Well, the garage really. When we moved in to this house a little over four years ago, it was a bitterly cold, windy day in March. We had been living in a small, furnished condo for two years so when we sold our house in southern NH all our belongings went into storage. On moving day I was determined not to live in a house full of boxes and I did my best to relegate anything that I didn’t think we had an actual place for to the garage.
During the time that we owned and operated King’s Corner Cafe, we had very little time to do much of anything around the house — including sorting through all of the stuff that was stacked in the garage. It’s not a small garage, mind you. Two and a half bays. And deep. Now that we’ve sold the restaurant and the weather has been nice, Steve has started to tackle various projects in and around the house — including the garage. What started as a search for a router ended up in the discovery of some lost treasures.
The first discovery was a matching chair and love seat that we bought for our first house back in 1981. Heavy, dark pine. Orange and gold herculon tweed cushions. I know I was in love with it when we picked it out, and it served us well, but it hasn’t been anywhere other than basements, garages and storage units for a good 15 years. We’ve moved it at least 6 times, always with the idea that we’d use it someday in a rec room or a cabin or something.
The mice had apparently held picnics on it. Grass seed. And dust. Lots of dust. What to do with it now? Knowing that one person’s unwanted stuff is another person’s treasure, I posted to the matchmaker list a/k/a Freecycle!
The first person to write back asked “Is it clean?”
The next person who wrote happened to live in the same town and was without any living room furniture. I hesitated. Camp. Cabin. Not your living room. Well, maybe not my living room, but I included the pictures and if she wanted it for her living room, why not?
Her husband and son came early this evening to pick them up. I got a phone call almost immediately afterwards. What I was expecting was that when she saw these monstrosities in real life she hated them and wanted to tell me what a bad person I was for inflicting them upon her. Instead, she was gracious and thankful and thrilled to have them.
I’m happy we were able to oblige. And now there’s some room in the garage to unearth more treasures.
