Big Difference

Once upon a time, my mother-in-law had a friend who was getting all new furniture, and wouldn't we be delighted to have her old stuff? The price was right, but man was that stuff ugly. Sofa with the end tables built in making it so long there was only one spot it would fit in the room. End tables and coffee table topped with slate, and two blue upholstered curved-back chairs. Oh yeah, there was also a tall, narrow seat, a corner chair I think it was called. All this in a style once known as Mediterranean. Anyway, we hated it, but spousal unit says, "It'll just be for a year or two until we redo everything." That was 26 years ago. Oy. The corner chair was chucked years ago after it became nothing more than a scratching post for the cats. One of the blue chairs was taken to the curb (by me) in a fit of pique. It was replaced with the glider rocker. Even that got so ratty it contributed to the overall theme of Early-American Ghetto you see here.

The fun part was having to use a sledgehammer to take the sofa apart because it wouldn't fit through the front door. Neither of us can remember how we ever got the bastard into the livingroom in the first place! We kept the slate, by the way. It'll make great outdoor table tops in the back yard.

So now, 26 years later, another parent has offered their cast-offs, but these are so much nicer. There's still a lot of clutter, we still need to strip the walls and ceiling so we can paint, but at least I'm not embarrassed to have people come in to the house. I'm on the lookout for end tables and a coffee table, but the TV trays work for now. Whew!

Molly thinks it's a big improvement too, though she misses the blue chair.