Just going to post a picture of the stand that was mentioned in the last post. I’m quite happy with it since it seems to be smaller in depth compared to the old unit, and it has a lot of storage. It means that I was able to clear out two different boxes from my Expedit shelf. I still have to figure out what to fill those spaces with, but I like the fact that I have that option, know what I mean? It feels sort of classy, and feels less of a stop gap measure than the other stand.
Tag Archive: furniture
The nugget
You know, as I was writing last night’s post, I actually fell asleep on my couch. It was the first time I’d done so in a few weeks because I didn’t really want to fall asleep in a location with the possibility of the cat crawling all over my face. I had a lot more to write about my experience with the cat, but I just didn’t get around to it before passing out. So I suppose this post is really just a continuation.
So, a few days ago I wrote about how I seemed to be swaying back and forth over whether to help my friend out and make my place Gloria’s forever-home. There was one incident though that kind of sealed the deal for me. Bear with me, this is a bit of a winding story.
On Thursday, I took advantage of a sale at Leon’s. I’ve been in need of a proper TV stand for a long time now. On Thursday Leon’s put this credenza on sale. It’s regularly $700, and for that day only it went for $350! That’s insane! I took the subway over to the local store and asked for that item. They said that they didn’t have it in stock at that location, but if I was willing I could go to another location to pick it up. I asked if it was something that could fit in my car and he told me it could. I really didn’t want to spend $50 for delivery. Anyway, I reserved the item, paid, then went to the other location. I parked at the customer pick-up area. I got them to bring the stand out. When they opened the loading door to my car the guys could only laugh in disbelief. “Umm…sir, there’s no way that unit can fit in your car.” I laughed along and agreed. Well, fuck. Luckily they had some movers on hand. They agreed to deliver the stand for the $50 fee. I mean, at that point I already had my heart set on getting my stand on the same day, so I just decided to pay for convenience. There was no way I’d have been able to get that stand any other way anyway.
So, when we arrived at my building they loaded it in the elevator and brought it up. When I opened my suite, it was hot and humid. It was also filled with the smell of some cat odour. Privately, I was mortified. I just got them to drop off the stand near the doorway. I didn’t want them to spend much time in there. I paid them and went on to get the stand set up. Before I did though, I decided to go hunting for the source of the smell. I checked around the box but didn’t find any puddles, and the litter box wasn’t particularly ripe. I mean, I cleared that sucker out on a daily basis. I didn’t find anything, so I just opened my balcony door to air my place out. So, I unpacked the new stand, moved it next to the old one and started transferring things over. After doing so I had to move the old stand out of the way. When I did, I finally found the source of the odour. There was a stray nugget of poo that must have been there for a few days. Gross! See, a few days before that she seemed to have accidentally shovelled out a turd. I think she tried to shuffle it around and hide it. In the process it must have broke into three pieces. That same day I picked up two pieces without knowing of the existence of this third piece. Anyway, I nonchalantly picked up this third piece and flushed it. Almost immediately the air quality started improving. That was pretty much the turning point for me. If I come home worrying about how my place smells and whether guests might experience some odd smells on arrival, then that’s just not right.
I didn’t treat Gloria poorly on her remaining days here. I still pet her and brushed her. We really took a liking to each other. Still, I just couldn’t keep up with the cleaning needed to keep her around. I have enough trouble keeping the place tidy on my own. The cat was just adding to the problem. Plus, she helped me to identify what my tolerance levels were. It became pretty clear that I don’t really have a good tolerance for messes that aren’t my own, know what I mean? I think I’ve determined that I’m not really a pet person. See, on emotional terms I’m great with pets; I can form bonds pretty easily. On a practical level, I just can’t deal with the upkeep. It doesn’t make me a bad pet owner, just someone that shouldn’t keep pets. Gosh, does that make sense?
Obviously, I’m sad that it had to come to end like this. Surely, part of me wishes that it could have worked out. All the same, I’m happy that I have my place to myself. I do enjoy my solitude you know. It’ll take a while before my place feels normal again. All I need is time.
The space saver cabinet
I know, it’s a bit past midnight as I post this, but I’m marking this as Saturday’s post. It’s a little bit of a cheat (again) but I’m OK with that. Why the late post tonight? Well, I just spent the last two hours constructing this cabinet over the left. Nice, eh? I’ve really been meaning to put a cabinet like this in there for the longest time. That’s because the bathroom really doesn’t have all that much storage space. At most, there’s just the vanity, but it’s not convenient to stash anything away there. That’s where a cabinet like this comes in. Anyway, the process of getting to that point wasn’t the easiest.
Earlier today I was at the local Canadian Tire looking for the Debbie Travis brand of this cabinet. I saw a white one, but I wasn’t in the mood to make my bathroom have some sort of Nantucket feel. No, thank you. I checked with the clerk and they said that there was one available at another location on the Danforth. When I heard that I was dreading the drive over, mostly because the road is always crowded and narrow. So, I set out there but somehow managed to head in the wrong direction several times. God knows how because Toronto roads are very grid-like. I guess I just forgot whether the destination was further east or west. Anyway, when I got there I got to the expected aisle only to find the damn Nantucket style cabinet. I checked with a clerk who found that their only available one was the display model. I asked about it and they were willing to take off $60. Not a bad deal, however, I was really wondering how the heck I’d stuff it into my car. I know my Corolla is capable of carrying a lot, but this thing? Besides, the floor model was looking a little worse for wear. So, in the end I ended up getting this Home Collections brand.
Now, like I said, I spent the past while putting it together. I followed the instructions closely and it came together well. I think I scratched my hardwood floor in the process though. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Once it was done I grabbed it and went to put it over the toilet. Thing is…see that wood piece between the two back legs? That actually blocked me from easily sliding it in. Damn it!
I ended up having to partially disassemble the thing, take the legs and go over and behind, then place the cabinet part back on. No, I suppose it wasn’t that bad, but I feel like the company should have noted that in the instructions. I suppose I could have carried the whole cabinet up and over, but the bathroom ceiling isn’t that high. Besides, I wasn’t going to risk having the whole lot collapse or fall apart–especially since I’m the only one working on the damn thing.
So, it’s in place, but I think I should really consider anchoring the thing to the wall. I don’t want it to tip over once it’s loaded with stuff, you know? Sounds great in theory, but I think I’ll end up being too lazy to care. I’ll put stuff in there tomorrow morning. For now, I’m just sleepy.
A place to eat
You know, I did manage to get that document done. Thing is, I had to wake up at 4 in the morning just to get it done. No matter. In the end I still got it to the meeting for review, and that’s all that matters. I actually participated in that meeting from the comfort of my sofa via Skype. Good thing: since the conference bridge is toll free it didn’t eat into my Skype credits.
So why was I working from home? I was here because I had to wait for a delivery to come in. Finally, after two months of waiting I finally received my dining table. Back when I purchased my furniture, I spotted the dining table and kind of knew that that was the one I wanted. The only issue was that it was out of stock at the time. The salesperson told me that the computers said that it’d be in stock within weeks. So, because of my patient nature I decided to just go with it. Well, the weeks stretched out. I briefly considered that I might want to cancel the order, but I think deep down I knew that I was willing to wait. I mean, I was sort of content eating at the breakfast bar. Gosh, people who knew I was waiting must have thought I was insane to wait so long. Last week, I finally got a call from the salesperson saying that the table and chairs were finally in stock, and that I should arrange delivery. And…here it is.
I think it looks great. It coordinates really well with my living room items: particularly the sofa and the Ikea Expedit tables. It actually provides a decent transition from the living room to the kitchen. As well, my current tableware should match well with the shape of the table. It just works! I need to head to the stores this weekend to find some good place mats and heat pads. Something to put under the peace lily would be great too.
At this moment, the only thing that’s sort of egregiously out of place is the TV stand. I have some idea what I want to replace my current piece with, but it’s not as high of a priority right now. I’m kind of content at the moment. That’s a very good thing.
Not enough hours in the day
It’s been a long day. It’s becoming frequent now that I’m getting that feeling of not having enough hours in the day to deal with all of the stuff I want and need to do. Is that a factor of having a more adult life? Perhaps, right? I have relatives visiting tomorrow so I need to spend a few hours getting things organized and a bit more presentable. However…with work and all, where am I going to find time for that? Argh!
Anyway, in the meantime, I’m posting some pictures of the current state of my living room. This is with the Expedit items and the Årstid lamp. Yes, it’s a little bit heavy looking, but once I add accessories and cushions the look should balance out. As for the bookcase, it does seem a bit big, doesn’t it? It’s all right though, I seem to need the space to store all of my things. I put some of my hardhats in there as part of makeshift decor. Don’t mind the TV stand. Yeah, it stands out, but for the moment it gets the job done.
First Ikea experience
Maybe it’ll surprise you, but up until today I had never stepped foot inside an Ikea. With the idea of picking up a coffee table in mind, my mother (who had come to visit to help get my place organized) and I ventured over to the North York location to have a peek around. I had no idea what to expect. As we approached the place, the building looked enormous. Immediately, I kind of felt dwarfed by the scale of it. I parked on the upper deck and we ventured down to the front entrance. As I walked to the front I couldn’t help but notice just how crowded the place was on a Saturday afternoon. I have never seen a furniture place that packed, you know? I passed a lot of families with their little kids in tow. I swear, you’d think they we were all heading into an amusement park. Maybe I was imagining it, but there was some palpable excitement among the kiddies. On my first step in, the fact that I saw kids playing in a ball pit made me laugh out loud. Yup, the magic happens inside.
So my mother and I were wandering around the showroom, kind of ooh-ing and aah-ing at some of the merchandise. Sure, there are some items there that kind of look inexpensive, but if you pick the right item you’ll get that whole clean-line modern thing without much fuss. Now, yesterday I said I was eyeing the Ramvik or the Klubbo coffee tables. When I finally got to see it for myself, I realized that the Klubbo was far too low to the ground for my liking, and the Ramvik was just way too chunky. Even the fact that the Ramvik had storage was not enough to make me want it. However, then I saw a black-brown version of the Expedit coffee table. It was thick, sufficiently chunky, and looked sturdy. The glass on top gave it a bit more character. At that point I knew that if I were to get a table, that would be the one. So, I pencilled it onto my Ikea sheet. It just so happened that beside the coffee table they had the corresponding side table. I figured that if I got the coffee table it would probably be a good idea to just get the side table as well. At $60, why not? I pencilled that in, too. I wasn’t intending on getting a bookcase either, but when I saw the 4×2 bookcase and noticed that it was also Expedit, I just decided to pencil it in as well. I don’t know if I intended to actually buy all of that from the get go, but I figured that writing down what I wanted wouldn’t hurt.
Well, my mother and I wound our way through the store. We tried to minimize the impulse stuff as much as we could, though I did end up getting an Årstid floor lamp as well. We eventually got to that self-pick up area with the flat-pack boxes. Right by the entrance was the bookcase. Sweet mercy, that thing was freaking heavy. I was already wondering how the heck we were going to bring it home. As we went around, the boxes piled up. The cart was heavily loaded. Every time there was a slight slope, the cart really started rolling out of my control. That’s how heavy everything was. All in all, I ended up paying $365 for the day, which, in my mind, seemed obscenely cheap for all the stuff I got.
When we got back to my car, my mother and I sort of had to play Ikea Tetris just to get all of the items to fit into my car. She had all of her training lifting heavy patients at the hospital. Even though I knew that, I was still quite impressed with her ability to lift things to get them in. That bookcase package wasn’t light at all. I’m also impressed with the Corolla. I knew that it was good at holding cargo because of the fact that I was able to stuff all of my boxes in there during my move. Still, the fact that I got all of the furniture in there just amazed me. I really did a lot of heavy lifting today. Moving has that effect, no? Part of me wishes that this process is on-going because this necessary weight lifting must be doing something good for me (or so I’d like to think).
So, it’s late on a Saturday now. All of the furniture is assembled and I swear, my living room is now looking like a proper living room. Yes, there’s more stuff, but no, it’s not cramped. Everything goes well together, and that makes me happy. Very soon, I’m going to start work on softening up the room. I’m a little afraid that all of the pieces together might be a little overwhelming. Maybe adding cushions and other textures to the couch will help. We’ll see.
Yup. It’s been yet another productive weekend.
So much trouble for a coffee table
In terms of interior decoration, one common message that just about everyone has been telling me is that I should be in no hurry to fill my place. I really need to take the time to pick out pieces and personal touches that I truly want to represent what I’m all about. I agree with that notion. I don’t think I’ll get around to putting more personal touches in my place until I have everything else put away. In my living room I still have a couple of boxes of stuff lying around. I would have emptied them by now but there simply isn’t any place to put the stuff. So there they sit, making my habitation of this space look more transitional than anything else. That’s OK. I’ll know I’ll eventually get things put away.
The next thing that I’ve really been stressing out about as of late has been the addition of a coffee table. I mean, last weekend I picked out a nice rug. Since then I’ve been trying to figure out what would go with the couch and rug. I have some ideas. In truth though, I’ve really been focusing my attention on the stuff at Ikea. Why? Well, I figure that it’s easy enough to pick something out from that place and then take it home for quick assembly. In other furniture stores I’d have to stick around the place for delivery, and given the state of work over the next week or two that’s time that I just can’t give up. The few options that I’ve really been throwing around have been the Ramvik table or the Klubbo table. Why? Both have the whole clean line thing going on which I think would fit well with the couch.
I am going to use this time to apologize to my friends for the past few days. I’ve really been bouncing ideas off of so many people. There have been a variety of opinions, but in the end all have been valuable in helping me figure out what I want. Thing is, I still don’t know what I want! Yes, I’m going to give it a bit more time, but I should settle sooner rather than later. The reason for that is that if I drag it on for much longer I’m going to go absolutely insane.
How I chose the couch
Just a few words on the couch. Back when I signed the contract and paid out my first chunk of the down payment, my mind immediately started churning out ideas with regard to how I wanted the place to look. For a couch, my mind immediately gravitated toward having a sectional sofa. I even wrote about wanting one about two years ago. Why did I want one? The plain and simple reason was that I enjoyed the idea of having a corner of sorts to curl up in when I wanted a nap. A lot of people kind of scoffed at the idea saying that I basically wouldn’t have the room for it. So, ultimately I just put the thought on the back burner for a long time.
Fast forward now to August 2009. I ventured into Leon’s just with the intent of looking around to see if there was anything that caught my eye. I was helped out by this friendly sales lady who really seemed to have a decent handle on what all the trends are for today’s youth (yeah, I fall under that category, I guess). I told her that I was interested in having a sectional so she showed me the fabric options. They were all kind of large, and really I wasn’t feeling entirely enthused about any of the options. That’s when she convinced me that a sofa would probably be more appropriate. So, we started looking around at those options, but again I didn’t feel that any of the sofas really fit what I had in mind. That’s when I asked to see leather options.
Now, I wasn’t planning on going the leather route at all. When I thought of leather furniture, I always imagined the big puffy things that you tend to sink into. I also imagined that on sweaty days I’d have to peel myself off the couch. Was all kind of gross if you asked me. Well, when she took me over she showed me a nice mini chocolate brown sofa. Well, I sat on it but wasn’t completely sold on it. Then again, compared to all of the fabric couches that one was leaps ahead of the others. I eventually decided to go with that one.
So, afterwards the sales lady started taking me to other parts of the store to see what else she could show me. Just as a matter of circumstance, we ended up in one of the back areas of the store where the decor seemed to be very sleek and contemporary. I ended up seeing a black leather sectional and immediately fell in love with it. It was low slung, relaxing, and taut. It pretty much shattered any conceptions I had about leather furniture; the darn thing was just really comfortable! It just so happened too that its dimensions just fit nicely into the scheme of things. I asked about it and the sales lady said that she was going to show it to me but thought that it might cost a bit more than what I was looking for. Fine. This couch was probably $1000+ over the chocolate brown sofa. I replied, “yeah…I’m not made of money.”
And that was that. Or, at least, that would have been the end of it. As we kept going around the store I kept thinking about the couch. I knew that I’d be taking advantage of the 18 month promotion that they had anyway. Eventually I decided that this would be my splurge item so I made the switch. And that’s that.
As I type this, I’m reclined on the couch tapping away at the laptop. I took a picture of the couch the other day. I’m posting it here in this entry. Please ignore the socks in the picture. Despite how it looks, the couch isn’t a behemoth at all. It really is just enough for a guy like me, you know. I’m happy with this piece of furniture. Yes, I am.
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