Going, Going, Gone

Just before we were to close on the Condo we flew back to town together on a Thursday evening. As we drove past Kirshman's Rooms to Go on Veterans Highway on the way home. We were looking for some place to eat. We noticed that there was an auction sign up. Actually there were several signs were up. The Auction was already going on so we decided to go in and check it out.

The Auctioneer was selling furniture, rugs and other stuff like there we no tomorrow. They were selling everything imaginable in home furnishings - lamps, decorative statues, pictures, rugs bedroom furniture, sofas, chairs, dining room sets and appliances. In addition to the auctioneer there was a well oiled crew moving furniture on and off the platform. It took less than a minute to auction an item and move it off to some hidden staging area.

Often the lots consisted of entire room sets. It was fascinating. I wandered around looking at the furniture which was being auctioned. It was all sitting around the store. I could never figure out what they were going to auction next. Since we had no furniture and since we were just about to buy an unfurnished condominium. I was wondering what I was going to sit on. I encouraged her to buy something, but she wouldn't bid.

Eventually hunger got the best of us. At dinner we couldn't get the auction out of our minds. We just kept talking about it. We couldn't go back Friday, we had a party to go to. We decided to go back Saturday and see if there was anything left.

Saturday we went early and after a while She started biding. The first thing she bought was a big leather club chair, unfortunately the matching ottoman had gotten lost somewhere along the way.
It was immediately apparent that it wouldn't fit in our car or in the Brother's SUV. I rushed around to find a truck. That turned out to be easy. I was able to rent a decent sized U-Hail truck from the U-Haul store on Causeway for less that $20 per day and $0.87 per mile.
By the time I got back She had purchased two sofas, a table and two rugs. She later purchased another rug. We had enough, or at least I had. When we paid for our stuff we were told we could either load it that evening or the next morning. We decided to call it a day and come back tomorrow.

In all of the crowd and commotion of the auction there was a crew painting the front of the building, part of the switch over to Rooms to Go. As you can see from the picture the Kirshman's store already had the pediment. All that was necessary was to add the distinctive distinctive Rooms to Go paint job.

We weren't sure how much help we could get loading the stuff and while She could handle the small stuff, the upholstered furniture was to big and heavy for the two of us to handle. We enlisted the Brother and the Nephew to get up early Sunday morning and help load the truck. They don't usually rise that early but they did for Her. It was a nice gesture. It was also unnecessary. The furniture crew who was hustling the stuff around the auction floor was there to help load and they loaded the truck in a few minutes. We were off.

Sometimes She doesn't tell me everything, and often She thinks She has told me everything. This time She didn't tell me the sofas She bought were really a reclining sofa and matching love seat, similar to the one pictured. Not exactly what I was thinking of, but She had my backing to buy anything She thought would work.There was another problem. The sofas might not fit through the door of the condo. The condo is a small one and the form door is very close to the front closet. The back door is a very narrow sliding glass door. There is no place to turn a seven foot sofa. I decided we need professional help . I called a mover and told them we needed a furniture expert to help us get these things in the condo. That was easily arranged. They could have a crew come out on Thursday morning. I had already decided to keep the truck and store the furniture in it since we couldn't move in until after we bought the thing on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday came we got all of the furniture in. It's lucky She bought the reclining sofas. On most recliners the back is removable, they just lift off. Even with the back off they had to take the sliding door apart to get the big one in.