The Desk

I am currently sitting at the most glorious of all desks.  How it arrived here is just as glorious.

I had no idea until we moved how much Jon disdained the desk we had in the guest room of our condo.  Considering my mom and I had picked it up from the front lawn of a neighbor's house (there was a "free" sign), several years prior, I wasn't too upset about his feelings of dislike.  I just didn't know about them.  At any rate, it was not long after moving into our apartment that Jon expressed his desire to get a new desk.

Due to the size and set-up of the guest room, we quickly realized that the desk was not going to fit.  We had space in the living room, but that meant that the desk--and all of the junk on top of it--were going to be completely exposed.  So, we were in the market for a new desk, specifically one that would hide all of the aforementioned junk.

Jon searched on-line for what he was looking for, but to no avail.  We tried a local furniture store which specializes in Murphy beds, and while they didn't have exactly what we wanted, the proprietor told us she would design something for us.  We anxiously awaited her e-mail, and when it arrived, we were excited to see that she had designed precisely the desk we had in mind.  That excitement quickly dissipated when we saw the price she had quoted us.

Clearly out of our price range, we abandoned our dream of a custom-made desk.  We went back to the store a couple of weeks later to see if any changes might affect the price, and while the adjustments we made did lower the cost, it was still hard to justify spending that much money.  We hemmed and hawed about it for a little while, until Jon found The Desk.

Dinking around on the internet, he decided to check our old stand-by IKEA.  Searching their on-line catalog, Jon found precisely the desk we were looking for; in exactly the same wood finish as our table, chairs, hutch, and buffet; and for a much lower price.  Jon was just about to push the button for "purchase" when he noticed that the cost of shipping was as much as the desk itself.  Why, oh why, didn't we realize that we needed a new desk when we lived so close to IKEA and had access to a moving van (and professional movers)?!?  The irony of it all!

We went through several possible scenarios, including taking a roadtrip to Chicago or Atlanta.  There is even a company in Nashville whose job is to pick up IKEA orders in Atlanta for a fraction of the shipping cost.  But that would still be three hours away.  On a whim, I inquired via Facebook if anyone was planning a trip to an IKEA in the near future.  I didn't think I'd get any serious replies until a friend from Kansas City who currently lives in the Cincinnati area informed me that a new store had opened there, and since she would be back in KC for the holidays, she'd see what she could do.  I still didn't believe it until several weeks later when this friend asked for the product information and said she'd see if it fit in her van.  Miracle of all miracles, it did.  The journey of the desk began.

Jon and I spent our entire Christmas break traveling from Washington to Nebraska to Missouri, and unfortunately just missed our friend while she was in town.  But ever reliable, the desk was waiting for us at her parents' house.  I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to publicly thank this friend for helping us out.  Thank you!

In order to get the desk back to Memphis, we had to rent a mini-van.  Not really our style, but totally worth it.  Jon was so excited that he stayed up until after 1:00 am putting it together.  Isn't it beautiful?