Off the Floor At Last!

We've been sleeping on the floor now for quite a while. The problem is Hawaii doesn't carry very many Eastern (regular) King bedroom sets and none that we liked.

I looked on Craigslist and found people asking ridiculous prices for their Eastern King platform beds, never mind the few bedroom sets I've seen.


I wondered then if I could just buy an Eastern King platform bed at Slumberworld and then go over next door to Homeworld to pick up a bedroom set that might match. What are the chances?

Incredibly, we were actually able to find something we could be happy with in August. Unfortunately, it always takes a long time to ship stuff to Hawaii. We were able to get the two nightstands, but not the rest of the furniture. They will arrive in November. (You know what? I actually bought the bed new for almost the same price they were asking on Craigslist.)


The bed arrived on Monday, but...the side rail and foot board had imperfections. Slumberworld is very good about making things right. (We really appreciated our sales associate, Karene who always followed through.) They sent over two guys to put the bed together with better pieces.


Unfortunately, after they left we noticed that the headboard was a little wobbly. Art discovered that the cam and screw were stripped so I've put in a call to Slumberworld to make that correction.


We're quite pleased at how the pieces are matching up. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that the Homeworld November pieces (dresser and chest) will not have so many imperfections. One can only hope.

We bought that cedar chest some 25 years ago at an estate sale in Illinois. We're happy that it seems to match the rest of the furniture too. Yae!
Do furniture pieces these days not have as good quality control as 20 years ago? Or is it just me expecting too much?

Another Craigslist Buy!

We've had our mattress and box spring sitting on the floor ever since we bought it last year because we just couldn't find a bed frame we liked and well...... have you seen how expensive bedroom furniture is? So... of course, I've been on the hunt in Craigslist.



I was looking for maple or maybe oak but then I saw a metal and brass bed that grabbed my attention. Kristi was asking $500 for it but I offered $300. She e-mailed asking whether we would go to $350 but I said I'd like to stay at $300 because I was really looking for maple with 2 matching nightstands. (In fact I missed out on a maple bed frame for $125 over the weekend. Sigh...) I told her she should just put me on a bid list and she could wait and see if she might find another buyer who would offer more. I thought that would be fairer. Well, she wrote back that I could have it for $250! That was a surprise.

We went to look at it yesterday evening and liked it although it had rust spots and there was a little dent in one of the brass balls at the top. Whatever the case we loved meeting Kristi and her partner. That was the best part. I can't believe I actually hugged the both of them before we left. I gave her $300 in an envelope. This is a photo of just the foot board.


This morning I got another e-mail from Kristi saying we'd agreed to $250 and that she wanted to send me $50 back or she'd send me $50 worth of cleaning supplies. I can't tell you how touched I was. She had lost her mom two years ago and her partner had lost her dad about the same time. In just a short time time I feel like we'd gotten to know each other. Kristi is from Ohio so we had the Midwest in common. I have such a nice feeling about this bed just because of the provenance behind it but now, I do actually have a lot of work to do. I'll have to strip it, clean the rust off and lacquer it. I think it'll be worth it.