Treasure Hunt

Friday to reward herself for working during lunch (which is what a lunch meeting is), the Welding Wife stopped by the Salvation Army on the way back to the office. As soon as she walked in the front door, a treasure was staring right at her. Since she knew she did not need another BIG thing to store right now, she pried herself away and walked to the back where the smaller treasures are displayed. While purchasing her small items, she noticed a family testing the treasure. Being curious (some call it nosey), the Welding Wife asked the cashier how long they have had the treasure. She said they just got it in. If you know the Welding Wife, situations like this are usually "meant to be". So she called the Welder to get him to talk her out of even thinking about buying a sofa (and matching chair) right now. And he did a good job. I told him the price and he thought that was a bit steep for a used couch..."But it's 25% off today" and I threw in that Craigs List has couches that are old and gross for more money than that-I mean what could I do? The couch was looking at me begging to give it a new home. That would have been the end of the story, but when the Welding Wife said in her 'I'm not giving up quite yet voice', "But it's really cool (pout, pout)..." the Welder said well, take a picture. I debated doing that. I hate having a picture to remind me of the "one that got away", but I thought it might be beneficial to have for future sofa shopping. So the Welding Wife left the poor sofa soul feeling rejected. After the work day, the Welding Wife showed the Welder the picture and he said, "Dang, that is a pretty neat couch. You did not mention it had all that wood." I came back with, "I told you it was cool." So he said, "Well, why don't you call to see if it's still there?" I did not even want to know...was just going to forget about it. Then the Welder said, "I will call to see if it is still there." So he called and surprisingly it was. He tried to give the lady our credit card number over the phone (then, I freaked, thinking I hope the thing is as good as I remember and does not crash to the floor when the Welder sits on it-sometimes I forget to check out important things) to lock in the 25% sale price (only good on Fridays) and to guarantee we would get it since closing time was too close for the country bunkins to make it back to town that evening. It was against policy to take the credit card number, but the clerk said she would hold the set and honor the sale price the next day. The Welder hung up and realized he did not even give the clerk his name. So he called back multiple times. We were convinced that they have caller ID and did not want to talk to this loony man again, so we tried using my cell phone with the same result. Since the Welder had to work on Saturday morning, he lined up my mom and their truck to hopefully go get the prize. Saturday morning, mom, dad and I make the longer than usual drive into town and we pull up and there they are still sitting in the window. Exhale. I walk in and there is no indication this is being held, but I am too excited to be too irked. I rip off the tag and secure ownership at the promised discount price. As we are walking out the door, loading it up, a lady walks in and gasps and says, "Oh, you got that couch?" I proudly said yes. She replied, "We were looking at that yesterday and loved it. People just don't know what they give this place...Dad, just look at that couch..." She definitely provided the perfect commentary for the perfect ending to this treasure hunt.So we loaded them up.
And took them to our storage building, AKA mom and dad's pool room. Thanks, mom and dad.

And here they wait for their final destination.

I do not know much about style and what goes with what. I know our house has quite a bit of rustic flare...and this couch probably does not fall in that category. Yes, that makes me a little nervous like most of this house building stuff that I am learning as we go. But I am a believer in collecting things you love, and it all works in the end. (I hope!) Speaking of love, thanks honey for your part in scoring our newest treasure. And thanks for not getting mad (only rolling your eyes) when I started second guessing myself. It makes me warm and fuzzy when I see you adapting to my "annoyingness".