Weekend furniture madness

Our goal for this weekend is to basically finish unpacking our house and make it presentable, since my mother-in-law and brother-in-law were visiting for a night on their way back to college. We finally received the settlement from the moving company on Thursday, so we went out to buy new replacement furniture this weekend. We need a new kitchen table, an entertainment center, a bookcase, and a desk, but this weekend we decided to just get the bookcase and desk. Since the couch isn't pressed against a wall in this house, I also wanted to get a sofa table. So, the search was on for a sofa table that will also double as a bookcase for our 3 boxes of books.

We went to Walmart, Target, and Ikea. We found a console table at Walmart that we both liked, but it was open on the bottom with no storage room for our books. So we looked at Target and Ikea, and neither of those places had things that we liked or would fit our needs. As a compromise, we ended up buying the console table from Walmart and got three strong storage boxes from Ikea - if we place them facing out they become make-shift shelves for the books.

Well, let me just say that was a bad idea. Not the storage boxes, but getting a table at Walmart. The box was sealed and brand new, but when my husband started putting it together, we discovered missing assembly hardware and corners that were chipped. But of course, I decided to take a nap while the assembly was going on and my dearest husband decided to put the damaged furniture together anyway. So we had to take the fully assembled table back to Walmart. Thank the heavens that it fit into our car assembled, otherwise it would have been an even bigger waste of time.

I ended up ordering the "Exotic Retreat" console table from Target.com instead - the list price was $139.99, but they had a free shipping & 15% sale off select furniture $125 and up, and my Borders Perks membership gave me an additional 10% off that stacked. So basically, I got a 25% discount and free shipping, paying only $111.55 with tax for a piece of furniture that's originally $139.99. I also got a 4% rebate from ebates.com, so all-in-all it was a pretty sweet deal, and we're confident in the quality of Target products. Both the crib and changing table came from Target, and we haven't had problems with it yet! The only downside to ordering online is that I'll have to wait for it to get here, but it should be here no later than the end of the week.

The desk, however, is a different story. We were not able to find any at all three stores that fit our needs and our space. We got a cabinet that also doubles as a side-table from Walmart though, so now our desk-search can be broadened to include non-file-cabinet desks. But for now, the desk is not a priority since we only get a wireless connection by the window anyway.

We got the tools to clear up all of our boxes today, so tomorrow it's declutter declutter declutter declutter! But I'll put that in a separate posting, since that is part of the August Declutter Challenge.