Freeniture not furniture

On occasion when I have visitors to my house I'll get the comment, "looks like you need to go to the furniture store."  Normally I'll just smile and nod.  You see I own somewhat of a large house for one person and most of my furniture came with me from my university apartment.  Because of that one bed room is almost empty, my front room held a solitary (though quite comfy chair) and I have an area of the basement that is not furnished at all.  At the end of the day though, I had no need to go to the furniture store.  After all I had a bed to sleep on, a dresser for storage, a table to eat at, and the comfiest chair in the world.  I needed nothing else.  After all I can only sit on one chair at a time.

I knew that more furnishings would come into my house eventually, which is a good thing seeing as I am hosting a number of relatives for my brother's wedding this summer and I am in the process of being approved as a foster parent.  So I kept my eyes peeled looking for freeniture instead of furniture.

I had the advantage of lots of time, I moved to my new house in November and my brother's wedding / approval to foster won't come until June/July.  Patience won out for me twice in the past week.  First find was a look-like-new couch that was being moved out of my office building to make room for another desk.  A co-worker with a pick-up was kind enough to deliver it to my house after my boss asked me if I wanted it.  (Though the programmers and I were a bit put out to see it go, not that anyone sat on the couch, rather we would no longer have a place to store our stuff!)

The second find was equally awesome.  I chanced to see a lovely little dresser on someone's front lawn Saturday morning.  This one is a fixer-upper for sure.  It needs a new paint job and some of the drawers need a bit of fixing, but I figure I can do that myself for minimal costs.  To be entirely honest I am really looking forward to the project.  It should be a great learning experience and I am planning on having a lot of fun doing it.  I also had a good bit of fun bringing it home.  As you can see from the picture the drawers came home in my snazzy wagon.  The base I ended up carrying home by hand.  The whole process took almost two hours.  I know that some people are gasping at the idea of spending two hours carrying home a piece of furniture that will need to be fixed.  Just go to the store, it's not worth it!  They might say.  But to me it is worth it.  I got out in the sun and used my muscles for something other than sitting and typing.  I spent the time planning how best to fix it up and figuring out what I'd need, trying to use my ingenuity to keep the costs low.  Add to that the amusing and encouraging remarks that you'll get from people when they see you walking along with a dresser balanced on your back!  So much more entertaining than two hours at the movies.

Have a question?  I'd love to hear it!