The New Shelf Unit (aka The Furniture Albatross)

Today I bring you a picture of our new shelf unit.  In this picture it is tucked away happily in our garage, where all used furniture pieces go to live before they are brought to life with some application of sanding or paint and then sent to their new happy homes.  This piece is most likely going to stay in the garage and hold lots of important things, although not exactly where it is in this picture.

Of course, they say that a picture tells a thousand words.  However, in this case the picture doesn't tell the right words at all, so I will tell them to you.

I first spotted this bookshelf several months ago at a house about a block away after a new family moved in there.  It stood out to me because I drive down that street at least once a day, and as soon as the moving hubbub was over, the shelf was left standing stoically outside the garage.  Plus, I for some reason am very attracted to cubby-like shelf units like this.  Perhaps it stems from some  deeply buried, very positive associations with my young school years, or something along those lines.

Regardless, as the days went by, I began to wonder if it was something that had been left in the house when they moved in that they did not want, as it was rained on multiple times.  (Okay, so maybe 5 times, which is about our average number of rain days here in Fresno).  I decided in my mind that perhaps they would perhaps be happy to just give it away, since they obviously weren't too worried about its condition.  I even pointed it out to my friend Gay and said she should go and ask about it, since she had been wanting a shelf just like this for some time.

Unfortunately, lacking the nerve to make a furniture "cold call", we just admired it from afar.  However, one fateful morning I saw that they were having a yard sale at this house.  The shelf wasn't out with the goods for sale, but when I asked the owner said I could have it for $20 (and a great desk for $10, but that's another post).

I bought it intending to offer it to Gay, but unfortunately, it proved to be too large for her use, so it was clear that it was mine.  It was at this point that I realized that I might have a wee touch of a negotiation on my hands with Jason concerning this new and very heavy purchase.
Now, I want to be sure and tell this next part very carefully.  Let's just say that Jason and I have very different shopping styles.  If I see something I want, especially if it's a bargain, I - well, I buy it.  Jason, on the other hand, instead thinks about such wise things like, "Do we really need a new shelf unit?"  Of course, this question can almost always be answered "no", which doesn't leave a lot of room to buy new shelf units.  However, (back to my side of things) I could see how it might allow us to get rid of some other, less-desirable storage units in the garage.  You know, kind of like a shelf unit upgrade.

Due to these polar and very strongly-felt opinions, we were in shelf-unit limbo for about two weeks after that. I would drive by every day and look at it sitting out by that garage and think, "Yep, there's my shelf unit."  But we didn't get to the point where we seeing eye to eye and ready to move it over until the very day that he was leaving to go out of town for two weeks.  And then Neighbor Bob and his truck were nowhere to be found, so it didn't get moved at all.   This delay proved to be a huge blow to my Shelf Unit Acquisition Plan.  But it was surmountable.  Plus, being in agreement with Jason over the shelf itself was more than half the battle.  It was all downhill from there.  Or really - it was all very-heavy-despite-almost-level-ground-one-block-away from there.

Coming tomorrow - Moving the  Shelf Unit/Furniture Albatross to Our House