new desk
When DH and I bought a new dining table, I moved the old one into our bedroom to use as a desk. While the desk served its purpose just fine, it took up a lot more space in the bedroom than I liked; eventually I grew tired of it being in the way and looking awkward. For weeks I searched on and off for a real wood desk (because I didn't like the fact that 100% of our furniture was from Ikea) that was a good price and was small enough to fit neatly in the space available between the dresser and the wall.
Over the weeks I had been looking, I found several desks that fit the bill, but they all ended up not working out for various reasons. I gave up the search for a while and went on vacation for 9 days. We returned home on a Friday, and school started the following Monday. Saturday I realized that I still didn't have a proper desk, so I checked craigslist again and stumbled upon an ad for a wonderful vintage typewriter desk that had been posted 6 days earlier. Though the measurements weren't listed, it looked to be the perfect size. I emailed excitedly, hoping that it was still available after such a long time on craigslist. It was!
We scheduled to pick up the following morning, and before we left, I already had a response about the old dining table I had posted on craigslist the night before. I let her know that we wouldn't be home till the afternoon and that I would let her know. When we went to pick up the desk, I talked the seller into bringing the price down $20, and we discovered that it didn't fit in our car. We borrowed an SUV from DH's parents and enlisted some friends to help move it since it was too heavy for me. That took all morning, so we all went to lunch together, which we wanted to do anyway to thank them for watching the cats while we were gone.
I emailed the buyer for the table to let her know we were available and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, I saw that I had an email from her and panicked, thinking that I'd missed her and she was no longer interested (this has happened to me before). But after I sent her an apology asking if she was still interested, I noticed that she had only sent her response 10 minutes before I saw it. I emailed again with my address, and she was at our door less than an hour later.
I am so pleased that everything worked out well. Though the desk shows some love, it is full of personality. I someday may refinish it, but the condition of the desk is actually quite nice. I put my typewriter in the space provided because it was getting dusty being on display all the time. The desk has holes for securing the typewriter to the platform, but the screws on my typewriter are too small. I just let the typewriter rest against the back surface since it's not too heavy. When the light is better, I'll get a picture of the underside of the desk. The mechanism to bring out the typewriter is so nifty.
The desk has a small plaque on it that says "F.W. Wentworth & Co, San Francisco" on it. Though I'm no expert, I've never heard of this brand, and the only meaningful result from googling was an ebook entitled "Lawrence A Oxley. Architect and engineer (Volume v.62-63 (July-Dec. 1920))" which an address listed for the company. Is this desk really from 1920?