The chairs came! I posted a sweet deal I found on chairs at JCP here, and in record time they arrived on our doorstep via FedEx. We put them together this weekend, and let me tell you, assembling eight chairs and entertaining two mothers over one weekend has left me a bit tired! But, the chairs look great. I think the only way we could’ve found a better match was to order the actual matching chairs from Crate & Barrel. Here they are:
Our fab craigslist table with its new chairs.And now for a close up.
The assembly was not terribly difficult, just time consuming. Unfortunately, I blistered the palm of my hand on the first chair, so assembling the remaining chairs was not terribly comfortable. Note to self: next time you assemble furniture, put on your work gloves from the get-go! I couldn’t be more pleased with the result, though.
I was browsing some archives of a blog I recently stumbled upon, and the writer raves about a great deal on a rug from JC Penney. I loved the rug. I have a hard time finding area rugs that I like when I shop. I see them in other people’s homes, but I can’t seem to find them myself. 2 years later they still sell the rug at a great price. I haven’t purchased one because I’m not sure what room I would use it in or what color I would get, but while I was on the site I decided to browse other furniture, just to see if there were other good deals lurking.
I mentioned in this post that, now that we found a great new-to-us dining table, we needed some chairs to go with, and I was torn about the hefty price tag on the matching C&B chairs. As luck would have it, JCP had these chairs on clearance for $99 for a set of two (down from $250!).
Travis Chairs
They are not solid mahogany like the C&B chairs, but they are solid wood with a mahogany stain, and as far as I’m concerned I can live with not mahogany for that price difference. The one review on the chairs is poor at only two stars. But I discount the comments a bit because (1) the complaint partly had to do with chipping paint, and I ordered the stained, not painted, option; and (2) the writer also complained about difficult assembly, which I’ve found to be the case with virtually all chairs that require assembly. Also, I’m just a wiz at putting furniture together. I get it from my dad, I think.
Picture it: it’s Friday night and two attractive newlyweds are looking for something to do. The obvious choice? Costco.
The Holy Grail of bulk shopping.
Steve and I can make an evening out of going to Costco. We start with dinner at the snack bar, where you can get a big hot dog and a soda with unlimited refills for a buck fifty. It’s the best deal in town.
My naked dog.
S's "loaded" dog. They ran out of onions!
We can then easily spend a couple of hours browsing the aisles, especially electronics (Steve drools over the big flat screen TVs), home goods, and tools. And of course we get to stock up on our favorite foods.
Typically I think of a Costco evening as a cheap date. We get dinner for two and an evening of entertainment for only $3! I don’t usually factor in the money we spend on the items purchased during the “date” because usually they are things that we need or will use in any event. We dropped over $350 this time though! We did save a bundle with a rebate from using a Costco AmEx and with store coupons, but we also made a couple of impulse buys. We got an oversized king down alternative comforter, which we will need when we finally get around to picking out my in-laws’ wedding gift: a new bed. We also bought a deep saute pan. We had one on our wedding registry, but when I went to complete it I learned that they actually don’t make that pan anymore, which could be why we did not receive it. Thanks for the heads up, C&B! But I digress . . .
The point is, if you take into account what we spent shopping, we would have been better off doing dinner and a movie or something like that. But then we’d probably end up at Costco on the weekend anyway, so maybe it is a frugal activity.
