Furniture Auction Adventure

This weekend, Chris and John went out to "hunt" for our family by attending a fascinating furniture auction--in Ohio, of all places!

This all began when a friend of ours in Massachusetts received an email about a religious monastery/convent going up for auction, along with all of its contents. She sent it to us with a joke that we should buy it.

We laughed.

Then we kept looking at it.

Chris ran the numbers on him traveling out there (and taking John for bonding and for teaching moments) and how inexpensive this fine furniture would have to be for it to be worthwhile. We decided to do it and, if they ended up buying nothing, it would still be a wonderful weekend for a man and his son, and would help teach John about business matters.

The fellas departed on a 7:40 p.m. flight on Friday night. 

On their layover in Washington, D.C., they bought crepes at ten at night. It's good they fueled up because they were in for a surprising misadventure.

The crew for the second leg of the flight did not show up until after midnight--by which time the boys should have been landed in Pittsburgh and already tucked in at their hotel. The flight experienced a tremendous amount of turbulence and "blizzard conditions."

I asked Chris, "Oh, so you mean it was snowing?" No, it was white-out conditions!

White out conditions in Pittsburgh at 1:30 a.m.

The jet way had some problem with freezing ice, so there was a delay getting it connected to the plane, so they spent another hour sitting on the plane, waiting to disembark. Then, although Chris had taken only carry-on luggage, due to the weather conditions, all luggage was put on the conveyor belt: when Chris and John got there, there was a one-hour wait to pick up the luggage.

The only stroke of good luck in it all is that when the weary travelers stood in line to pick up their rental vehicle, they were given the very last All Wheel Drive vehicle.

On too-short sleep the next day, our Knights in Shining Armor drove out to the property to attend the auction. Chris taught John the ropes and then even let him do some of the bidding (with a secret signal from Dad on when to raise his flag).

Due to the snowstorm, only about sixty bidders showed up instead of the hundreds that are typical. Chris thinks this led to even better deals than would normally have been head. For example, the $2 million dollar compound sold for $280,000 to some very blessed family! Furniture sold for pennies on the dollar, and that is no exaggeration.

The next couple of days we were each busy as bees: In Ohio, Chris and John were hiring local movers, hiring a truck, and buying packing supplies. On Monday, there was a three-hour window to retrieve the truck full of furniture . . . and it was steadily snowing.

Meanwhile, on the home front, I was preparing the house by assembling five shelving units we just bought, putting all the Christmas bins in the attic, and moving all the boxes from Grampa Neil's home after his death (still sitting, still waiting for me to open and grieve anew) from our hallway to a closet. I emptied out all the furniture we'd be replacing (like bureaus) and stripped bedding, All of this with four kids underfoot and a baby on my back was a real task--and my 9-year-old was a huge help--but I tried my best to keep a cheerful attitude about it. Blessings come with sacrifices too, and this sure was an adventure for our family!

The gentlemen ended up pushing through to drive straight home on Monday, got home late, and then we had The Craziest Birthday ever in which we combined Joseph's fifth birthday and a big day of moving furniture. Stay tuned for our next installment . . .