The Upgrade

So, to update some of you out there, we bought a new house. Yes, you guessed it, it was a good deal and is definitely an upgrade so we couldn’t pass it up. So NOT only did I start school for my MBA, but also decided to tackle a new home. ;o)

Now that that is clear, I would like to tell you about our weekend. This weekend can easily be an example as to why my parents watch King Of Queens on TV and SWARE that it is a glimpse into our lives nix animals. However, I am BY FAR, no Leah Remini but there is definite story-line potential in our lives.

So with the new house being an upgrade, we decided that we needed to “upgrade” some of our stuff. Considering that we will now have a “rec” area that will be perfect for a couch and TV and an actual dining room (without an eat-in-kitchen so this is a step down from a formal dining room where you only eat on fancy occasions but a step up from our current eat-in-kitchen). So we were in the market for a possible new couch and dining set. To pass the time before closing and to settle the excitement, we have been window shopping in our spare time.

This weekend’s fiasco started about a week ago when we went to the Sofa Express and More store near our house after seeing an add on TV about a “Clearance Blowout.” We pondered the show room floor but only came up on this BEAUTIFUL dining set, perfect for what we wanted and we both liked it BUT it was sold. We waved our rather RUDE salesman over and he said it was sold everywhere and cut us off when talking about it. Table was no-more. We left.

Fast-forward to this weekend. After a LOVELY and MUCH NEEDED morning with my girlfriends, I go home and husband and I decided to hit up some more stores. After a few more TV ads, we went to a couple places with no avail and decided to retire the day at the NEW Gengi Japanese Steakhouse (WITH WHITE SAUCE) in Dublin for a late lunch. On the way, we passed another Sofa Express and stopped in. We pondered the floor and found a good deal on ANOTHER dining set and inquired about it. I was excited. It would be my FIRST dining set….given the fact that the other eating areas that we have had in the past were hand-me-downs and our current set in our kitchen that we bargained for with our house who’s fate now lies on craigslist.com. My husband went back to the table to look at it and decided that we were settling just because it was a decent price and he said that it still looked cheap. He was kinda right and we went back to talking about the table we initially saw that was sold. So we went back to the NICE saleslady we had to talk to her about the one we saw at the other store. We wanted to MAKE SURE that there were NO MORE in existence before admitting to defeat since the rude man in the other store never looked it up. So we jeopardized this lady’s time for about 45 minutes to an hour, trying to first, find out what this dining set was called and secondly, trying to see if there was any more in existence. After one false description and name, we nailed down the design name, found out it was “discontinued” and existed ONLY as floor models in 4 stores; 2 in Indiana, one near Cincinnati and one near Akron. Now armed with the info we needed, we left the nice saleslady, which we plan on writing a letter about since she was SO nice and didn’t make a sale with us, and headed to the first store to JUST BE SURE that we were talking about the CURRECT table set and had the right name. OF COURSE, rude man comes to help us and when we just asked about what the name of the table was, he said “It’s sold, don’t even think about it” NICE HUH? So another salesman confirmed that we had the right one and we left now knowing that I needed to write a SECOND letter regarding the rude salesman. (Yeah, I have become one of THOSE people, but honestly, where has customer service gone lately? I think it is nice to see it again once and a while and like to spot-light it when I do. Similarly, I like to do the same for the opposite offenders.)

We have ALL the phone numbers for the stores that carry this set as a floor model and begin to call each store to find out more information about this set. We DID eat at our Japanese Steakhouse between our investigating of Sofa Express stores and went to bed Saturday night with this information: The stores in Indiana are not marked down quite as much as the Ohio Stores and one was sold and one was in bad shape, the Akron store had the table but could only sell it as a set with the matching hutch and buffet. (We have NO IDEA what the “matching” hutch and buffet looks like and you’d think the internet would be our answer but after each of us surfed on our laptops, we came up with NOTHING). The Cincinnati store HAD the table AND the hutch and buffet and would sell them separately HOWEVER, the table was missing the inserts. We also could transport the table and chairs for $75 from this store in a couple weeks with their “floor move” which it would be picked up, taken to Groveport, and then brought to our house. We decided to sleep on it.

Sunday morning, I woke up early and let the dog out, fed him then crawled back into bed. I then awoke a couple hours later to the Blizzard of 2007 outside. It appeared to dump 3” of snow in a couple hours. (OK Blizzard is over-exaggerating, but it caught the city of guard and we didn’t see ONE plow on the road that morning) NICE, just when we had something to do! My husband made the grand decision that we would go see the table in Cincinnati since we may not even like the hutch & buffet and also said that we could get a moving truck and pick it up today for maybe about the same moneys as having it delivered and they said if it was delivered, since it was a floor model and NOT in a box, it was being sold as-is and they couldn’t guarantee how it would handle the move. So hubby called Penske and secured us a truck for $10 more than the delivery fee and plus, we wouldn’t be putting any miles on any of our cars. SO we geared up and head out to pick up the truck. The roads were HORRIBLE, it seemed that NOTHING was plowed. We were crazy, all this over a damn table. But it was a good deal! So we get to the truck place and we get into our truck. We tried the windshield wipers but the windshield squirters didn’t work. We go back in and they try to fix it but the lines are frozen. He said that there is another truck, just like it that he can give us and said he’ll pull it around. He was missing for about 10 minutes when my husband decided to see what the hold-up was, this other truck’s back door was frozen shut. NICE. So my husband tells the guy that we’ll take anything, even this truck and points to a 25 foot moving truck. The LARGEST truck you can rent before needing a CDL. He agrees so we pile into the 25 foot diesel moving truck for a table and chairs in Cincinnati.

We get to the sofa store and don’t like the hutch & buffet so we made the right decision about coming to this store, we load up the table and chairs (which took up about 1/8 of the truck) and we head home. We decided to hit up the outlet store on the way back (Pottery Barn Outlet) in addition to the Sofa Express Outlet across town since we have a truck to pick up anything we may find. Pottery Barn had nothing and was quite picked over, so we grab a bite to eat then head back on the road to Sofa Express Outlet. We have about 45 minutes to shop before they closed and it is starting to dump frozen ice from the sky. We scramble across the showroom and found this cute loveseat, chair and ataman set for cheap. My husband talks them down more and we close the deal and load them up in our truck. 2 good deals and an ice storm later, we head home. I help husband back the truck into the drive and he gets stuck between the street, completely perpendicular to the road. Luckily, our street isn’t busy. I walk to the drivers side to see what is up and I walk on the patch where our car WAS parked during snow but moved before ice storm. I WIPE OUT. Hard. Apparently my feet went higher than my head at one point. My husband passed the test though and came running to my aid, actually sliding into me to make sure that I was ok. He only laughed at me AFTER I confirmed my well-being, as did I too. So we unloaded the truck into the garage, took the truck back and slid into bed more knowing that my aches and pains were only to get worse.

Queue credits.