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I have a rocking chair!
Nov. 9th, 2011 04:57 pmOne thing I'd long planned on (since I was a kid?) was that I knew I wanted a rocking chair when I had a baby. One of the drawbacks of our apartment in Amsterdam was that I simply couldn't see where we would ever find the space to put one in, so I had, unhappily, relegated myself to not having one if we had a kid while living there. But then the Tilburg arrangements came up, and I've got a whole room in which to neatly fit in a rocking chair. Yay!
But then I faced an unexpected obstacle: I couldn't find one. We went to IKEA a few weeks ago, and one of the things on our list was "rocking chair", as I figured we'd reach the chair section, I'd try them all out, pick one, and we'd bring it home. So I was quite surprised that find that IKEA doesn't have rocking chairs -- either actual rocking chairs or gliders. Curious. I asked a friend about this, and he said that he hasn't really seen any new rocking chairs in the Netherlands for 10-15 years or so. Even more curious! Still, they used to be made/bought/used, so I was sure there'd still be some around, and I started keeping my eye out at the 2nd-hand shop I frequent.
When we went to IKEA last weekend, I sat in a bunch of chairs, and found one that was really comfortable, but was a swiveler, not a rocker. So I was faced with the decision to either forgo the rocker in favor of a very-comfortable-but-not-rocking chair, or wait in hopes that I'd eventually find a second hand rocker. That day the decision was easy, as the store we were at happened to be out of that particular type of chair, so I couldn't have bought it even if I wanted it.
Today Joel and mom came back from some errands and said they'd found a rocker. There's a second-hand furniture shop a few blocks from our new place, and it had one rocker and he'd taken a picture of it. It looked work checking out, so we headed over and I tried sitting in it, and, yup, it's a rocking chair that does everything you want a rocker to do, plus a bit more (e.g., is so sensitive to motion that you don't have to rock it by pushing your feet on the floor, you can get it to move just be moving your center core. Very nice when you want to rock without having to put much effort in to it). And it was 140EUR cheaper than the IKEA chair. Hard to beat! The rest of the store was pretty cool tool; lots of tables and chairs, couches, bookcases, and armoires, and most of it in incredibly good condition. We were amazed at the prices too; they have gorgeous wooden armoires that are probably 70-100 years old for ~399EUR; I'd expect to easily pay 10 times that if I wanted something similar new. We've got a feeling it's the sort of place we'll pop into on a regular basis, and if we find something that's just perfect, we may just get it.
So! I have a rocking chair. But still no baby to put in it. Luckily this means that, so far, mom's trip has been scheduled well; she arrived Monday morning and in the meantime has spent quite a bit of time helping Joel with various fixing/building projects--some shelves in the attic, trips to the hardware store, oh, I don't really know what else, because one of the advantages of having her here is that they go off and do this sort of thing and I, e.g., fall asleep on the bed for 2.5 hours in the afternoon. I rather like this approach to home improvements.
But then I faced an unexpected obstacle: I couldn't find one. We went to IKEA a few weeks ago, and one of the things on our list was "rocking chair", as I figured we'd reach the chair section, I'd try them all out, pick one, and we'd bring it home. So I was quite surprised that find that IKEA doesn't have rocking chairs -- either actual rocking chairs or gliders. Curious. I asked a friend about this, and he said that he hasn't really seen any new rocking chairs in the Netherlands for 10-15 years or so. Even more curious! Still, they used to be made/bought/used, so I was sure there'd still be some around, and I started keeping my eye out at the 2nd-hand shop I frequent.
When we went to IKEA last weekend, I sat in a bunch of chairs, and found one that was really comfortable, but was a swiveler, not a rocker. So I was faced with the decision to either forgo the rocker in favor of a very-comfortable-but-not-rocking chair, or wait in hopes that I'd eventually find a second hand rocker. That day the decision was easy, as the store we were at happened to be out of that particular type of chair, so I couldn't have bought it even if I wanted it.
Today Joel and mom came back from some errands and said they'd found a rocker. There's a second-hand furniture shop a few blocks from our new place, and it had one rocker and he'd taken a picture of it. It looked work checking out, so we headed over and I tried sitting in it, and, yup, it's a rocking chair that does everything you want a rocker to do, plus a bit more (e.g., is so sensitive to motion that you don't have to rock it by pushing your feet on the floor, you can get it to move just be moving your center core. Very nice when you want to rock without having to put much effort in to it). And it was 140EUR cheaper than the IKEA chair. Hard to beat! The rest of the store was pretty cool tool; lots of tables and chairs, couches, bookcases, and armoires, and most of it in incredibly good condition. We were amazed at the prices too; they have gorgeous wooden armoires that are probably 70-100 years old for ~399EUR; I'd expect to easily pay 10 times that if I wanted something similar new. We've got a feeling it's the sort of place we'll pop into on a regular basis, and if we find something that's just perfect, we may just get it.
So! I have a rocking chair. But still no baby to put in it. Luckily this means that, so far, mom's trip has been scheduled well; she arrived Monday morning and in the meantime has spent quite a bit of time helping Joel with various fixing/building projects--some shelves in the attic, trips to the hardware store, oh, I don't really know what else, because one of the advantages of having her here is that they go off and do this sort of thing and I, e.g., fall asleep on the bed for 2.5 hours in the afternoon. I rather like this approach to home improvements.
