About a week and a half ago I came home from an evening meeting to find the toaster, and other items stored on the same shelf, out of the cabinet and on the kitchen counter – and knew immediately it meant we had bugs. Come spring/summer we’ll see an occasional spider, silverfish (personally most hated of all insects - they totally creep me out), earwig or ant (or all four – party!) crawling (or in the case of a silverfish – sort of skimming – that’s the freakiest part about silverfish – they move so quickly) across the floor or – horrors – on the counter top, or – worst horrors – in a cabinet. Shudder. Gross.
This time a few – teeny tiny – ants had been sighted. To be safe I removed everything from all three shelves in the cabinet where said ants had been found – sprayed ant killing spray – allowed it to sit for several hours – cleaned shelves – arranged items back on shelves – closed doors – felt really good about everything. And we lived happily ever after.
Not. All was well for about a week, but in the last few days the same teeny tiny ants (well, technically they can’t be the same ones since I really did kill them) have been seen in lots of different places around the kitchen and now I’m pissed off. I can almost hear them heckle me – “Nah, nah na boo-boo – you thought we were gone but we’re not!” and I find myself – bear in mind I’m probably a hundred trillion times larger than the ants – squishing them with much force while muttering, “Thought you were so smart, huh! Not so smart NOW are you!”
Before you talk to your friend who’s a therapist about me – because you genuinely like me and want to see me get good help – in my defense I honestly never know how I’m going to start these Friday morning posts and simply see what comes out when I sit down and begin typing. I don't PLAN this stuff - it just pops out!
Additionally, two years ago when I started this blog (yep, a couple of weeks ago marked the Jubilee Furniture blog second birthday!) a friend suggested I allow my personality to show. Granted, he might not have meant for it to show quite so much…
But since I’ve brought up the topic of bugs and it’s something customers often ask me about – let’s dive into the bedbug issue (figuratively that is).
Jubilee Furniture works very hard at screening ALL of our donations. It’s a little tricky – we’re grateful for every call that comes in – but we really are looking for furniture that falls in a good-to-excellent category. So, we run through a check list with our donors about the condition of the items being donated and – 6 to 8 months ago – we added the bedbug question to the list. Additionally, we’ve stopped accepting upholstered furniture (including mattresses) from apartment buildings (with the exception of the excellent retirement communities around DuPage County).
Still – at the end of the day – buyer beware.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be afraid of any of the amazing furniture we currently have in the store for purchase today (Friday) from 1 to 8 and tomorrow (Saturday) from 9 to 4!
Let’s take a look!
this is a three piece sectional (the jury’s out on whether there’s a piece missing from the armless side) from Room and Board in good condition and priced $145
very cool retro lamp for $25; fake plant in brass container for $12
amazing chairs from Pier 1 – chair and ottoman priced $165; matching chair for $125
two piece lighted china cabinet for $95
I LOVE this two piece muted green velvet curved sofa by Rowe (there are a couple of buttons missing along the button-back) priced $165; black coffee table for $35; matching end tables for $20 each (and there’s a sofa/hall table that matches too and it’s behind the sofa and is priced $45)
gorgeous old red velvet love seat priced $175
amazing old gorgeous huge buffet (some issues with several of the back ball/bun feet) priced $195
table, one leaf and six chairs for $125
brown micro-suede sleeper sofa by Rowe priced $95
love seat and sofa by IKEA – love seat is priced $20; sofa for $35
we received three small roll-top desks for donation this week – here’s one of ‘em and it’s priced $95 (it’s the nicest and most expense of the three)
nice sofa – dated fabric – priced $50; matching love seat for $35
sweet sofa in great condition priced $85
amazing great chair with arms priced $40; matching armless chair for $20
fantastic sofa, extremely comfortable – in excellent condition priced $265
great McCreary sofa (one issue on one arm) priced $95
lovely blue floral sofa by Rowe (what’s with all the Rowe sofas this week?) priced $145
we received fifty file cabinets – all in excellent condition, various brands (HON, All-Steel, Oxford, Pendaflexer) many matching, prices vary depending on size (there are seven gray color Teknion five drawer lateral file cabinets with keys priced $265 each)
Permacraft chest of drawers priced $155 (matching dresser with mirror – not shown – priced $105)
lovely Bassett chest of drawers for $125
fantastic set by Century – dresser with mirror (sorry – I didn’t use my flash so the color of the wood would be more accurate – but then you can hardly see the furniture!) priced $85; matching “dresser” (top pulls down to create a desk!) for $125
And that, dear reader, concludes my weekly update post!
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
May you never have bugs in your kitchen.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
