candle holders were Grammy G's; the candle sticks were Bernie and Claire's; and the glass platter under the tea set was a house-warming gift from its former owners, a couple at our church.  Every item on top of the cabinet is sentimental...and every single one is second-hand!