our living room is awkward. it has seven walls. there are two proper corners, and they’re only on the same wall if you don’t count the small angle wall between the (useless) front door and the windows. for close to a decade, we’ve had four six chairs in the room, in a sort of semi-circle…if you squint.

there’s a big chair on the angle wall between the door and windows. there’s an uncomfortable chair that is home to my bedding during the day in front of the windows. there’s a computer chair that has accumulated a pile of clothing that gets worn somewhat frequently. there’s a chair for Nonna opposite the bedding chair. and then there’s the recliners. under the picture window from the kitchen is my sister’s chair. on the right of the chair is Mom’s desk. on the left of the chair is a tray table for Felix, the gaming laptop. to the left of the tray table is my chair, and to my left is another tray table for my computer. in front of the big chair and the two recliners are footstools.

i mention this to kind of give an idea of what made this such an adventure.

at the end of last month, two New recliners were ordered. my sister’s chair was third-hand when we got it, and it had been through A Lot. the left arm had separated from the support, and there were exposed nails and ripped upholstery. we had reinforced it for a few weeks with a ratcheting strap, but the wood base of the arm broke completely. needless to say, it was past due for a replacement.

the day it arrived, i was getting ready to sort the clothing on the table when the delivery truck dropped off the box. we got it onto the (back) porch and i realized that there was no way we could fit the box in the doorway. the back door is a narrow 28 inches (i think). thankfully, it was a sunny, dry day. instead of sorting the table, we cleared out the broken chair and carefully moved it out of the way, then sorted the various items around and under it. then vacuumed. some point during this process, the vacuum crapped out on me, and wouldn’t turn on in the upright position. a meltdown was had, but i decided that the floor was probably clean enough, so we stepped outside, opened the box for the New chair, and brought in the pieces. we set it into place, and once i had another mostly able-bodied person, we carried the old chair out and set it under a tarp (so it wouldn’t get waterlogged before we had a chance to rent a truck to take it to the dump).

it turned out that the second chair wasn’t actually ordered at the same time, so another order was made.

i got sick with chest/cough/sinus crud, which meant that i had no real energy or drive to pre-clean around my chair. i did get the vacuum working again, but not before i had a small breakdown thinking i had broken it for real.

my chair was a thrift store find. when it was brought into our home, it was a pretty decent recliner. over the years, however, one side of the footrest broke, and the supports for the seat broke. it was livable, but not terribly comfy to spend a lot of time in. it was also past due for a replacement.

the day my chair arrived, i was still recovering from the sinus crud, but knew i needed to get stuff cleaned/cleared before the New chair actually made it here. that morning, we made a trip to town to pick up a tarp and bins to put all the various crap i’ve accumulated over the years in. thus began the day of cleaning. i cleared the table next to me. i cleared the stuff under the table. i cleared the stuff behind the chair. i cleared the chair itself. i tipped the chair on its side and cleared under the chair (including a desiccated rodent corpse). i vacuumed the heck out of the whole area. it took two of us to take the chair apart to move it out of the way. i went to the store at some point to get pasta for dinner, thinking that maybe the delivery truck would arrive while i was gone. it did not. i ate, and it was only moderately satisfying because i was a bundle of anxiety, waiting for this chair to show up. it was raining, and i wanted to be able to get it in and set up asap. it finally arrived, and we got enough space cleared for it to be brought it/set up. the box was wet, and sitting on the side, but the rain wasn’t too heavy and the chair pieces were wrapped in plastic.

we got the chair set up, and i gave up on doing much else that night.

it’s currently the third night after getting the New chair set up, and the living room is still a pile of bins. this evening, i finally got my computer moved back to the table next to me, so i can work again. i’m still trying to downsize the amount of stuff that will need to find a new home. i’d really like to be able to sleep in my bed again, but i can’t get to it with all the bins and crap in the floor.

at least the New chair is comfy to sleep in.