The big move is over. We sold off all our furniture in Madison, drove 8500 miles, wound up in western Washington state, and found an apartment. On the actual move-in day, it took approximately 20 minutes to get all our stuff inside, and that included the time spent finding parking on our busy street. Okay, busy is relative. This is a town of 7,000 or so. But still.

For the inside of a Toyota Camry, we had a lot of stuff. For a big one-bedroom apartment, it felt like a laughable amount of stuff. It’s kind of awesome, actually–we have several kitchen cabinets that are empty; Ben and I share one big walk-in closet, and it’s not even full; pantry items don’t have to be stacked three-jars deeps; there’s lots of room to dance. In other words, we have breathing room. It’s great. It would have never been possible without the gigantic pre-moving purge of Fall 2011.

But there were some downsides. The first night, my brother came over and we sat on camp stools and borrowed lawn chairs to watch The Wire on the living room floor. We still don’t have a bed, so we’ve now been sleeping on (surprisingly comfortable) sheepskins on the floor for at least a month. We needed some stuff.

We are too far from a real city to use Craigslist very effectively, and I really didn’t know what to expect from the myriad tiny thrift stores around town, but I have been surprised and impressed! Here are some of my favorite finds so far:

Front runner for best thing ever: teak molded plywood office chair. The base is embossed “Kevi,” which means that at least the base is authentic and Danish. The seat itself doesn’t have tags, but it’s so beautiful that who cares? I paid $111 for it, after tax, which makes it our most expensive piece of furniture. Worth it, though.

Big tweed couch. It’s six feet long, it’s got adorable little legs, and it’s really comfortable. Our living room seemed dauntingly big until we brought this guy in. At $94, it’s our next-most-expensive piece. What’s crazy is how many other couches at the Habitat for Humanity Restore were priced hundreds of dollars over this, but were so much less classy and lovely. That seems to be the strange beauty of thrifting in Jefferson County, Washington.
Also pictured: brass floor lamp, $18; set of nesting end tables, $8 (more on these later); gorgeous oriental rug, $75.

On the other side of that gorgeous rug there is another six-foot long sectional couch, unbelievably identical in everything except upholstery to the white couch. This was a Craigslist find, too perfect to pass up ($75 plus free delivery). The contrasting colors work well, and I still cannot get over how identical the couches are–right down to the adorable little legs.

And here are those side tables pictured above, too–we found this set of three nesting tables for just $8 at what is certainly my favorite place in town so far, Castaways–the Kevi chair and brass floor lamp also came from there. The tops of these are veneer, but everything else is solid wood, and I have dreams of replacing the tops someday–we’ll see. If I do, you’ll hear about it here.

Okay, there are a few other exciting finds, but I’ll save them for another day. Stay tuned.