In the "things I probably knew, but didn't really think about until it pertained to me" category, Stuart and I got a First Time Home Buyers' credit on this year's income tax. Fittingly, we've spent it on the house.
The first expenditure was on supplies for Stuart to build a gate. The backyard was fully fenced when we bought it, except for the space between the garage and the property line, which is a concrete pad - handy for parking your RV, if you have one. It just had a jury-rigged block made out of snow fencing. Stuart built a gate that stretches across the whole space and rolls open on a wheel - totally cool! Now Ursa's back yard space is a wee bit bigger and lots more secure.
The rest of the money out the door was for furniture. Our living room didn't really have any "living room style" furniture in it - just some odds and ends. Looking at everyone's pictures on FaceBook, what I really wanted was some leather furniture, so that Ursa could have something soft and human smelling that she was allowed on, that would stand up and clean easily. But even the ridiculous "bonded leather" that is mostly plastic is still crazy expensive. So, inspired by my sister who has great luck with it, I started lurking on Kijiji. Lo and behold: an IKEA sofa and love seat turned up at $300 for the pair! They are a bit scarred from the claws of three cats and I had to clean a lot of spilled Cheerios out of them - but really still in excellent shape - and considering I wanted something that I'd happily let a 120lb dog chew her bones on? Perfect! (They are even black - you'd think that would be a common color for leather furniture, but 80% of the stuff listed was green or mauve. I kid you not.)
The other piece of furniture that Stuart and I had been discussing for a while was a corner shelf for our kitchen. (The kitchen is really old and sadly lacking in storage space - the budget for remodeling the whole thing is so far down the line that interim measures are definitely warranted.) Once again, we started at IKEA as our go-to furniture place. They had a unit designed for corners in the finish we already collect, so it seemed a no-brainer. However, when we went to buy one, we found that it had been discontinued and they were completely out of stock. Nor did they have any equivalent replacement item. So I thought to myself, I wonder if I can find something similar on Kijiji? In fact, I found the exact item, listed for $29, as opposed to the ~$140 new!
We went on Sunday to pick it up and found that the couple is moving to England in a few weeks and are trying to sell the house and most of the furnishings. As we came in the door, she said, "I don't suppose you'd be interested in some other shelves?" And she showed us three Billy bookcases, in our finish, with the height extenders and glass doors on all of them - easily over $1000 new at IKEA. It just so happens that I want to paint the back bedroom and make it into a library/guest room. The best bookcase wall will hold three Billy bookcases perfectly. "How much are you asking for them?" "I'm just about to re-post them at $299." There wasn't a mirror, but I expect that my face was full of glee, after I scraped my jaw off the floor and popped my eyeballs back in. Stuart was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the money going out the door and wanted to think about it a bit.
I emailed her back the next day and claimed them.
They haven't even packed the books yet, which is fine, 'cause I need to clean up and paint the room. We made arrangements to go back for them at the beginning of June.
And I added the Kijiji app to my phone.
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