CraigsList Flip-Floppers January 5, 2008

I feel like I’ve been doing absolutely nothing in my blog lately. I haven’t had that much time to share with you because I’ve been busy getting ready for classes, helping Charlie get ready – which takes even more effort since he has to apply for a second degree, get his GI Bill, etc. – reorganizing the house, taking care of the dogs, trying to get extra hours at work to pay bills. I’ve been practicing my embroidery and trying to make things to stitch on to bags, as well as tea towels and napkins and place mats to give as gifts. I was so unprepared for the holidays this past season that I’m already starting on things for next year. Err, well, later this year, I guess.

We’re also starting our new diet (for lack of a better word), which means experimentation with food and new sweeteners, flours, you name it. Thanks to beetqueen for the Farm Fresh info – we’re definitely looking in to signing up for delivery once we get our meals planned out.

On Friday we went to Midland Antiques for the first time after seeing it off I-65 about 400 times in the past few years and both of us going “I wonder what that place is, and if it’s open?” We’ve been wanting to buy some unique furniture for a while and have never had a place to really look for it. Indianapolis has a really sad bunch of thrift and second-hand stores. Everything is either super-cheap and the price reflects the quality, or it’s jacked up in price because vintage pieces are hard to find if you don’t want to go to Chicago or New York or LA to find your shit. At least, not if you’re like us and have to sell three things to buy one other and can’t drop six hundred bucks on a table.

So we’ve been trying to sell our flat-panel wall mount, our coffee and end tables (yes, we just got them a year ago), the iRobot vacuum, my old laptop PC with a malfunctioning screen and no warranty, and our futon. After several no-shows, we just gave the futon to my friend Liz. Charlie sent the laptop off with his co-worker’s roommate who claims he can fix the screen so we can get more money out of it.

We were going back and forth with two people over the living room tables, neither of which was great about returning emails or calls. One wanted us to “donate” the furniture to her organization, and if we couldn’t afford to do that (which we couldn’t and told her so) she would have to purchase the stuff out of her own pocket. She asked what our rock-bottom price was. We gave her an estimate that I thought was incredibly fair but she said was too much. The other woman hasn’t called me back in three days after saying she was sending her husband out to pick it up and would call back for our address.

I finally got someone to buy the wall mount but he refused to pay any more than $40 for it. Of course, it was a hundred brand new and it’s too late to return it. We can’t put it on the wall downstairs since we’re in a duplex that has a concrete fire wall. I am not about to try and fill in those holes when we move out. So we took an even bigger loss on that than we’d wanted.

The guy who first answered our CraigsList ad about the Roomba has been going in circles for a week. Apparently his wife bought a brand new one for $330. Ours was being sold used for $100. They wanted us to come down in price, but they wanted to see if they could return the new one first. He’s called us about four times and every time we don’t get anywhere. I’m kind of sick of it.

So, once we get rid of all these things, we put the money towards the stuff we want to get. Namely, things with more personality than what we have or things we’re not getting the best use of (sorry, Roomba, you’re just not cuttin’ it with two huge, hairy dogs).
If I can’t get up and move every year, which I really don’t want to do, anyway, I absolutely have to rearrange what I have, get rid of stuff, get new stuff. The best and cheapest way to do it is second hand. The cabinet we found at Midland Antiques cost the same as the two cheap pieces we got at Target to hold our TV and stereo components. And it has a hell of a lot more character. It’s sort of a mid-century, Danish-modern-ish tall cabinet with cubicles, a bar that folds out from a cabinet, a couple of drawers, and one set of two doors. It’s super-cool – at least we think so. If we had any natural light in the past two days, I’d take a better picture and show it to you. For now, the picture above will have to suffice.