Nothing is really free. Take for instance the free love seat that my girlfriend came across on Saturday. But first, some background is in order. Grace, and her family, has raised the acquisition of leftover furniture to an art form. They have some rules about what constitutes whether something is usable, but if she finds something on the side of the road she will stop to check it out. Personally, I find the whole thing distasteful, it reeks of desperation and I’m not all that hip on getting into somebody’s discard pile.
This weekend was supposed to be low key because I’m stressed about buying my first home and I’ve been going through my finances and considering loan options and potential borrowers. However, while heading out to the grocery store early Saturday afternoon Grace noticed a faded purple loveseat which someone had labeled with a “Free” sign. It’s the end of the month so people that are moving out of the apartment complex are getting rid of items one way or another.
I realized that it would be a problem when I saw it, but when I watched her whip out the cell phone and start dialing, I knew it was going to be a long day. After a series of phones calls between the sisters and me sending a cellphone picture of the couch, they agreed to keep it. During the phone calls she took the sign off the couch and sat down, asking me to join her. But not only do I not know where that couch as been, but there was a suspiciously poo colored stain on the arm which I had no intention of touching.
I turned down the idea of moving it into my apartment for safekeeping but did volunteer to put it in my Explorer until her sister could pick it up. Then that idea wasn’t going to work out since she was busy with errands. I volunteered to meet her halfway someplace, but that didn’t work out either, but me driving it out to Seattle to her place seemed to work out okay (in case you missed it, yes that’s sarcasm folks).
In another charming bit, Grace made one too many calls to her sister and made her a bit testy. My response to Grace was that if she continued being “testy” she could come out and get it herself. I tend to get annoyed when her family is crappy to her, especially since she doesn’t stand up for herself (doesn’t want to rock the boat, which drives me nuts). Also, if I wanted drama I would go to see the dismal looking local production of Evita.
Anyway, Grace wrote down directions to her place, but then said we weren’t going to be able to deliver it until around 9pm (it was about 4pm when we got the directions). The timing was due to me not wanting to go to a strangers house to move a couch into their basement without her sister being present. We finished shopping, headed back home and I made a very nice spaghetti carbonara for dinner.
We got another call from her sister that she wouldn’t be around until about 10pm and headed for her place around 9pm. It turns out her directions were less than stellar. I knew we were in trouble when they were giving contradictory information. If you know Seattle, when you exit 520 west to Montlake you can't make a left from the offramp, you can only head north. Also, if you are told to make a left onto 45th, you are going to be heading west up towards the UW.
Unfortunately, the directions started to break down after that and we stopped just past Wallingford for new directions. I only heard half the conversation between Grace and her sister, but there was mention of “two 45th streets” (huh?). Turns out she lives in Ravenna towards Sand Point which if either of those were mentioned would have kept us more in the ballpark. But the revised directions got us there a little while later.
We arrived just minutes before her sister and noticed nobody else was home. We unloaded the couch onto the sidewalk and put the truck back together (back seats up and cover bar in place). When she arrived she was apologetic about the directions and unlocked the door. We carried it up the stairs to the house and started our first run at getting it into the basement. That failed miserably after several tries due to the very old and very narrow doorway. We made another series of attempts to get it upstairs which also were unsuccessful.
This led to more phone calls and discussions about what to do with the couch. The options discussed were my finding a Goodwill, my listing it in Craiglist, me dumping it back at my apartment (some ludicrous statement about how we didn’t really “own” it so it we wouldn’t be responsible if the apartment management complained about re-dumping the couch where we found it – obviously I didn’t make this argument) and finally me lugging it to Bothell to their parents place (anybody else notice a pattern for the guy who didn't want anything to do with the fricking thing in the first place?).
I opted for the trip to Bothell since it seemed the least problematic so we reloaded the Explorer, said our goodbyes and headed north. By this time it was about 11:30pm so the trip should have been relatively quick. However, when we took the “shortcut” it turns out road construction detoured us through a couple of miles of residential neighborhoods. We finally made it sometime after midnight. Her dad was still awake and helped me unload the couch onto their deck and after a brief stay, we headed out.
We arrived back at my place just after 1am. So yeah, the day was not what I would consider a “good thing”. After several hours of driving, phone calls, arrangements and moving of furniture I return to my original statement. Nothing is really free.