The Master

...bedroom that is.  This room is the first that we set to work on.  Can you see why?

One lamp, a few mismatched dressers, and file cabinets for bedside tables. Hey, at least we had curtains hung up.

We didn't have much in the way of furniture to wrangle our belongings, and we I had had my eye on a set from Pottery Barn FOREVER.  I'm not one to spend a bazillion dollars on something (our kitchen table is a Craigslist find for instance...) but this was something I felt strongly about.  These feelings became stronger when I happened to be browsing through the store and found the chifforobe on a floor model closeout.  The queen sized bed I wanted was there too...but I REALLY wanted to upgrade to a king sized bed.  Long story short, we bought the chifforobe.  In case you are wondering, a chifforobe is a piece of furniture with both drawers and a place for hanging clothes.  Kind of like an armoire--but not called an armoire.

There was a bit of a snag though.  It was too big for the hubby's vehicle, and ALL of our friends with trucks/trailers were unavailable.  Did you know that PotteryBarn isn't set up for delivery for in store items?  Only furniture ordered online can be delivered--more on that later.

So...my dad mentioned that he thought Home Depot or Lowe's rented trucks.  He was right!  (Oh dear, don't tell him I actually said that!)  It's cheap too!  Here's the image from the Lowe's website--it tells it all....

Yes!  Only $19 for the first $75 minutes.  Ok, technically the intent is to use it to get your Lowe's purchases home.  BUT, we spend a lot at Lowe's and they never asked where our large purchase was.  Off I went.  Yes, the hubby was working this particular day....of course...  A special shout out to the family in southeast Kansas for time on the farm so I knew my way around a truck--though awkwardly.  It drives a little different than the little ol' Civic!  

I pulled up to the back of PotteryBarn with old comforters and other furniture moving paraphernalia.  They looked at me like I was crazy--and I didn't argue with them.  We got the lovely and HEAVY chifforobe loaded onto said truck and off I went.  At about 10 miles an hour it seemed.  6.5 miles later, I was home.  The hubby was able to take a quick break from work and help me unload it.  We used old bathmats to scoot it across the garage and hit another snag.  

There was no way the two of us were lifting this thing into our house without causing harm to one of us, our newly acquired furniture item, or both.  So it stayed in the garage and I returned the truck 72 minutes from when I picked it up.  Woot!  Only $19!!!!  

Back to the house.  The chifforobe lived in our garage for a week or two until I had an idea.  Our king sized mattress was due for delivery anytime...

It's really amazing what two strong movers will do for twenty buckaroos in cash.  Into the bedroom with the chifforobe!  

Since then, we've tried out the furniture mover discs that you see on tv--except we bought the knockoff version.  Amazingly, they really work well!  

At this point we had FOUR different dresser type furniture pieces in our room.  One from my childhood, one from the hubby's childhood, a small one I'd picked up along the way, and the chifforobe.  It was a sight to behold, and we started moving stuff around.  Actually, we sold 2 of the dressers on Craigslist and moved one upstairs.  We also moved the file cabinets--serving as night stands--to the office. Update: these file cabinets have since been sold on Craigslist to a college student.

The mattress arrived 2 weeks before the bed, so we slept on the king mattress on the floor until it arrived.  I'd negotiated a really good deal--even beyond the sale price--due to an error on their part.

It looked much like this...except we had carpet that time.

Then the nightstands went on sale, and I used rewards from the chifforobe and bed to get them.  They came via UPS. More about our delivery driver later.  We did agree, however, that it was nice to have actual nightstands instead of file cabinets.

Finally, in November 2011, (this process started in March) our dresser went back on sale, and we snagged it with the remainder of rewards and coupons.  Three to be exact, four if you include the fact that it was on sale.  Thank you online order person for FANTASTIC service and letting me combine discounts! (We did have to spend a little for the dresser, but the discounts were quite significant!)

Now...here's where we are.  What do you think?  Yep, that's the new carpet!  Notice both dogs on their beds....  The picture on the dresser is from our wedding day.  It's awaiting a nail in the wall above that spot. 

And then I turned, only to see this when I turned around.  Side note, there is a matching lamp and nightstand on the other side of the bed too. 

Yep.  That's closer to reality!  And yes, it looks sloppy to have the quilt over the foot board, but it protects the wood from dog nails.  Too bad hindsight is so much more clear than what you see in the moment...

The framed objects on the chifforobe are from our wedding day.  It has our cake topper, invitation, etc in it.  The flowers are (fake) hydrangeas in a blue mason jar. Hydrangeas were our wedding flower and we had the blue jars at our rehearsal dinner.

I'm still working on a little decoration above the headboard, but this room is super close to "done"--for now.

Ok...one quick side by side comparison: 

*Happy sigh*