Tuesday, May 04, 2004
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Cardio and a Free Futon
When Jim and I
went over to the neighbour's to watch hockey we immediately told them that we wanted them over to our place once we got it in order. Then we realised that we really couldn't wrangle having 5 other people at our house just because there isn't anywhere to sit. We have the two seater couch and my black chair and three straight-backed wooden chairs. Those chairs are really for the dining room anyway and aren't really condusive for just sitting around.
Darryl and Renee had a futon that doubled up as a 3-4 person couch when we visited and I was trying to convince Jim that we should get one. The problem was that either we get one second hand, which could potentially be really really gross because you don't know who's been sleeping on it or we could buy brand new. Brand new futons are, in my opinion, over priced. It's a metal frame with a cheap mattress for $500. I paid less for my Queen size bed (frame, mattress and boxspring) and a futon only becomes a double with a foam mattress. So one day I was just standing at the bus stop waiting for the light to change when I saw an ad for a free futon. I was suspicious at first, just because the ad also had other things on sale like a desk for $25 and a dresser for $30. You have to ask why the desk and the dresser were for sale but a major item like a futon is free.
Still, it's a free futon, at the very least, I would be able to use the frame and replace a skanky mattress, or paint over scratches etc. I was thinking of all the possible reasons a futon's re-sale value would be 0 when I decided just to up and call Sunny (cute name) and ask. The deal is that Sunny is trying to get rid of her furniture. She's usually the person out of all her friends who will take in old/free furniture when they do IKEA upgrades of their own living spaces. This being the case, she has more funiture than she has floor and she's in the process of streamlining. Come to think of it, I never got the reason why the futon was free while the other furniture was on sale, but here's the deal.
She got the futon 2-3 months ago to sleep on. In doing that, she realised that her couch was a more comfortable place to sleep at night (the cushions fold away or something) and so the futon acted like a couch. Now her apartment is probably as big as mine so she really didn't need a two-seater, a three-seater and a futon. So she was giving it away. The frame was in pristine condition, the only bumps and scratches on it were made by me trying to get the frames down the stairs. The mattress had a few coffee stains on it. I think the reason the re-sale value is nil is because Sunny has three cats and four guinea pigs and the mattress is oddly lumpy. Sunny explained that when she tried to take the cover off the wash, the inside separated into the three layers that it comes in and she had a hard time getting the clean cover back on. I didn't quite understand, but when I got it home, I saw what she was talking about. So no permanent damage, but stains, pet home and an oddly lumpy mattress. I'll take it!
Getting it home was another issue. The main frame (which is what the mattress lies on) would not fit into Jim's '95 Honda Civic (not a hatchback). She lived just over 800m from where I live so I said that we should walk the frame home. Here is a map:
The rest of the frame and mattress fit into the car so the idea was that Jim would drive back and start walking back along the street until he met me so that he could help with the rest of the frame. Seriously, this is as close as I have come to a workout in a long time. I figure, it's free, so I really should not complain about it. All in all, it was an interesting venture. We assembled it without instructions and without trouble and now we have a futon in our living room. All set to invite people over this Sunday. Now I just have to get a cover for the mattress. Sunny said that Queen-sized duvet covers work great and are cheaper than futon covers. I'll look into it. My idea was just to sew my own cover with cheap fabric. I'm still waiting on Jim's dad to dig up his mother's (Jim's grandmother's) handy stitch and a futon cover is very tedious work if done by hand.
Our living room is starting to look rather dramatically different. We have unpacked our bookcase, and the new fish tank looks gorgeous. I'm excited about Sunday and I'm so psyched that we got a free futon. Oh and one more thing, Jim's
triops kit has arrived in the mail, thankfully much earlier than projected. I forgot to bring it into the office to wrap today, but I certainly will tomorrow. All his presents are now here. Can't wait to give it to him on the weekend.
posted by Joie! at
10:21 a.m.
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