Exercising my patience

I am a horribly impatient person.  Just ask anyone who knows me.  I'll routinely jam insane amounts of furniture into my car just to avoid waiting for home delivery, and Amazon Prime with free 2-day shipping is one of the best things to ever happen to me (although one-day shipping would be even better).

Where am I going with this?

We've been living with the same, slightly sad, Ikea dining table (seen here in our old apartment) since we moved to LA more than four years ago.  This table has actually been awesome and held up remarkably for the price, but I just kept feeling like it was time to move on...and maybe, I don't know, buy a new table that actually has chairs that match.

So, since we got the house I've been scouring all my favorite furniture store websites for a table that would fit the bill.  Our dining area isn't huge, so I knew it couldn't be too big and overwhelm the space.  I also wanted something that was made with real wood (not veneer), and that was fairly chunky and not too modern.  Sean also digs benches instead of chairs, so the perfect table also had to have a matching bench option.

Enter the West Elm Carroll table

I kind of dug it.  And, at $499 for a 66" table, the price wasn't bad either.  But of course, I'm cheap.  Super cheap.  And I know that West Elm tends to cycle through sales, and it couldn't be too long before they had a 15-20% off dining sale, right?  So I waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Until finally - literally 6 months later - my dream came true and West Elm put all dining on sale for 20% off.  Yayyy!

Like a true nerd, I dragged Sean to the West Elm in Santa Monica the day the sale started, bribing him with promises of dinner.  I wanted to check out the table in person and make sure it was really what we wanted, since it's one of our biggest furniture purchases yet for the new house.  It was great in person, buuuuuut unfortunately I discovered that they don't carry the table in store, so I couldn't just grab the table that night and run.  SAD FACE.  Not just that, but we'd have to pay the insane shipping and delivery charges.  DOUBLE SAD FACE.  And it's on major back order.  BOO.  I tried to convince the West Elm employees to sell me the floor model but they weren't going for it.  They said my only chance of finding one was if someone returned one to the store, so I gave them my name and number, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.  I find the employees at that store to be incredibly apathetic, so I feel like they might have just thrown away my number as soon as I left the store.

Anyway, after a little more deliberation, I placed the order for everything online.    I tried everything I could to get an extra discount - including calling the 1-800 number but no dice.  I did end up signing up for a West Elm credit card (something I never do) to get 10% back in West Elm dollars.  Not too bad I suppose.  

The grand total for the set was $1156.01, which was a little shocking for a cheapo like me.  It was $424 for the table, $228 each for two benches, a whopping $183 for shipping, and $93 sales tax.

So now I wait.

I originally wanted to do half modern chairs and half bench like the pretty picture above, but Sean wasn't down for that idea.  So, I compromised and did 2 benches and no chairs.

The estimated delivery date for the table is November 14, but I've literally been checking the West Elm website every day to see if they change the date.  Dork.  No changes so far.  We actually got the benches a few weeks back, so they've been chilling in our living room awkwardly, waiting for their table.

I'm super excited about how the new table will transform the whole living area, so I'll be sure to update once the table is (FINALLLLLY) delivered.  I also have my eye on a new light fixture for above the table, but the cheapskate in me has to recover a bit before dropping the money on that...