Thursday, October 26th, 2006

Way to Go Baby Beluga

posted by lizzie    « 6 Comments »    tied to Uncategorized   

One of the many things on our list of things to get when we moved into our new apartment was a couch. We have one comfy chair that the Phillips bequeathed to us when they moved and two camping chairs, but we thought we needed a couch to really make it feel like home. But of course we are stingy about money on this sort of thing, especially since we are not even going to be here a full year. Enter Craigslist.org. On Monday I started searching for couches on Oahu for under $50 and found a black leather couch going for $40. It sounded reasonable, so I emailed the seller, mostly expecting to be told that somebody else had already snatched it up. I was surprised, as you can imagine, to hear back from her that not only was it not snatched up, but she was so desperate to get rid of it that she was going to give it to us. FREE. How could we say no?

This is where the adventure begins. It was all the way down in Schofield Barracks (which, like just about everything else on the island, is about an hour away), and we have no truck. We called some people to see if we could borrow one, but we couldn’t get ahold of anyone. We were afraid that somebody else was going to come by and see the nice free couch and grab it before we could get there, so we decided our best bet was to tie it to the roof of Baby Beluga. Now, for those of you who have met Baby Beluga, you know that she has exactly zero qualities to recommend her as a couch mover. She is not very big and not very spacious as far as holding really big objects for long periods of time goes. But she proved that she has both strength and stamina as she hauled almost all of our stuff between Hauula and Laie, so we were willing to give her a try. After passing the skeptical guards at the guard shack (“You’re going to pick up a couch? Is it going to fit in that car?) we made our way around the barracks to the couch. It is in great shape. It is real leather, with only one small tear on top and some damage on the back that nobody will see once it is against the wall, but all in all, it was much more than we were expecting from a free couch.

But it is also heavier than we thought it would be. We (mostly Micah) managed to push it on top and then we (mostly Micah) tied it tightly with a clothesline from Walmart. Once there was no more rope left to tie it with, we said a little prayer and hit the road. I must admit, it crossed my mind that this may be one of those times when we were doing something stupid, knowing we were doing something stupid, and still hoping Heavenly Father would help us through our stupidity. But I needn’t have worried. The couch didn’t move an inch the whole way home. It is now safely at our apartment, waiting outside for someone strong to help Micah bring it up the stairs. We’re looking forward to seeing how it looks–and feels–in our (soon to be) newly painted apartment.

Comments

  1. Jodie says:
    October 27, 2006 at 3:40 pm

    Did Micah reach his arm out the window, hold the couch and say, “Don’t worry, I’m using my arm…”?

    (thanks Seinfield…)

  2. liz&micah says:
    October 27, 2006 at 6:19 pm

    Hahaha. He did have his arm out the window the whole drive, just so he could feel if the couch moved.

    As a side note, the couch looked a lot better in the dark. When we finally got to see it in the daylight we realized that it must have been the dog’s couch. Lots of hair in between the cushions, lots of dirt in the leather. But we cleaned it with a baking soda/salt water mixture and now it looks shiny and new.

  3. liz&micah says:
    October 27, 2006 at 6:21 pm

    To be honest, I did reach out of the window and hold the edge of the couch the entire way home. I knew that I didn’t have a chance if the couch decided it no longer enjoyed the roof of our car, but I figured that I would at least have an early warning should it become loose. The couch didn’t move an inanimate muscle, but my arm sure did get cold and tired.

  4. liz&micah says:
    October 27, 2006 at 6:22 pm

    Oops. Liz beat me to the punch.

  5. Sarah says:
    October 27, 2006 at 10:29 pm

    When you say it is outside, do you mean outside outside, or just outside of your apartment, but inside the building. Just wondering. Oh, and why were guards there? And barracks? Where was this?

  6. liz&micah says:
    October 28, 2006 at 12:43 am

    Sar, “outside,” if you are talking about the couch, means that they kept it outside of their house, although possibly in a covered place so it wouldn’t get too much rain damage. It had a lot of red dirt on it and dog hair, which is why I didn’t think they kept it inside. When we picked it up, it was outside of their yard, next to the back fence. When it was outside our apartment, it was outside, in the grass. Our apartment is actually a small house, separate from anything else, except for the fact that two boys live in half of the downstairs. There is no “outside of our apartment but inside the building” because our apartment is the building.
    As far as Schofield Army Barracks goes, it is where military people and their families live. It looks and feels like a regular neighborhood–not like what you may think of when you hear the word “barracks.” There are guards at the entrances of all the army bases and they ID you as you enter. Oahu has a lot of military bases.

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