Day 108
While visiting our cabin this week the TV stand collapsed into about 30 pieces while I was trying to move it. And that night, the children had to watch the Olympics on a TV on the floor.
TV stand pieces sort of propped up
Oh, the trauma…
I should probably back up a bit and explain that In 2005, at the top of the real estate bubble my husband and I bought a small cabin in the mountains. At that time real estate prices were soaring and we figured we better buy something before EVERYTHING got out of our price range. So, we bought something all right. It wasn’t perfect but we figured a good start. And since real estate was always such a good investment we can always trade up…right?
So, I guess you know how that worked out.
Anyway, long before The Simple Year, when we were living in Northern California, I furnished the cabin from estate sales and thrift stores. So everything has had a past life, including the always-slightly-wobbly TV stand. Also, I want you to know, I really did try to put that TV stand back together. But without proper tools, and let’s face it—carpentry skills, it had started to look like a vaudeville comedy sketch. Just when I would get the side propped up, the back would pop off, a glass door snapped in and a shelf would fall on my foot. I actually broke a sweat trying to reassemble it. I did finally get it all stacked together house of cards style when it started listing alarmingly to the left.
The next day, with my kids safely sequestered in day camp, I set about finding a new-old TV stand in the local area. Far away from the opulent base of the ski mountain, I had noticed a couple of second hand stores, not many but a couple.
It is also worth noting, that in my experience mountain towns are interesting places that have a bit of an us versus them mentality. By that I mean, locals vs. second home owner/tourists. The locals typically have managed to carve out a living in paradise by cobbling together a variety of jobs either seasonally or year round and usually make just enough money to put gas in their 1982 Subaru Outback.
Conversely, there is the vacation home crowd. Each weekend they come pouring in from major cities in their all wheel drive European imports. They pay full price for lift tickets and eat four-course gourmet meals at restaurants with understated names like, The Tavern and Mountain Eats. It is because they bring so much money to the town, that the true locals tolerate them driving up real estate prices and wearing fur covered boots…just barely.
Our “middle class-ness” really doesn’t fit into any of those groups so perhaps that is why in our six years of owning that cabin we have never really made any friends in either of those crowds.
So, on my shopping trip to the second hand stores, it was surprising to me that for the first time, I met the most delightful group of locals all very interested in our Simple Year project and all actually willing to talk with me. I felt, well, sort of included, like I was in the “second hand club” that transcended the typical mountain town caste system (bit of melodrama this morning). In any case, that alone, made my shopping trip worthwhile.
The other success was that I found a TV stand at the second store I visited. Granted it wasn’t the highest quality, but it was wood and it was in one, pretty solid, piece. And, the best thing was the price-$20.
New stand in action…
Compare that to this similar TV stand for $499 at a tony mountain furnishings store only about two blocks away.
Similar new stand down the street
OK, granted, the second is better, but certainly not $480 better and I still can take the environmentally friendly high road. Plus, the clerks there seemed to barely tolerate me and I don’t even OWN fur boots.