Shop Local!

I think we’ve taken “shop local” to a new high. Went around the corner this morning to a sale in another Midcentury Modern house. The driveway was quite a hike – long and all uphill. Everyone was winded when we arrived at the top. One of the guys helping with the sale was talking to some other shoppers by the front door as I panted by him, saying, “Of course it is a really long climb, but we had one lady who was 91 years old while ago.” I stopped to tell him that I now felt 91. Inside I did a quick initial cruise checking for furniture (still need another pair of twin beds) and in one of the downstairs rooms I came to a halt. Long, low, MCM sofa in a tweedy gold/brown fabric. It was piled with other stuff for sale (placemats, a large piece of fabric, a bunch of thises and that’s) but I could see it was the real deal. And now I know why I finally broke down and got a cell phone: so I could whip it out and call my husband and say, “Come look at this.”

Five minutes later he was there, and he liked it too, and the price was thirty bucks, so we did it. Then we started figuring out how to get it home. He went ahead and took the cushions home in his car while I did a bit more garaging. I managed to spend one more dollar on a trash can for one of the guest room and a couple of throw pillow to recover for the sofa. Oh yeah, the sofa. The one that was still a block from home.

I mentioned it was long, right? This is a dachshund of a sofa – 8 feet long and 2 feet tall. With the cushions off it wasn’t horribly heavy (just substantially heavy). So we decided we’d try to carry it home, and if that wasn’t possible we’d call the U-haul place and rent a van (which would have doubled the price of the piece, and you know how I felt about that!). So back we went – downhill on our street to the corner, downhill to the left past the school, another left and uphill to the house with the sale, and another trek up that long driveway.

In the house, down the stairs. I picked up one end of the sofa and bravely said, “Yeah, let’s go for it.” There was a sliding door to the outside in that room so we headed out with it.

A  young couple was in the room shopping, and when she saw me holding up the sofa the woman said, “Here, my husband will help you.” He smiled as though she’s volunteered him for stuff before. We explained that we were planning to carry it uphill over to the next street. “That’s okay,” she said. “He can help.” I told her she was my new BFF, no wait, her husband was my new BFF, as I surrendered my end of the sofa to this nice young man. He and Steven schlepped it down the long, long driveway and paused by our Honda Civic.

“Maybe we could get one end in the back,” I said, “and you could hold up the other end and I could drive really slow.” Steven shrugged, nice young man shrugged, we opened the hatchback, and damn if that thing didn’t go in! Well, about a third of it went in. But it was securely wedged, didn’t look like it would slide out, so I got in the driver’s seat and off we went.

It’s really hard to drive as slow as a walking person! But turned out not to matter. Sofa didn’t budge as I went down the street, around the corner, up the hill past the school, around another corner, and up the hill to home.

Whew.

  

I’m awfully glad I didn’t actually have to carry this thing all the way from the other house, since getting it inside was enough for me. I pretty glad that Nice Young Man didn’t have to carry it all the way either! But get it in we did, and though initially we talked about putting it downstairs in the family room, now we think it’s perfect in the living room.

I’m not sure of the brand. The tag inside dates it to 1964, and the loose back cushions are down filled. It’s the original upholstery (the color is “Soiree Russet”) and though faded in some places it’s in quite good condition. I saw a picture of one like it that was identified as an Edward Wormley for Dunbar – but that one had been recovered in a cheetah print. Ig. I’m awfully glad mine is still Soiree Russet!

Noll Baxter is too.