New old furniture.

Perhaps there are a few of you who may be wondering what I have been doing since last we spoke...

Well, orchestrating a move of 8 pieces of furniture (as inexpensively as possible) from Brussels to Corfu, can be more difficult than I imagined. 

Last fall my uncle died.  He and my aunt were in their late 80's and both were pretty frail.  He passed away quickly after falling and hitting his head.  He never regained consciousness. 

My nearly blind aunt was well taken care of by my cousin and his wife and children, immediately afterward as she really couldn't be expected to live on her own, alone.  Still, she didn't want to live with her children- she wanted a little more autonomy and friends her own age.  Getting old is not fun, and younger people don't understand the way people your own age do! 

My cousin found a perfect place not too far from any of them in a great neighborhood nearby.  She has a lovely room with huge windows and a balcony door, that lets in plenty of light.  The cook is excellent and finally my aunt is again eating and gaining a bit of weight.  The 12 other people are mostly her own age and she enjoys talking with them and sharing meals, when she wishes, in the community dining room.  It's really lovely.

The point of the whole story is that in order to help pay for this, my cousin needed to rent out their old apartment (now not being a very great time to actually SELL one.) 

So the shifting of furniture began.  The apartment had a garage and as much as possible was shifted to the apartment's downstairs garage.  BUT there was a bit more than they'd counted on... more and now: My cousins garage is full.  His daughter's garage is full.  His son's garage is full.  His wife had a solution- get rid of it all!! 

Needless to say, my cousin couldn't do that so, they called me!  Would I like anything??? 

I remembered a bookcase I admired, with leaded glass doors, and a round table my grandfather used that had clawed feet, as well as a plain cabinet of my great grandmother, that my grandmother had used in her kitchen.  There was a writing desk that I remembered that was pretty and if they didn't want that it would be nice.  

I sent my cousin an email and asked for the measurements and pictures of those items so I could get a quote from a mover- or someone who might be interested in moving her to Corfu for me. 

My cousin got back to me and included four more things as he needed to empty the downstairs garage so as best to be able to rent it out and make some more money for my aunt's upkeep!!  He said if I didn't want it, it was going anyway!  (eBay, the skip, whatever...)

Coordinating this whole thing via email to the movers and phone call to my cousins, was a bit strange, but it all worked out in the end.

And that was how it came to pass that I now have 8 new large pieces of old furniture strewn about my house!  Including a second writing desk, a small display coffee table, another bookcase cabinet and my great-grandmother's mahogany chest of drawers (with marble slab top!).

I am really glad I have a large house and plenty of space!

When it all arrived, (in "pretty good" condition, considering travel, age and distance!)  there were a few bits and pieces that needed T's tender loving care.  My cousin had fortunately included all the little broken bits from all the pieces so it was a bit like having a really big jigsaw puzzle at times as unfortunately we had no exact idea where the pieces originally came from!

According to my mother, the table needs a piece of marble cut to cover it (as that was as she remembered it many years ago during the war, when the marble broke after one of the aerial bombings of Brussels. )  She also remembered that the cabinet door always stuck, even for my great grandmother. (T fixed it- the hinges were bent) Lastly I remembered that the display table used to have a glass top.  It sat pride of place in my aunt's apartment with lovely little cups and other treasures she'd collected. 

As my cousin didn't send the cups and other nicky-noos, I figured I'd add a few of my own little bits from when we lived in Turkey.  Someday I'll get around to replacing that glass top.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my Easter Ham!!