One More - About that Sofa

This is the sofa that I talked about "deconstructing" in my previous posts. I guess it's about time that I posted the evidence that we were actually able to get it back together. I have photos of it in different stages of dis-assembly too - but right now I don't see a point in posting them cause what I hoped would later be a helpful "how to" has turned into a cautionary "please don't ever attempt this without a professional".

It was a LOT of work. Too much work and way too much anxiety to be worth it. The only reason we even attempted it was because there was absolutely no other way to get this sofa into this third floor apartment. None. Trust me - we considered everything. And what any sane person with a few dollars in their pocket would have done is buy one of those affordable sofas that are designed to break down into pieces that can be transported up narrow and winding staircases. Or not rented an apartment that was so aggressively inaccessible in the first place.

So, why did we go to this extreme? Because my terrific and very young friend from work finally managed to land her first apartment. She's mature and responsible beyond her years but has had a difficult time finding a landlord willing to take a chance on her. So although this apartment was pretty dismal and inaccessible it was affordable, available and most importantly close to work. She didn't have an extra dollar to buy furniture. It was this sofa or nothing. It was a generous donation from a Pittsburgh Freecycler. As was most everything you see in her apartment. If we had failed to get this sofa back together properly I wouldn't have known how to live with the shame. So please - don't take such a risk if you don't really, really, really need to. It took many hours, much cursing, eyerolling, sighing, time-outs, and bloodshed. Yes, it's back to good as new - but as I warned my friend - it belongs to the apartment now.

Here are a couple more pics of her place. Excuse the camera phone quality. I'm thrilled with how her kitchen turned out. When we first arrived every wall was stark white - the tiny countertop was stained and scored, the greasy wooden cabinets were hanging off the wall, and there was an eyesore of a hot water heater to the left of the stove.

We cleaned the cabinets and painted them, sanded and painted the countertop around the sink, built a cute little island/counter with storage space inside and covered two bi-fold doors that we picked up at Construction Junction for a song with striped wallpaper to serve as a screen to cover the ugly hot water heater. A donated pine lingerie chest was painted black and white and awaits a microwave on top, but the drawers are adding much needed storage space for small kitchen items and a stash of Ramen Noodles. Her kitchen is now clean, bright, functional and totally reflects her taste. Thanks to Pittsburgh Freecycle, co-workers, and a couple hundred bucks spent wisely at Ikea and Construction Junction.