The Foraging Fairy

Thursday night I was perusing CraigsList and came across and advertisement for a couch. Not just any couch, mind you, but a Stickley Prairie Settle Reproduction that I've coveted for about 15 years. An old friend of mine, DG, and her husband MG, bought a new one, a reproduction, many years ago and when I saw it it was love at first sight.

I used to collect Arts & Crafts period antiques, pottery, and things of that nature. And to have a couch like this would be the icing on the couch cake.

And on Thursday night one came my way. The asking price was $190. I figured it has to be a cheap reproduction, but I'd be happy with that. Who can afford a $16,000 Stickley Settle anyways.

I emailed and telphoned the owners and hoped, prayed that the couch was still available. It was. The wife said her husband would call me within an hour. He didn't call and the night got late. I sent another email, and called at 9pm. That's about as late as I'd call anyone who is a stranger to me. No answer.

Drats.

However, he called the very next morning. Bright and early. He would be willing to take the settle to work with him this morning if I was willing to throw in $20 for gas. He changed his mind, "No, make that $10." "Deal!", I said, and we made arrangements to do the transaction.

Usually one likes to actually SEE a couch in person before forking over the dough, but something told me, "Just buy it. Commit. You won't be disappointed."

Intuition served me right on this one. I arrived at his work right on time. I found his truck easily because the settle was sticking out of the back. It was exactly as their ad photo illustrated. We moved it into J's van, I forked over the $190 for the settle, $10 for gas, and another $10 for a 4' tall mirror I'd also said I'd buy.

JS and I drove home and I could hardly contain my excitement. Last night J and I moved the settle into the office. I said to him, "Not bad looking for veneer...eh?" J said, "I don't think that is veneer. Let me take a look. No...that is solid oak. Look at the grain here." He was right. It was indeed made of solid oak. And the seats, as I already knew, were real leather, slightly distressed from the previous owner's three children.

I looked online for similar couches and I found a company that makes settles that are exact matches to the one that I got. For $6800. Yowza. I was astonished. Blown away.

This couple, from Tiburon, was moving, selling off everything "big". The husband said to me as he was loading the settle into my van, "Thanks for taking this off of our hands. My mother-in-law is an interior decorator..." and he stopped midsentence, left it hanging in such a way that it sort of implied that their home might be run amuk with odd pieces of furniture.

So their loss was definitely my gain.

But it doesn't end there. There's more. Today, some clients of mine, whose loft I have just sold, found that they couldn't fit all of their things into their new place. So today I inherited a 7-1/2' circular rug and two very cool floor lights that double as room dividers.

J came home tonight and helped me arrange all of the new items I brought home this week. "I thought we were trying to get rid of things", he qustioned. Yes, we are, but for now I'm going to enjoy them.

It's been a week of great finds and deals.

I think my next big adventure, before the upcoming FET, is to redo the flooring in our kitchen and to replace our dishwasher with the one that's been parked on our front patio for about two months (another of my "free finds"). It's uncanny how "things" come to me. But it isn't all that weird...for similar reasons I was dubbed the "Foraging Fairy" when I worked at Go.com. A name that stuck, and one that is kind of somehow fitting. :-)