Nicole feels

I have a funny feeling I�m gonna have a whopper of a headache tonight.

It all started with the purchase of a new DVD player this afternoon at Costco.

And now I am listening to the sounds of three men tearing out more than half the stairs to our family room/basement.

How, oh how, does this happen, you ask?

W e l l . . . . . .

As I said, it all started with a new DVD player. Ours, being several years old, is "obsolete". It won�t play DVD-Rs and given our technologically geekish, I mean, advanced household, that just won�t do.

So, we traipsed to Costco and picked up a new one. Resident techno-geek (as cute as he is!) had to hook it up asap upon return to the abode. I went down stairs to see him staring at the various components that grace the entertainment section.

�What�s wrong?�

�Oh, nothing. Just trying to figure out how I want to hook all of this stuff up again.�

�We really need a bigger entertainment section, don�t we?�

(Did I really say that?)

We are also in the market for a dishwasher, as ours leaves gritty gifts along the bottoms and insides of most cups, glasses, and bowls. So, off to Lowe�s we went.

We made notes about the dishwashers, making plans to check the grand opening at the new Maytag store on Saturday before we settled on one. We looked over the �sections, thinking we remembered a better selection in the past. Not to worry, our town is graced with two rather large furniture stores.

We went to Bassett first and had us a good laugh. Oh, yes, we did. When a small, decorative table for your entry way costs $800, you know you are in for some entertainment when it comes to the real furniture.

Next we went to Rothman�s. We purchased a couch and our bedroom set there two years ago. They have a plethora of stuff and the warehouse is on the premises, so if it�s in stock and you have a truck, or access to one, you can take your new debt fodder home with you pronto.

We perused the store, the choices as vast as the prices. As always seems to be the case, we ended up back at one of the first ones we looked at, a two piece oak set. The nice sales lady worked the price down a bit, and then I made my second mistake of the day...

I asked about financing.

With the knowledge that finding a mere $600 more in fine bun-resters and we could take it all home with no payments, no interest for a whole year, visions of a new couch and chair for my favorite room in the house flashed before my eyes.

Oooooo. Ahhhhhh.

Before you could say, �charge it� I was breezing through the store with the nice sales lady, looking at fine new sofas.

Now, to my defense, the sofa in our front room was pretty cheap. And it is, unfortunately, making that fact very apparent recently. Fluffing and straightening cushions has been seriously eating into my primping and bon-bon time.

And Rob and I have been talking about replacing the sofa. With the morsel of 12-months-same-as-cash dangling before our eyes, why not shop, right?

The d�cor in the front room has southwestern leanings. I ended up in the leather (yee-haw) sofa section, where, in my thinking, it seemed a good idea to consider something in a solid color with a better wear value than fabric.

(If you eschew leather usage, please don�t throw too many stones my way...)

Rob and the kiddos collapsed into a pillow-top cushioned camel-colored one, the ooo-ings and ahh-ings resplendent. I hesitated a bit, the cost above what I had in mind, but it was almost half the original price.

And of course, they still had two - count them, two - in the warehouse.

Oh, but what about the ancient arm chair? It would look so drab and bleak next to a fine, sleek leather (yee-haw) couch...

Kaytlin and I spied a cranberry-esque swivel chair, also on clearance.

Bite your tongue.

Okay, so now we�ve collected a tidy little debit along with four darling pieces of fine wood, leather (yee-haw), and fabric. Rob arranged to borrow a friend�s truck and we parted ways, Kaytlin, Nathan, and I heading home to make room for the new stuff.

It took Rob three trips and the gathering of two friends to begin the push-drag-grunt-lift-groan-moan process of hauling four very heavy pieces of leather, wood, and fabric into the house.

The second half of the �section moved in fairly well. Moving the larger piece into the premises was a bit hairier, so the guys opted to let it rest a bit on the kitchen linoleum while they moved the couch and chair into the living room.

Did I mention that our TV and all the lovely little components for said TV are in the basement? That is where our family room is. It is a gem of a room, but it is...

In the basement.

Did I mention that?

That would mean stairs. Several. Like, more than a few.

It took about 10 minutes of push-drag-grunt-lift-groan-moan to realize that our lovely new piece of wood was too large to slide down said stairs.

�We could remove the bottom five or so stairs!� one of the wiley gentleman replied.

And so we are back to the beginning of my story.

The �section is downstairs now. The stairs are partially assembled. I mean, we can get up and down, but the carpet is just lying across them and the back part of the stairs has not been re-attached.

But did I mention we have a lovely new entertainment section...