red velvet no more

For many years, this sofa bed has served as the focal point in the guest room.
Now that the room was being given over to my nephew, with his own furniture, it needed to vacate the premises.
I sent the photo to Andy, its original owner, on Monday.
Would he like it back?
He did not, thanks, but his wife had a friend who might want it.

Two days later, I heard back that the woman had found something else.
But hold on while he checked with his stepson...
nah, that was a no-go as well.
And he told me a dear memory of when a kitten, frightened by a thunderstorm, had curled up within the spring mechanism, so Andy had to wait until the storm had passed to rescue him.
Sweet tale... but I still had the sofa bed in the house.


As it was far too cumbersome to move to the curb - as I'd done with the other three pieces of furniture - I turned to an old reliable market: craigslist.
"- free furniture -
- red velvet sofa bed must go -
This is a rather gently used sofa bed that has been in occasional use in my guest bedroom. Now my nephew is moving in and has his own furniture, so this piece MUST go.
72" long x 30" high x 35" wide.
Mattress is firm and is at least a double, as I recall, and has been rarely used for more than a few nights.
One seat cushion has a broken zipper on the cover, result of a washing incident.
I'm in midtown, near Jenkins High School.
"

That was late last night.
At 6:30 this morning, I had a taker.
He would be here at 4:30 PM, with a truck.
Magnificent!!!

Two hours later, a freight truck arrived.
They had the missing shipment that was to have arrived for the National Chemistry Week event.
Instead of one box, it was two boxes, both very heavy.
I had the man deliver them directly into my car.
Oh, yeah!
Then I took them to FedEx and had them shipped out by noon.
Oh, yeah!
Done and d-o-n-e!

Then to await the proposed new owner of the couch.
Before he arrived, I had two other requests for the sofa bed.
I assured them that I would notify them if the deal fell through.
Fortunately, the young man arrived, truck at the ready.
However, it was just me and him.

But you know what?
We managed to get it done!
I had taken the mattress out and secured the box spring already.
Together, we took off the legs - hooray! - and managed to get it through the bedroom doorway, the living room doorway, and out the front door.
Whew... but we still had to LIFT IT up into the bed of his truck.
And we did it, the lithe young man and this 61-year-old woman.
RAWR!!!

I did the right thing.
I contacted the other two parties and let them know it was well and truly gone.
They very nicely thanked me for that info!
(smile)
Then I went onto craigslist and removed the posting.
What a relief to have that done!
Then I settled in for dinner before the rainstorm to come.
Very nice!

By wonderful coincidence, Michael sent me a photo that reminded me why I was making all of these changes to my house and to my life.
Leila and Alyssa were about to go to the pool at Cypress Resort and were gracing their G'Aunt Tina with smiles and laughter.
Yeah, this has all definitely been worth it.
I sure look forward to seeing them on Sunday!
(smile)