VRM furniture recovered.

About 6 weeks ago the Victim Relief Ministry reached out to me with a story of a young lady and her 2 children who had gone through more than her share of life recently. They wanted her to have some decent furniture to sit on. She already had an old couch and loveseat. I looked at it and found a good sturdy maple frame underneath so I agreed to recover the furniture. Then I heard about the budget constraints so I came up with a few ideas.

I took The VRM rep and the young lady to a closeout fabric store that has very low prices and very low yardage bolts of fabric. The young lady was not real enthusiastic about the fabrics with ample yardage so I asked her what her favorites were. She showed me 5 bolts and I picked out the 2 that would coordinate the best and asked “How about 2 tone furniture?” She liked the idea. I also knew that we were still short of yardage so I asked “Can we lose the skirt?” Again she gave me a yes.

We got the yardage we needed and the VRM representative paid the less than $100 bill. That $100 came from a single prayer group who just chipped in a few bucks here and there.

I got together with another VRM member and picked up the furniture in his old Suburban. That same guy helped me to strip all the old fabric from the furniture and with the next step.

Because the furniture was made to accommodate a super long skirt, it sat 5 inches off the floor. That would have looked funny so I added 3 inches of frame around the bottom from my gently used lumber collection. Now the furniture sits 2 inches off the floor and the legs are recessed. That’s what I used to call the floating effect.

I always have to spend at least $100 in materials on a project like this but I already had most of what I needed so I only physically spent about $50. My expenses were kept real low.

Then – My compressor broke.

The compressor was one of the last pieces of Harbor Freight equipment I owned so I was prepared to spend $500 on a decent upgrade brand. My wife said – hey, you bought a warranty on that thing. :”ME?” I bought a service warranty on something? Sure enough, I took the compressor back to harbor freight with 22 days left on the guarantee. They replaced it for free.

Someone was looking after me.

My friends, I’m going to conclude this story in an unexpected way. Yes – The young lady loves her furniture. Her kids were already becoming acquainted with it by the time I pulled out the phone to snap a couple of shots. But that is not the end. You see – I was rewarded with more than her heartfelt thank you.

I managed to buy about 450 yards of fabric for about $30 a year ago. Today, I took the fabric to the same fabric store and asked them if they wanted to trade for $125 in credit. The answer was a very kindly yes. I went and picked out a few rolls I wanted to check yardage on. I had with me about $250 worth of fabric at their price (very low). She looked at the rolls and said – that’s 5 yards, that’s 10 yards, that’s 3 yards etc. I knew good and well that she was under stating the actual yardage after she gave her first 2 estimates.

We rolled out my favorite fabric which ended up having 22 yards and that is what I was going to take plus 2 smaller bolts. I said Ok – Let’s go with those 3. She shook her head and said no. She said “if you like them all – take them”.

I was overwhelmed and with a break in my voice I asked “Really?” She just smiled.

I share this story because it is not about what I gave. It’s about what I received. I know who arranged all of that for me. Now I finish the rest of my hosehold upholstery – All of it!

Thanks for reading.
Mark

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.