They were at least packed in paper... cardboard is paper after all; and the back of my expedition was completely full of the stuff.The big thing was one of these:
But instead of six chairs, we got four chairs, and one of these:
Also, we have a lot more stuff than we have shelving and storage space, so we also picked up some book cases, including 3 of these:
Except in the shorter (countertop height) birch version. We also grabbed one of these in birch, to act as a room divider in our overlong living room:
The picture doesnt really show what it looks like very well: it's just under 32" high, and about five feet long; so it should act both as storage, and as a good divider.Along with those, we grabbed extra shelves for our existing utility shelves, and our other book cases.
We also alleviated our massive workspace shortage (every horizontal surface in our house becomes a vertical surface pretty quick); by picking up two basic utility table/desks, one 4 foot by 3 foot; one 6.5 foot by 2 foot.
Finally, we picked up a replacement mattress. We had originally gone for a lower end Sealy; but when I went to the warehouse to pick it up they had a couple of higher end Sealy, extra thick, extra firm innersprings with sewn in memory foam toppers on closeout; originally $800, marked down to $500, and I walked out the door with one for $485, with tax.Let me tell you, this mattress is a dream, no pun intended. In just a couple days of sleeping on this mattress my back pain has gone WAY down. The thing is both twice as firm as the old mattress, and twice as soft (and twice as thick). If you understand the difference between firmness and hardness, thats a VERY big deal.
I HATE pillowtops, and generally I hate foam toppers (even the sewn in ones); but honestly this is the second most comfortable mattress I ever slept on (the most was a special belgian orthopedic luxury mattress I owned when I lived in CA, but it cost $3000).
The best thing is, through the wonder of eil globalization, and the exploitation of third world workers and resources (which they are thoroughly glad for by the way, since it's more money than they could possibly make any other way); I was able to pick up all of this for a very low four digit number.
No, it's not heirloom quality stuff; but it will suffice until I have the time to make our own from good hardwoods; and THAT WILL be heirloom quality.
I learned to build furniture in my first real job, restoring and refinishing antique furniture in my uncle Carls refinishing shop. My work is certainly far better than Thomasville or Ethan Allen type crap for one fifth the cost; and I get the satisfaction of knowing my family is eating off the table I made with my own hands (plus it means I get to buy all the tools I want to make them).
In the mean time, this will do just fine.
