I am not sure who invented Craigslist (presumably someone named Craig), but I am very happy with them. Rex and I have outfitted our apartment with a complete set of furniture between family donations, garage sales, and craigslist. Most of the furniture came from craigslist. Rex and I just finished getting all of our furniture, and it was a crazy evening of craigslist shenanigans. Obviously, a blog post was in order.
We had three stops on our craigslist of Kalamazoo tour. We were looking for a dresser, a couch/loveseat set, and a desk, and we had appointments scheduled at three places to look at potential furniture pieces.
Stop #1 was to look at the dresser. We were meeting with a man named "Rusty" at his house. We showed up and he walked out to meet us on his back porch (I didn't even see him at first). He invited us inside his dimly lit house to go look at the dresser. We walked in, and in the expanse that served as his living room/kitchen/dining room there was a hole about three feet in diameter in the very center of the room. He said, "the dresser is downstairs," and pointed to the hole. I walked toward the hole cautiously, suspecting my imminent death, and down in the hole was the tiniest, most tightly wound spiral staircase I have ever seen. If you removed the creepiness factor, it would have been awesome! We wound our way down to the basement (he should really just install a fireman's pole), and we found the dresser we had come to see. Unfortunately, the drawers were too small to hold our avalanche of clothes, so we did not make the purchase. We twisted back up the stairs and were on to stop number 2.
Stop #2 was to look at the couch and love seat set. The ad said that the set was only $25 ($25!!!), and we had decided that if it was in any sort of good condition at all, we would take it. Couches and love seats are EXPENSIVE, and we had discussed wanting a matching set if we could ever afford it. We drove up to the house (it was very nice and in a good part of town), and I noticed a little girl about ten years old staring at us out the window. She called to someone behind her, and another girl's face popped in. They both stared intently at Rex and I, which was sort of awkward because we were only about ten feet away. I waved apprehensively, and they waved back as enthusiastically as if we were their long lost best friends. Rex knocked on the door, and mayhem broke loose. We heard the girls start screaming and dogs start barking. It sounded as if everyone was running around the house at once. We gave each other a look that said, "Oh my goodness; what have we gotten ourselves into!?" No one answered the door. Everyone just kept running and screaming and barking. Eventually a man's voice was added to the mix. Rex and I were still standing awkwardly on the porch, wondering what to do, when finally the door opened about two inches. A man tried to peek his face through to look at us (we only got to see about one eye) and said, "Hold on. We are trying to put the dogs away," then he promptly shut the door again. Rex and I exchanged another meaningful glance, and although leaving crossed my mind I decided I would stay and face almost anything for $25 furniture. When the man opened the door again, he was totally friendly: "HI! COME ON IN!" We stepped in and saw the offending dogs to our left (a pair of sorry faced basset hounds), and we made our way down a normal, non-threatening staircase to see the furniture set. The two little girls followed us down. After a one second examination of the furniture, I knew we would be taking it with us. It was BEAUTIFUL! A matching set, exactly what we wanted, with matching throw pillows as well! The dad said that they got new furniture and he just wanted the old stuff out of the house asap. Judging by the house, he did not need the money, and that is why they were so inexpensive. Rex and I gave each other a quick nod of agreement, and I said "We'll take it!" The dad smiled, pleased, and he and Rex began to move the loveseat. The girl said, "Wait! They're taking our furniture?!" And the dad said, "Yeah, honey, we got new furniture. Remember?" She looked forlorn for about a second, and I started to feel guilty. Then she changed her mind and looked completely excited. She piped up, "Cool! We'll help!" then she and her friend grabbed the throw pillows and started running to take them upstairs. As I was helping, she said, "What's your name? I'm Grace. This is Makayla. We are in fifth grade. We aren't sisters, but she lives down the street. Put us together and there's always double trouble!" They ran outside with the pillows, and when Rex and Mr. Sofa Guy brought the love seat upstairs, the girls plopped down on it. Grace looked around and said, "Whoa. This is awkward. I am sitting on my couch in my front yard! COOL! Do you have any pets?" I told her that I have rats. When she wrinkled her nose, I told her that rats are cool. I also started telling her about some of the other pets that my family has had in the past. When I told her about keeping baby ducks for a week until they could move to the farm, she said, "Cool! Just like how people need to live at home until they are on their own! Like, if I was a baby duck, I would come live in your bathtub. Then, when I was old enough, I would move to the farm!" Yes, Grace. Very good. As the furniture got packed away, Grace came up and said, "Can I have your address so I can come visit the furniture at your house?" I explained that my "house" is in Lansing, so it would be tough for her to come visit. I told her that I would send her a picture of it all settled in its new home once we moved, though, and she seemed satisfied by that. As one last thing before we left, the girls explained to me how to use the throw pillows to make a comfy bed for someone if I ever have a sleepover. The size of the "bed" was about the size of a five year old, but I guess if I ever have a kindergartner over, they will have a place to sleep.
Stop #3, our last stop, was to go look at a desk. We put the address in our GPS, and when we arrived there were FOUR houses next to each other with the exact same address. The doors had different numbers on them, 1-4, but all of the addresses on the mailbox were the same (4576). This is bizarre, and I have never seen it before. Rex and I looked confusedly at the four houses, and we concluded that we might as well make our best guess to see if someone has the desk. Two houses looked like no one was home, one of them has a frilly pink goose by the door (we were looking for man), so we decided to go for door #4. We knocked on the door and got no response. When we were about to walk away, thinking Door #4 was srike #1, a large african american man walked to the door, putting his shirt on. He was pulling a polo on with his basketball shorts, which makes me think that it is very possible he was not wearing clothes at the time that we knocked on his door. We asked about the desk, but he had never heard of it. Oops. We thanked him for his time and walked away. We decided to try the only other house that looked occupied; door number three. We knocked, and a tall scrawny man with a beard answered the door. "You're here about the desk!," he said, and we breathed a sigh of relief. He took us upstairs to look at the desk, and we really liked it. We agreed to buy it, and we walked back downstairs. They had a REALLY cute dog (a chihuahua papillion mix), and I asked what its name was. The man looked at his wife and said, "I don't know. What's the dog's name?" She said, "Umm...I forgot." He looked at us and said, "Do you guys want it? We don't even like it." SAD!! The dog was so cute and friendly and nice! I totally DID want the dog, but Rex and I know we can't have one right now. Plus, Rex hates chihuahuas, even if they are just a mix. So we left nameless dog with its hostile family and just took the desk.
That is our Craigslist shenanigans. Now we have all our furniture. Bring on East Lansing!
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