Notes from the Road (23) - The Great Furniture Debacle

Stick with me, it's complicated.

For about two years, I've been trying to come up with a plan as to how I would be able to remove two pieces of furniture from my flat in Edinburgh. The pieces in question hold real sentimental value; one is my Dad's Indian made travelling chest from his days in the Merchant Navy, with his name and his parents' address stencilled onto the side; the other being one of the Parker Knoll armchairs my parents bought in 1965 when they got married, which I then had reupholstered when I moved into my place.

In addition to this situation, my tenants had been asking, for almost two years, for a new couch. (Fair request, it was looking old even when I lived in the place!) With the Powderhall flat up for sale, and Iain needing to re-home the couches that were in there, we came up with a cunning plan: move all the stuff out of my flat, send the old couch to the dump and shift the Aruba couches from Powderhall to my flat. And get DJ Alexander could do the lot for us!

Firstly, we nipped through to Powderhall to check out what condition they were in. It was like stepping back in time. Lots of amazing memories, especially with Cat and Divsy, Legs, Ross and Vicki,...Good times.

The couches in question:

We were well chuffed to see they were looking as good as new. I sent the measurements to DJA, and my tenant said she wanted them both. Hurrah! As DJA still help keys for Powderhall we got them to organise moving the lot for us. Easy eh? Not so...

A couple of weeks later, just before we were planning on leaving for France, Iain and I drove back through to Edinburgh to collect the chest and chair from Powderhall. Turns out the removal company had put a hole in the wall of the stairs when they were shifting the couches out.

Thus ensued an absolute shambles of three days trying to get them to take responsibility for the damage and have it repaired. I was furious. It was just another thing I was having to deal with whilst in the middle of an international relocation. AAARGH.

We got there in the end, I'm looking forward to being fully reunited with my furniture in France. That chest will have done some amount of travelling!

LM.