Hey!

Hey guys!  What's up?

I know, I haven't been here in a while.  Things have been busy at work, Sirens season two.  (Oh, and there's a new trailer out for Jupiter Ascending that I worked on last summer, cool!)

As such with the busy-ness, by the time the weekend rolls around, you know, that time better known as time-to-catch-up-on-cleaning-the-house-doing-the-laundry-going-to-the-grocery-store-running-errands-catching-up-on-mail-and-emails-and-bills-from-the-week-etc.-etc.-etc.-oh-and-etc., there's just not a lot of time left to check things off my ever-expanding list around the house.

That doesn't mean the hamster wheels aren't turning, nor that I can't get anything done at all.  Things have to be quicker, smaller projects that fit within a limited time frame is all.

It had been two whole weeks since I had been to Menards.  The shakes were bad I tell ya, the cold sweats intolerable, the agitation building -- the withdrawal is always arduous.  So I went on Saturday.

The fine folks working there were all so friendly and helpful.  They typically are anyway but for some reason they seemed conspicuously more so.

Probably because THIS!  To make up for THIS!

Back side of Christmas display.  I couldn't bring myself to look at it full on.

Seriously, come on!  It's September, guys!  Stop it!  Sheesh.  Really.

Despite the horror show, it was a productive excursion.

I picked up some sand mix concrete, on the advice of the friendly employee in that particular department.  At least he didn't laugh at me too loudly on the outside when I said I was making a soap dish.

The concrete purchase was two-fold though:  soap dish and patching a long crack I discovered out front the other day.  'Tis almost the season, as Menards ever-so-kindly points out, of snow and ice and I didn't want any of that messing about in our foundation.


Ultimately I'd love to take out that concrete because as you can see, one chunk really really settled.  But, our cool woodworking friend Scott suggested building an extended porch over it, so, it would be hidden, so that's on the brain.

Mix-y mix-y, I made another soap dish attempt,


then patched up the crack out front.


One of my better patching jobs, if I do say so myself.  Insert applause.  A few congratulatory back pats there, thank you.

I also got the crazy hole we made in the wall for the sound bar during our wildly successful wire hiding adventure sorta kinda plugged up.  (Remember:  it's against code and a potential fire hazard to run power cords behind a wall.  Find a better way.)

Well.  At least cold air won't come racing through nor will the hole be sucking all our heat out, considering there's no insulation in this wall either.



Menards had an itty foam pipe wrap elbow, so I tore it in half, wrapped the wires and pushed it into the hole.  It's not a Super Official Problem Solved kind of solution, but it works for now and for less than two dollars.

Foam pipe wrap elbow, missing it's 90 degree arm, poor thing.  :(

I also painted a wall in our master bedroom.  I know, you're thinking, what?!  You just up and painted a wall?  I know.  For many folks painting is an event; I completely understand.  For me though, I've been painting things pretty well all my life, plus painted my fair share of theatrical scenery, plus many many Many a room so painting is like breathing to me.  I just do it.

The darker blue is Granite Falls, a smokier, chalkier, grayer blue.  Great color; due justice not done by the photo.

So much so that now Mike finds it decidedly commonplace that I randomly paint things unannounced.  He didn't notice this when he got home.  Not even the paint smell.  Seriously.  I stared at him funny for a good while standing in the room together then eventually had to point it out.

It's amazing what "normal" is sometimes, huh?  ;)

But the plan for the master bedroom is starting to gel in my head which is excellent, hence the newly painted wall.  Once I sort a few ideas through the mental sifter and whittle it down, I'll next get anxious and squirrelly to get it complete, or mostly so, or the three major elements in my head anyway.

Oh but right, that soap dish.


Not the best end result but I learned from it.  Now realize I need to hunker down and make an actual for real true mould out of silicone to get what I want.  The sand mix concrete was definitely the way to go.  I'll still seal this up, put some felt on the bottom and make use of it though.



And lastly, in case you're wondering, no, I'm not doing all that well about Hailey.  Pete the Sweeper (that link has the very last photo I took of her, as it turns out) came by while I was in the front yard and he asked about her, not knowing.  The look on his face when I told him, I can't even describe it.  So that was difficult.  Then again, anything and everything sets off my eruptive water works at any given moment.  I'm finding laundry and vacuuming are the.absolute.worst.things.ever.  Each wash, each dry, each pass of the vacuum is less and less fur on our clothes, our blankets, the furniture, less fur in the house.  It's unmerciful.  It's the pits.  I'm a wreck.  I feel terrible.  All the time.

I recently saw this about grieving, how to help people you know.  I found it notable and meaningful.

So, anyway, that's where things are at these days.  Sorry to drop out on a sad note.  I'll keep you posted should I get more projects going.  Thanks for coming by!

Right, so then this happened.

oooop's.....

Yeah, heh.  Rats!

On Sunday, I popped the little bugger out of the form, flipped it over to look at it, then flipped it back when sploosh.  It shattered into a slew of pieces, just fell apart in my hand.  Ooop's.  Ah well.

Thankfully I had a tiny smidge of the vinyl concrete patch left so I poured another one.  This time, ah ha, I let it sit in the form until last night, Wednesday.  But, after popping it out I'm thinking I need to use real concrete, not patch.  This stuff doesn't seem to be sturdy or strong enough for a delicate operation such as a thin soap dish pour, despite what the packaging says about higher strength.

Why?  Because, and even though the second one is not completely set and hardened yet, a chunk cracked off super easily.


Though, and most likely, it could be that my ratio of mix to water was bad since I had so little mix left.  Too much water.

But, I do think the whole thing, generally blanket-ly speaking, is pretty successful in a learning-experiment-for-future-pours kind of way.  The first one, before it decided to return to its original powder state, was way better.  The brim edge was much smoother and more even.  It looked really good; even Mike was impressed.

Again, it is handmade and terribly imperfect, adding to the cool factor.  Right?  Sure.  Or, as I said last time, if it's too imperfect, try harder.


So, I'll head back to Menards (aw too bad, so sad....), pick up a different concrete mix, then try harder.  One of the zip ties dislodged but after a good clean up of all the parts, I should be able to reattach it just fine.

I did find something interesting on the Menards website while perusing concrete options:  concrete counter mix.  Cool.  I'll have to give it the once over as a concrete counter is what I want for the master bathroom vanity that I have all drawn up.  Someday.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.  It's intimidating, thinking about building that vanity as a person who lacks good carpentry skills.  But it reaaalllllyyy needs to be done.  And there's this.  Plus I mean, c'mon, there's this!  No, I didn't pay that much.  Please.

In the mean time.....

I've been slowly stocking up on materials for future projects, fun fun!  Aw yeah, a little internet shopping retail therapy, *fist pump.*  Never as fun as shopping in person, but sometimes having the delivery driver just bring it to me is ah, sigh, way nicer than battling Chicago traffic on a Saturday.

I purchased a very large remnant of fabric from Chicago Canvas & Supply, a local theatrical fabric supplier, for a very large curtain project I have had steeping in my brain for the master bedroom.  Heh:  theatrical fabric remnant ≠ normal fabric store remnant.  Like, at all.  +!

If you look on the right side of the eye-searing photo in this older post, if you can stand to look without gagging, you'll see one of the two deep-silled windows we have in the room.  If the end product results according to the vague notion in my head, it should be stupid neat, silly dramatic.  I still have some figuring and planning and scheming to do though.

Also interwebs purchased:  new cushions and fabric for our outdoor chairs.  The ones that came with the chairs got ridiculously moldy disgusting in oh, two days.

I couldn't decide between fabrics, both on batty sale, so I got them both.  The patterns, wow, massively larger in person than as depicted in the sample images on screen.  Lesson here!  Get a swatch first.  I still like them regardless, but resist the urge to purchase a large quantity of fabric online without seeing and touching it first, unless you absolutely up and down back and forth know what it is.  (Yes, I had a swatch of the Chicago Canvas fabric.)

Along with the fabric and cushions order, I got some floral stems to make a version of these little pom pom guys to go in vases my dad bought for me at Habitat (damn cool store) when we were all in London together about ten or so years ago.

Yarn was purchased for the DIY library rug but when I was floating through the Joann Fabrics website yesterday, I came across a better deal and quite possibly a more interesting yarn.  I'll have to see in person though.  Which is probably the only way one should ever shop for yarn, in person.

Since I got that spiffy miter saw, I can start planning and making the headboard for our bedroom.  I need to talk to Mike, see how big he was envisioning it, compare our ideas, then math and plan.  Then chopity chop!  Yay!

A new Floor & Decor store opened up in a much much more convenient location, so I'll be swinging by there sometime soon to stock up on a bit more tile for the master bathroom since the plan changed (repeat link).  Mike and his (good) ideas.... Hopefully I won't go nuts and buy more tile that matches the future first floor bathroom floor for the whole kitchen.......because this tile would totally go with our wood floor.....and make the transition between rooms sooo much less visually jarring.  Especially once the cabinets are painted.  Or ripped out and redone.....

Or....maybe I'll exchange the main floor tile stuff and get more master bath stuff for the main bath too because I like it better.  It would look better with the vanity I assembled.  Though the vanity base might disappear against it.  Hmmm.....Decisions decisions.

What I really really need to do is pick a stairway paint and figure out how to get that done.  That's driving me nutso, cuckoo, berserk.  But it's a sizeable project due to the double height walls, inaccessible-by-hand areas, and well, the steps themselves.

Oy I am sooo getting ahead of myself!  Jeez louise, calm down Becky.

Ahem.  Ok.  Anyway.

So.

I thought I stocked up in a minor abundance but in having typed this all out, I clearly need to keep a-shoppin'.  Ah poor me, alas, more shopping.  Sorry Mike, xoxo!

*The Joann links for outdoor fabric are affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!

Yeah.  I'm weird.  A little strange.  Not terribly normal.  If you've been following me along, you've probably got that figured out pretty well by now.

Why can't I just go out and buy a soap dish like a regular person?  Right?

I'll shop online for hours and hours and hours and not find the right thing.  Or, if I do, it's too expensive because I have horribly expensive taste.  Or it's close but juuuust not quite right, missing one or two key elements.

Like soap dishes.  I found a few that I liked after several sites and many hours, I did.  But, surprise, too expensive.  (Who really spends $100 on a freakin' soap dish?)  Or, a few key elements were not present.

I was poking around Etsy the other day which after hearing about the policy changes over there, I'm not super keen on shopping that site anymore.  I was looking for creative soap dish ideas and came across a few very neat concrete ones.

Heeey, I could try that!, I thought.  I did make that DIY concrete knob thingie a bit ago, how different of a process could it be?

It wasn't really.  I did have a lot of figuring and scrounging around the house to do for pieces and parts, but it wasn't all that different.

Here's what I've used so far (I say so far as the project isn't complete yet.):

• paper half and half container, waxed interior
• vinyl patch concrete
• protective cell phone case packaging
• zip ties
• duct tape
• hot glue
• mould release spray
• miscellaneous sundry extra stuff like cups, stirrer, etc., you know

See, the thing, the trick, about making moulds is thinking in reverse.  It hurts occasionally but it's good for the ol' brain.

First house-foraging turned up the packaging for Mike's new cell phone case.  Whoa, holy crap, it had a plastic tray in there that struck me as perfect for the top part of the mould.  Surprise!  Bingo!  Everything was built around that.

Yeah, hard to see since it's clear, sorry.

Next up was cutting up the half and half container.


As a kid, I fashioned sooooo many little paper boxes, folding, cutting, and taping as paper, markers, tape, and crayons were my toys of choice.  Ask my mom, I was a little paper box making factory.  So this wasn't a stretch, and it's not hard to do.


Now.  I eyeballed everything, as I'm wont to do.  But do please measure.  I went with one panel of the container then trimmed up on either sides of the folds about a quarter of an inch or so.  I then folded it up using the existing folds.  Existing folds, handy I tell ya.

Next I snipped along the folds on one end about a quarter of an inch in and folded up the little flaps and the part in the middle to form one squared end.  After trimming the other end to length, I repeated the process and ended up with this below using the duct tape to secure the little flaps on the outside.


Don't forget that whatever is inside will show in your final product.  Seams, pinches, folds, dents....all will be seen so if that's okay with you, cool.  If not, keep a keen analytical eye on everything.

So now here's one of the key missing elements in a bunch of the soap dishes that I did like:  grooves.  As we all know, it's not much fun trying to pry out a blob of previously wet soap from a flat dish, right?  Those grooves are an important design element.

My dilemma was how to create the grooves.  Time to shop around the house again, through my collection of random leftover crazy crafty stuff.


Here's what I found.  Zip ties.  Wood craft sticks.  Wood craft rectangles.  I was looking for my plastic coffee stirrers but couldn't find them.  I didn't throw those out now, did I?  Noooo.  Anyway....

Originally, after laying out the options on the plastic tray, I wanted to go with the smaller rectangles.


But, after trying not to burn myself with the hot glue, and trying not to melt the plastic with the glue, and noticing the wood pieces were bowed, I changed my mind.

Zip ties.  The plus here was that they are plastic so they won't absorb the water from the vinyl concrete patch plus they have an interesting groove pattern all on their own.  I laid a thin thin thin bead of hot glue on the plastic tray so it wouldn't melt and quickly, super quickly, stuck the trimmed zip tie on there.  All of which was hard to do after consuming a sugary caffeinated beverage.



Now, it's not perfect, heh.  If you're a perfectionist like me, try not to let it drive you crazy.  Or accept the fact that it's handmade and imperfect.  Or try harder.  I dunno, take your pick.  :)

Anyway, next up was time to mix the vinyl concrete patch.  Don't forget this stuff is super duper billowy and powdery; wear a dust mask.  I sprayed both forms with the mould release spray as an extra added precaution, though I think it's generally safe to assume these parts will pop right off.  Maybe?  We'll see.

I poured some mix in the bottom and after dropping the base on the counter a few times to even out the pour, I squished the plastic tray on top .  That's when I saw the concrete stuff oozing around the zip ties.  Mild panic.


Yeah.

So it seemed like the plastic tray wasn't staying in very well, or maybe I was panicking, so I weighted it with my can of spray and now it all looks like I've ruined the whole thing.  Stuff oozing over the top, the concrete wasn't even all the way around, getting under and into and onto things, it's a total mess......I dunno.

Neat, an ozone depleting substance.  Never saw that warning before.  Oop's.  Bad green me.

This could be a masterpiece or a big DIY disaster.  Or, a learning experience to be gained from for the next time!  Yeah, let's be positive.

You'll have to come back and find out when it's set and dry.

On another note, I've been collecting and experimenting with that DIY library rug thing here and there.  I picked up a non-slip carpet pad from surprise, Menards.  And using the yarn that my sister in law Yan sent to me, I've been testing out floppy pom-poms.



Using that same phone case packaging, the outer hard case part width-wise and length-wise, I wrapped yarn around a whole bunch 'a times and came up with these.  A project for another day, it is simmering on the burner, so we shall see.

Stay tuned, everybody!

Indeed, the super nice people over at Hometalk invited me, little ol' me, to curate a clipboard for them!  How excellent, right?  I am honored.  And I was right flattered, for sure!

I have my friend Janette to thank for giving me the fantastic opportunity to test out and review the Wiremold by Legrand DIY In-Wall Cord & Cable Power Kit in the first place.

The lovely folks at Hometalk enjoyed my post about hiding cable and television wires so much, they invited me to put together a collection of related topics to share with folks.  My clipboard is entitled "Hiding Things" and can be found by clicking here.  If you click here, you'll find my profile over on their site too.

Have you heard of Hometalk?  It's quite the praiseworthy site.  I like to think of it as Pinterest on steroids.  In a good way, yeah, don't take that wrong.  And by that I mean it's more in depth on home related stuff than surfing the Pinterests, a site I do adore as well.  While sure, you can click through a few times to get to the original content there, over on Hometalk you get the goods right away.

It's a superb place to see what other people are up to in general, do some research, seek out projects similar to what you want to accomplish, or even ask questions of their community.  Some of those in the community are professionals even.  And!  You can share your own projects too!

I mean seriously, just scroll through the topics and you'll see there's, well, everything.  It's a place for not only homeowners; there's great stuff on there that is directed at, useful for, or can be adapted for renters as well.  Everyone!

So yeah, it's a neat site.  And I like it.

They even made me this spiffy graphic!  Aren't they cool?

So right, my clipboard!

There are a few picks directly related to my own blog post about hiding television and cable wires as everyone's situation is different.

What I think is fun about the collection on the clipboard is showing all sorts of DIY ways things can be hidden, disguised, or stored.  Most everything I picked is easy on the budget too since I'm always keeping a keen, steely eagle eye on my own.

Managing the plenteous things we own, organization, storage, and hiding things are always eternal dilemmas not only for interior designers but for everyone in their daily lives.  Many times we cobble together a quick solution for an issue at hand, myself included; I hope by putting together this collection of Hometalk postings, it gives you a jumping off point to think outside the box and think creatively not only about organizing, storing, and hiding things, but also about your home overall.

While some of the things I added aren't necessarily my own personal taste or style, that's okay because within each one is something to learn and adapt to your own taste or style.  For each one, I commented briefly on basically why I chose it but I expect everyone to get something different out of it.

I had a great time putting together the clipboard and I hope there's something in there that's an ah-ha moment for you.

Thanks Hometalk, you're the coolest!

*a small disclaimer:  Hometalk didn't pay me or compensate me in any way other than nice compliments that made me blush.

Thinking back, it was a busy holiday weekend, even if I didn't get a whole lot done around the house.  I sure had some grand dreams, didn't I?

On Saturday of that long weekend, I did start putting together a photo album of Hailey thanks to the Ikea Family promo code freebie thing.  I had to stop though as it was just too hard, too much, too overwhelming.  The pain of losing her is so unbelievably immense, more than I can even begin to think about processing, therefore I'm still in shock and denial.


I have so many pictures of my sweet pea (but not enough of course), so many I want to include, ones that remind me of this time or that time or something that slipped my memory or when she...; I got so very sad and heartsick.  Words like "remember" or "was" or anything past tense is like twenty thousand daggers to my soul.  So yeah, had to stop.  I suppose if I miss out on the free photo book, so be it.

Anywhooooo.

I did neglect to mention last time I wrote that I bought myself a super cool big present.  A compound miter saw.*  Yep.  I did it.  And I am darn excited about it too.  I have wanted one for...I don't even know how long.

Happy gift to Becky day!  Cannot wait to try it out.

So did I dash home breathlessly and rip open the box like it was Christmas morning?  Well, ummm, nooo, not quite yet, but I promise that will happen.  I'll try to video the moment.  The saw was on sale and Monday was as good a time as any, so bingo, baby got compound miter saw!  I do love me some power tools.

After taking care of the door closers and even though I was super wiped out, I thought and thought and thought.  Well, ya know, that garage is bugging me the most right now, the mess on my side after Mike cleaned up his side.

Mike's much tidier side of the garage.

Ok, if I'm gonna do only one more thing around the house, the garage is it, I thought to myself.

My messy side.  Yeesch.

Mike had moved those cool black chairs that I love so much, the ones he wants to throw out, to right in front of my car.  I bet I know why he did that too -- he was probably hoping I'd get irritated with them being there and want them tossed.  No such luck.

Finally, a photo of those cool black chairs I love so much!

About two weeks prior, I inquired of him, "hey uh, baby, do you think [and here's where his eyes usually glaze over and roll back into his head, those three little words 'do you think'] those black chairs could be stashed up in the rafters of the garage?"  I got a blank stare, a hint of a glare, a long pause and then a "nope."  He said he didn't want them falling on the cars.  Understandable.

But, so, then I picked up some bungee cords after checking out the rafter situation in the garage, heh, because ya know, I can't leave well enough alone.  And now guess where the chairs are.  Securely wedged above and out of the way.  I did forewarn Mike while dining at Superdawg, that when he got home he'd see those chairs up there.  "They're going to fall," he protested, in full on glare mode.  Understandable, he was tired.  "They're really wedged and anchored down, babe, it'll be fine," I responded.

They're still up there.  They won't fall.

Only one chair above on Mike's side because if it falls on his car, this will be my last post ever.

I rediscovered this spiffy piece of wood below which I had picked up from Twitchy's place during one of my final visits.  A cool idea for this is in order, I just don't know what yet.


I don't know what kind of wood it is but it resembles the mahogany pieces I got from him.  Either way, whatever it is, it's just cool.

Anyway, so I tidied up my side of the garage, and ahhhhh, it's sooooo much better.  I'm very anti-visual clutter, so now that the mess is cleared up, pulling into the garage every day is far more pleasant.


Those boxes are brimming with tile I purchased, way pre-planning ahead:  the floor of the main bath, the floor of the master bathroom plus wall tile for the master shower-to-be.  All stuff that needs to happen.  Someday.  Sigh.

But, until that day, I have a nice, tidy, roomy, and orderly parking space.  Yay!  Funny, I caught a second wind after cleaning up the garage though thankfully I knew better than to keep going.  I depleted that second wind picking up the library chair though.

So that's pretty well how I spent my three day weekend.  Not as productive as I was hoping, but a few things got done and that's good enough for me.  Not super exciting, probably not the most thrilling read ever, but it's all part of our house process.

Coming soon, the nice folks at Hometalk invited me to curate a clipboard for the first time ever!  How cool is that?!  Stay tuned for that upcoming blog post!

*The compound miter saw is an Amazon affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.

Well, heh.

Remember how a-twitter I was last Friday about having nearly three full days off, trying to figure out the millions of things I could get done around the house during what seemed like a huge amount of free time?  Right.  As I predicted, not as much as ambitiously hoped.  Heh, ah well, so be it.

I ended up not doing anything that I mentioned the other day.  Yeah, I went all rascally off-list again.  But that's ok, these other things needed doing as well.

'Member I mentioned our front door and the oh-so-lovely security door?  That was also an off-list day.  Anyway, so the door closer on the security door seemingly gave out so anytime we opened the door, the thing Slammed shut.  Yes, capital s.  Driving me nutso.  I couldn't take it anymore so I picked up two new door closers as the back door is all slammy too.


So there's the old closer.  Ya know, nothing fancy, a door closer.

Turns out the one I got was pretty well darn near the exact same thing.


The difference being with this new one, there is a plate that secures to the door frame, protecting it from the closer.  Or something.  Somehow.  Or so the package said.  Well, whatever, a plate can't be a bad thing, right?  I do wish they hadn't put the directions on the back of the packaging as no matter how hard I tried not to rip it, I ripped it.

So then I notice there's a little diagram on the side of the new canister part showing how to speed up or slow down the door by tightening or loosening a screw.

Huh.

Duh.

Did not know that.  It was then that I wondered, huh, maybe all I needed to do was adjust the darn screw and not get a whole new thingie.  Ah well, if the flipper touched it, it was bound to break anyway.

It didn't take all that long to install, though I did need to drill a new hole in the security door itself as the length of the new closer did not match the old one.  That meant going downstairs and back up several times until I had the correct type and size drill bit.  Heh, nothing's ever easy as pie.  Though making a pie is not easy.  Ahhh, pffft, you know what I mean!  :)

New closer.  Looks amazingly similar to the old closer, doesn't it?

After a few adjustments of the speed screw, it was good to go.  Instead of replacing the back door closer, I got smart, merely adjusting that screw; huh, whaddya know, it was much better.  Palm, forehead.

At that point I was suddenly pooped, just wiped out tired so I opted not to go the overexertion route that I'm so prone to do lest I hurt myself or end up with a cold or something.  Sorta opted, anyway.  That'll be Part 2.  But it was funny when Mike got home yesterday (yes, he worked on Labor Day, sad face), he said, "huh, weird how the door starts working now."

In other news, I did manage to get the chair from the Craigslist guy.  Sometimes buying things off of there is quite the hassle and you meet some difficult people.

He was one of the special ones.  He was impossible to get a hold of, he kept changing the time he was available (2-6, no wait, after 4...no, between 5-6.  No, I mean 5:15.  Did I say 5:15?  I meant 5:30), and then he decided had a real masterpiece on his hands worth gobs of money.  Originally the ad said $30 but on Sunday he raised the price to $40.


I casually mentioned the price increase to him yesterday, asking nicely if I could give him $30 since that's what he listed it for...No!, he said adamantly, all angry-like as if I kicked his cat.  Something blah blah about all this stuff going to some kind of auction, he just saw similar chairs at the Broadway Antique Market for like $350 each, so no, $40.  I'm standing there thinking to myself $350 for a chair like this even in mint mint mint condition is a real stretch of the imagination there buddy, who do you think you're trying to fool?  Losing a smidge of patience I asked, "$35?  Can I give you $35?"  "No," he said, as if I had then spat on his grandmother's grave.  "Not unless you buy something else, like here, this wrought iron chandelier for $85.  No, $40."

I paused, irritated at his attitude.  Fine.  Fine, fine, ok, whatever.  Here's your $40.  "Pretty uncool to raise the price after I inquired about the chair three days ago and you responded but whatever," I wish I had said.  It is still a great deal but never a $350 chair.

I had asked Mike to meet me there in case the chair was up five flights of stairs or super heavy or unruly or in case the guy was a rabid serial killer but as the guy was in a rush it seemed, he loaded the chair into the car for me.  That's when I discovered the bottom of the chair all covered in spider web balls.  Yuuucckkkyyy.

Oh, and the smell as I was driving home.  Mmm.

We left the chair in the garage to hopefully air out a bit.  It was a combo smell, not entirely sure what it is, but musty is big part of it.  I hope this wasn't a raw deal, this chair.  I was thinking about reupholstering it myself though in person the fuzzy fabric is mighty spiffy and only just lightly dirty, but if the stink doesn't go away it may end up at a cleaner of some sort, or maybe a professional's hands, or back on Craigslist.  We'll see.

I did feel bad asking Mike to meet me there as I knew all he wanted to do was just go home and then the deal was done before he arrived so I offered to buy him a swanky dinner at Superdawg right around the corner from Craigslist dude as neither of us have been to this old Chicago institution.  We had no idea it's a drive-in so that was kinda fun.


It was good.  Portillo's is better.  Plus, three words:  Chocolate Cake Shake.

Anyway.  Be sure to come back for Results, Part 2!