My bed arrived today. I was down for the “8am to midday” slot, sorta kinda maybe of my own volition, or at least complacency, so I had to be up at 7am to get ready and out to the new place in case they did in fact decide to drop by at 8am. Naturally they didn’t – it was more like 11 – but on the upside it did get me reading Thief of Time again, which I’d forgotten I enjoyed so much (yay for autosaving Yetis!).
After that was setup, I could confirm the space remaining. I was pleasantly surprised to find there was plenty – I’d been conservative with my estimates to avoid problems – and so it was back out again looking for furniture and whatnot. First up though I needed sheets and all that. I couldn’t find a bed set I particularly liked, so I went with the one that seemed to suck least. It was also $40, which was suspiciously cheap, but as it turns out is perfectly good for me. I did buy a King set, which is a good idea for the doona, but otherwise is kinda bad – I have a good two feet more length than necessary, which makes the ensemble look a little, well, messy. :)
Though the thought did occur to me after making the bed, at which point it was clearly too late to do anything about it, that I probably have everything 90° off since a King is roughly the same length as a Queen anyway, but much wider… but I’d have issues either way.
I confirmed my suspicion that, generally, doonas and pillows are poor quality, excepting of course the down ones… but $260 for a pair of pillows, plus $480 for a doona, seemed a little… indulgent. But luckily given my current gear was by comparison essentially free, I won’t feel to put out if I upgrade later.
Anyway, then it was off to find a desk. I tried St. Vincent de Paul or whatsernames on El Camino, and I actually liked a lot of their stuff – particularly their living room furniture; much nicer than pretty much anything I’ve seen anywhere else. Further testimony to how much [new] furniture here sucks. :/ But alas, no desks to suit, and while there was a half-alright set of drawers, they weren’t dismantlable and so were not transportable, for me. (hybrid; back seat full of batteries or something; doesn’t fold down; turns out that really really sucks :( )
What I should do is just go to Kragen’s that’s literally across the street from there and get the roof racks I’ve wanted forever and a day anyway, but, alas, I’m yet to do so. I’d probably have to chip off the protective layer of dirt first. ;)
I ended up back at Ikea to have a second look at the desk I’d been eyeing off previously… I’ve gone off it again. It just doesn’t seem solid, and it’s surprisingly expensive – ~$230. Plus it’ll cost at least $60 to get it home, too… you’d think a place like Ikea’d offer free delivery, at least for significant orders (assuming a bookcase plus drawers as well), but no. :(
I still hold out hope that there’s a real, decent desk out there somewhere. Tomorrow I shall continue my pursuit of this elusive prey.
On the upside, I swung by Home Depot (a.k.a. Bunning’s Warehouse, I suspect literally), but more importantly Office Depot (they’re very creative with names here) where I actually found some reasonable chair candidates, as well as a bookcase I actually liked well enough and it was small enough, unassembled, to be transportable in my car. Alas, they didn’t have it in the colour I wanted. :'(
So while I may end up forced to build a desk out of cinderblocks, 4×4’s and G5 cases, I’ll at least be sitting comfortably as I do it. ;)
But my books will still be in boxes. :(
In talking to Bobo about this over the last week or two or however long I’ve been on this tiresome quest, she keeps scolding me for my lack of enthusiasm, using the sexist angle, but of course guys enjoy shopping as much as girls… it’s just, shopping isn’t any fun for anyone if you can’t actually find anything worth buying. :(
None of this has been helped by the headache since Friday. Stupid water… why do I need to consume you if you just end up seeping out again anyway?!?! Pointless!
Oh, and I’ve given up on the whole concept of a matching bedroom set. I couldn’t be stuffed trying to juggle all that in my head, and in any case as noted I only like dark stuff, and wood, and I screwed all that up to begin with in my choice of bedframe. So mer. :)
