One reason I had trouble catching up last week was that I went shopping for a new reading chair for my room. This may not sound like the biggest deal, but in our house no one can begin furniture shopping until they've proven that they have a place to put what they intend to get. Believe me, the house is crowded enough, this is necessary. So furniture shopping doesn't happen often, and it's a bit of an occasion when it does.
{SMILE}
Mom took me to three stores one afternoon, taking up about half the afternoon. Then Dad took me to four more stores another afternoon, again taking up half the afternoon. The most comfortable but most expensive chair was at Agasa's furniture and music store. However, I also found a cheaper, reasonably comfortable chair at Home Depot, and this one came with an ottoman. I'd been wanting an ottoman to put my feet up on in the living room anyway. We have a sort of pillow-ottoman, but it's getting rather flat, so it isn't very helpful now. {Smile}
So we got the chair and ottoman from Home Depot. They're mostly covered with some flattened fiber - I first thought wicker, but no - woven over an aluminum frame that's painted brown. The cushions are burnt orange. This doesn't match anything, of course, but it doesn't clash with the maroon and beige in my room, or the golden yellow with green in the living room. This is important, since the chair is in my room, while the ottoman is in the living room. No, we could not keep them together. There wasn't that much space in my room. {SMILE}
The chair itself is sitting very happily in front of one of the bookcases in my room. Thanks to the aluminum frame, it's light enough to pick up and move when I want books from the bookcase. That was both a big selling point, and part of why we went to seven different stores before I felt I'd found the right one. It now has a yellow and green cushion from the living room behind the burnt orange cushion it came with. In spite of trying it in the store, when we got it home, I found I had to slouch at least a little to rest my back. This is an occasional problem when I'm 5'2" and not particularly leggy. {half-smile} So I searched around, and found a cushion that is as wide as the chair, and thick enough, I don't have to slouch. It looks a little funny, but it works. {Smile}
The ottoman is in the living room. There was no space for it in my room. Remember I said I had to prove I had a place to put something before I could get another piece of furniture? Well, that was true for the chair. Oddly enough, no one asked where I planned to put the ottoman before we brought it home. Fortunately. I'm not sure Mom and Dad would have approved my plan, even tho it works. I put it by the couch when I want to put my feet up. Then one of us puts it in front of the fireplace when everyone is done with it, because it's less in the way there. {pause} When I say "in front of the fireplace," think of it being on the hearth, with two legs just barely inside the fireplace itself. It looks a little odd, but it fits, and it's out of the way when someone wants to walk around the living room. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
