For the past several months, Leslie and I have been eating off a temporary dinner table. Actually, it’s a folding table we bought at Target because it was cheap and a quick fix since we didn’t want to eat every meal at the coffee table, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s hard on the back and makes eating tough.

Anyway, so we’ve had this table and some bamboo chairs that we got from Leslie’s Dad awhile ago and it did the job, but looked terrible. We’ve been on the hunt for a dining set for some time now, but the expense was more than we could bear, so we were stuck with the folding table for awhile. Then came Craigslist.

Leslie had been scouring Craigslist off and on, but most of the stuff you find there is either crap or not the style we were looking for. That all changed last week when a young guy named Jerry decided to post up a listing for his Mission style table and chairs. One look and we were hooked. The table looked perfect for our bungalow and large enough to fill the space it would fill. After exchanging a few emails and phone calls, we set a date to check out the table. The only problem was the distance. Jerry lives in La Crescenta which is not a short drive from Long Beach. Going up during the week was out of the question because neither one of use wanted to sit in that much traffic after being in it on our commute home. We decided to check it out on a Saturday but ran the risk of him selling it before hand.

Saturday came and we ran a few errands here and there and by the time we were supposed to go up to see the table, I had lost my motivation to make the 70 mile drive. I complained and whine for a bit, but the look of disappointment on Leslie’s face was too much to handle so I relented and we hopped in the truck and headed East. Thankfully, traffic wasn’t that bad and we made good time going up. The table turned out to be great and when we talked Jerry into giving us the table and chairs for only $250, I made quick work of getting the stuff into the truck before changed his mind.

We got the table home, did some cleaning, made some adjustments to layout of the joint and dressed up the table a bit. The set looked great in our home and we were stoked, but there was an added bonus. Not only did it look great, but it gave the house a feeling of permanence that a folding table could never accomplish. Not only is it comfortable, but it feels warm and good and that’s something I just never expected.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!