It’s well-established that our Habitat ReStore is the Greatest in All the Land – witness this, and this, and this, and this, and this, for example. At least two other housebloggers have sought out their local ReStores after seeing the things we’ve found, and that makes my liberal heart all tingly with joy.
This afternoon’s find, however, may be a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing. It certainly puts silly chairs and dressers in a second-tier category.
We’ve been looking for a rug for our family room since we moved in, but rugs are quite an investment (especially for people who’ve always lived in carpeted apartments. It’s serious sticker-shock when you price rugs for the first time). On top of that, our homeowner ethos demands that we live without until we can buy what we really want.*
So I was giddy when I saw a giant, multi-colored, non-floral rug mixed in with the carpet remnants at ReStore this afternoon. It was duct-taped into a tight roll and the store was only open for 10 more minutes, so I had to go with what I could see. I could see three things –
- a piece of masking tape with the size, 9’x12′ – that’s massive.
- the back of the pattern, which was bold greens and blues and oranges and reds and yellows, but importantly, not floral, not overly-modern, not southwestern/Aztec, and not Native American.
- the price, which I’ll make you wait for.
I called Missy to get a conditional OK (“If it’s gross, I’m putting on Craigslist immediately“), and Josie and I loaded it in the trunk.** I don’t think I’m exaggerating that much, if at all, when I say it weighs over 100 lbs. 108 square feet of wool is heavy. I unrolled it in front of the garage when I got home, and not only is it ridiculously heavy, it’s in near-perfect condition (which doesn’t mean we’re not going to steam-clean the hell out of it before putting it down). Without further ado, here it is –
The tag was rolled up all the way in the center – it’s Moroccan, and signed by six different people. I don’t even want to guess how expensive this rug was new.
But at our wonderful ReStore? The Finest ReStore in All the Land? It was $10.
Please don’t hate me so much you stop reading my houseblog.
*That said, there were some tempting Black Friday deals that would have been OK as temporary solutions. Cheap rugs are ugly though – who knew?
**With friendly help from a man with a McCain/Palin sticker on his giant truck. Josie and I were bridging aisles in addition to furnishing our house on the cheap.