More Joys of Homeownership

Since Gene and I have a house now, and not a one bedroom leaky piece of crap apartment, we're slowing trying to update our furniture. I hijacked my mother's dining set in favor of the 5+ years old Walmart special that I had in college, and last year for Christmas, Daddy Dearest bought Gene and me a couch (well, gift certificate to a furniture store, not so much the couch itself)

This year for Christmas (yes, I realize it's now the end of March) Daddy Dearest gave us VISA gift cards instead of a gift cert to a particular furniture store, since so many stores were going out of business. We haven't done anything yet.

Today I went to a few furniture stores to brows TV console stands... because at the moment we have a Target black particle board special. It's functional, and it works for the most part, but it looks cheap, and I'd like to have wood, or looks like actual wood and not luan veneer. Two store had a few reasonably priced pieces, but for the most part it was all over $1000. For a TV console. Not a full entertainment center with many many shelving units, just a TV console.

Why is it that people will pay this much money? Do Thomasville and Bassett and all of these high end stores come and clean your house for you? I understand that a nice piece of furniture is an investment, and that it will last years and years... but I just feel like I'm being completely taken advantage of. Plus as soon as these sales people discovered that I'm doing my homework pre-purchase, they couldn't run away from me faster. I'm the only person in the store. One person when I told him that I was looking for TV consoles, and made it clear that I was doing preliminary shopping, just pointed. He just said "Oh, it's over there." and that was it. Now, at ULTA, I'm not on commission, but if someone who has never been in the store before can't find something, I walk them to it. Because that's good customer service. Just pointing? That's rude.

At the moment, I'm debated going to an unfinished furniture store and doing my own staining. I know how to stain. I think I did a damn fine job of staining (and schlacking) the tables in my parents' ex-restaurant. I'm a handy person. I know how to use powertools... and paint... and stain... and... stuff. It just annoys me when these places don't have any prices listed on their websites. It's why I went to two of the stores I did during my lunch break today, because they had nothing listed on their website as far as price goes. The unfinished furniture place has new stuff all the time, so it makes sense that they don't list prices... because their inventory is always changing.

Anyway... if I decide to do a DIY staining marathon, I'll let you know. I'm all about doing things yourself, especially if you know what you're getting yourself into. I love watching the trading spaces and DIY shows because most of the time these people have NO CLUE what they're doing, and it ends up looking half-assed. Mine won't look like that, right?