Furniture Treasure Hunt & Settling In

I've officially been in Seattle for one week, but I can tell you it feels longer already! My hats go off to all of the interns who moved to campus on the eve of their first large group and the start of classes because I have absolutely no idea how I would have managed to get settled if I had not had this week to do. But now, here we are! And I finally feel like I have a slice of stability in my life to last until the quarter calms down - but it came at a price (the price being not a little bit but a lot of stress).

As an intern, you might think that I would be able to live lavishly and be surrounded by every imaginable comfort to aid me in transitioning from one stage of life to the next. RUF does do a great job of taking care of us, but our personal budgets are considered "basic subsistence," which means I live on a pretty inflexible budget. I am trying to learn to manage my finances better for this reason (I spent this morning clipping coupons & reading DIY blogs), which is definitely going to be an awesome thing to learn during this internship, but on a practical level it meant that my budget for acquiring furniture for myself and for my house was going to be a challenging endeavor when there's just not enough cash to go around.

I've experimented with craigslist in the past, even sold a few things on that forum myself, and it is a website that my mother, in particular, has come to swear by and has had great success with. I decided to take a look around to see what I could find.

Luckily for me, my friend and former roommate, Cilla, had provided me with a bed prior to my arrival. So, bed - check. Also, I had been determined to include my two end tables among the small amount of my valuables and essentials that I drove across the country - so nightstand for my room and an end table for the living room - check. At this point, my checklist looked something like this:

I started to look on Craigslist for three major pieces of furniture - a dresser, a desk, and a bookshelf. Of the things I had felt to be of most importance in my life, my clothes and my books were the main things to make the cut and therefore to make the drive from Tulsa. Since I had moved out of my house in Norman on May 14th, I had not had a permanent residence since then and so at this point I had been living out of a suitcase and boxes for four months. To say that I was anxious to get a dresser into my life as soon as possible so that I could unpack my bags would be an enormous understatement.

After about 48 hours and 25 emails to sellers, I was able to land the following gems:

Dresser

Bookshelf

Bookshelf 2

Desk

Chair

Chair 2

Chair 3

Sleeper Sofa

Mirror

Lamp

For a grand total of $100.

To say I was proud of myself, nay, that I was proud to make my mother proud would be insufficient to describe the pure relief that I felt to be able to begin&continue the settling process in my new home.

After renting a UHaul (Nightmare!) and having some helpers assist in the move-in process, we got the bedroom furniture settled upstairs and the sleeper-sofa downstairs to the basement where it will serve as the guest bedroom (for all the Oklahoma visitors I expect will drop by!)

This sleeper sofa was free, by the way.

I also got two chairs like this one for $5 a piece.

The first project was to paint the dresser, desk, bookshelf, and chair. With help and advice from both Mark and Cilla, we eventually decided to try to tie in the furniture with the bedspread. want also to point out how well the bedspread matches the walls of my room - and how the walls were painted that color when I moved in and I've had my bedspread since freshman year of college. It's the little things.

The color of the chair was inspired by the lamp, and was meant to be a sort of extra pop of bright color.

Here are the results of my treasure hunt, and I must say I like the finished product very much (something for the wall above my bed will come in time).

The dresser and bookshelf ended up a light but bright shade of yellow-green called "granny smith," which was very close to the greens of my bedspread.

The bookshelf sits next to the desk and the nightstand.

Under the window is where I decided to put the desk and chair, and on the opposite wall to put bookshelf 2 and the mirror. The desk was an unstained wood and we gave it a coat of a light caramel-brown with the salmon chair for accent.

I've got a beautiful view out of my window from my desk!

This $5 chair was an unstained wood with white seat that I decided needed to live a more exciting life! So now it's pink/orange.

I absolutely loved this antique mirror that I found on craigslist and knew I needed something special for the blue of the walls in my room - I've always had white walls, so working backwards was a first for me!

This bookshelf was left in our house from the previous tenants and no one else wanted it so I found a perfect spot for it and paired it with the mirror!

The corner at the foot of my bed holds some very treasured things - a shadow box of memories from OU, a poster from The Katie Tracy Band's glory days, a wall hanging from my trip with RUF to Peru, and the magic-maker - Mr. Guitar.

This painting was one that I got while still in Norman from Guestroom Records on Main Street with a Groupon that I had and I love the color it brings to that wall.

So glad for the ways the Lord has blessed me this first week already, and I'm SO glad to be feeling settled in my new home!