Giant Boxes
It is one of the more interesting things about our home – we have inherited/acquired a lot of hand-me-down furniture. This is a great thing for the budget, but it has presented some logistical issues.
For example, we have never owned more that 4 chairs for our kitchen/dining room table that have all matched. The last set came from Obachan, when she downsized her condo to her senior living apartment. And for the last couple of years, we have been breaking them in slow motion. Literally. One fell apart when Doc sat down, and I think each of us have had a turn in a chair that broke apart at a joint/creaked ominously when sitting down.
It was seriously time to buy new chairs, especially since we were down to our 4 (yet another matching 4) folding chairs. And since we do have more than 4 people living in this house, it was time to look at getting 6 new chairs.
Our searches at furniture stores were neither encouraging or helpful. One place the Webmaster stopped at only had the floor models – everything had to be ordered in. And nothing at IKEA (where we knew we would have to assemble the chairs ourselves) was saying “I’m perfect!” from a computer screen. So, we did what your average 21st century shopper does.
We ordered new chairs off Amazon. Here they are:
Two big selling points:
1) They have no upholstery on them whatsoever (no more trying to scrub out stains off chairs when the kids spill food!)
2) They came fully assembled (all we did was put felt pads on the chair feet to make sure there would be no scuffing of the wood floor)
The Webmaster and I are thrilled with them. The table now has a really cohesive look (aside from the stepstool that Rerun sits on, and the odd chair that Tad uses that has a vinyl seat), and they are SO MUCH BETTER THAN FOLDING CHAIRS.
The kids were not as thrilled. (Ane complained that there was no cushion for her rear end. Boo hoo.)
You know what the kids were thrilled with? The giant boxes that the chairs (which came in sets of 2) arrived in. The first box was literally torn apart as each kid climbed in and out. And pretty unanimously, all three of the older kids decided it was a TARDIS.
(Why do we even bother buying toys for them? All they want are large boxes to play in.)
After the first box was pretty well beat up, I told the kids that once the next two boxes arrived, we could make a large cardboard TARDIS out of them. The kids have great plans for actually decorating it on the outside (paint was discussed, but not in the perpetual rain we are having, and Tad came up with the brilliant idea of getting blue wrapping paper to cover it in), but until then, they are pretty happy with what they have.
The “doors” are swung open so you can see it has room for two kids (three if the third is Thumper), and yes, it’s obnoxiously huge and we can’t keep it forever, and it is definitely not bigger on the inside.
But nothing beats the power of imagination, and a giant, cobbled-together-with-strapping-tape cardboard box.
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