A Tale of Two Cribs
A few years ago, when my niece moved from her crib to a real bed, my brother-in-law and his wife (we'll call them BIL/W) decided that they would have the crib stored for G and me for when we had a wee one of our own. They left it, minus the mattress, in G's parents' garage. When I learned of this, I thought, great, something we won't have to buy.
Fast forward to this year. They remind us about the crib and tell us just how wonderful it is and how expensive it was. H spent her first few months sleeping in a bassinet, but it became apparent that she would need something bigger and soon. So we made arrangements to drive to G's parents' house 40 miles north of us to check out this crib. We found it in pieces up in the rafters. It was not wrapped in anything. This fact is important because G's parents smoke in their garage. So we took it down with the plan to get it outside to air out and to be wiped down since it was dirty. We also wanted to assemble the thing to make sure all the parts were there. We think we had all the parts, but can't be sure since there were no assembly instructions to be had. Hmm. How to build the thing?
For the better part of an hour, we tried to build it. There was a lot of cursing and a little bloodshed and we still couldn't get it right. We decided not to take it with us that day since we didn't know if we would ever be able to build it. This annoyed G's dad who wanted the thing out of his house. It's not like an unassembled baby crib takes up much space, but he got bent anyway.
We later put in a call to BIL to get instructions on how to build the thing, but he didn't know how. He said W would tell us. Then it became, "she'll show you how to build it at your house." Ok, that works. Only she's staying about two hours away from where we live and an hour from where the crib is. This is a summer arrangement while their new house is under construction. So how to get the crib here and get her here to build the thing?
Well, she calls me and says that she's going to be in our town two days from then and could build it for us then. Except that we didn't have plans to fetch the thing before then. So she offers to fetch the thing and bring it down here. I said thank you. As it turns out, we wouldn't have been able to fetch it before she was to be here because our van was in the shop for some minor repairs.
Later that afternoon, BIL calls to ask if we can't pick up the crib because it's really too much to expect his wife to do it for us. Well, I didn't ask. I said no, we wouldn't be getting up there and our car didn't have room. "Can't you borrow a friend's truck or something?" he asks. I said we couldn't and that if W wouldn't be able to bring it, we would figure something out. He then calls G at work to suggest G rent a truck to fetch the crib so W wouldn't have to. G says no and then said don't worry about bring the crib here or assembling it, we would come up with something else.
We found a crib and mattress on Craigslist and bought it. The instructions were attached and it works fine. Meanwhile, G's dad is still bent that the crib is at his house. G and I went to his house, fetched the thing with the plan to dispose of it, so now all is ok with him. We thought, wouldn't it be funny to figure out how to build the thing and then sell it ourselves. Hee. It's currently in pieces in our place.
This was about a month ago. Three days ago during afternoon naptime on the couch with H (she takes a nap everyday at around 5), G called about the crib. It seems that he wants the receipt from Goodwill. Yes, that's right. The crib that was supposed to be given to us and that we removed from G's parents' garage is, apparently, his property again, such that he should get the tax write-off. If I had been awake when he called, I probably would have lied and said we already took it to Goodwill and didn't get a receipt. But I'm not that quick when I am half asleep. So I said we still had it. He then requested that we mail the receipt to him. Hmm. One telephone called to Goodwill revealed that they don't accept baby items.
Since I think it still smells like smoke, I think we will just take it to the city dump. Then I'll forward the bill for dumping it to BIL since, after all, it's his crib.
A few years ago, when my niece moved from her crib to a real bed, my brother-in-law and his wife (we'll call them BIL/W) decided that they would have the crib stored for G and me for when we had a wee one of our own. They left it, minus the mattress, in G's parents' garage. When I learned of this, I thought, great, something we won't have to buy.
Fast forward to this year. They remind us about the crib and tell us just how wonderful it is and how expensive it was. H spent her first few months sleeping in a bassinet, but it became apparent that she would need something bigger and soon. So we made arrangements to drive to G's parents' house 40 miles north of us to check out this crib. We found it in pieces up in the rafters. It was not wrapped in anything. This fact is important because G's parents smoke in their garage. So we took it down with the plan to get it outside to air out and to be wiped down since it was dirty. We also wanted to assemble the thing to make sure all the parts were there. We think we had all the parts, but can't be sure since there were no assembly instructions to be had. Hmm. How to build the thing?
For the better part of an hour, we tried to build it. There was a lot of cursing and a little bloodshed and we still couldn't get it right. We decided not to take it with us that day since we didn't know if we would ever be able to build it. This annoyed G's dad who wanted the thing out of his house. It's not like an unassembled baby crib takes up much space, but he got bent anyway.
We later put in a call to BIL to get instructions on how to build the thing, but he didn't know how. He said W would tell us. Then it became, "she'll show you how to build it at your house." Ok, that works. Only she's staying about two hours away from where we live and an hour from where the crib is. This is a summer arrangement while their new house is under construction. So how to get the crib here and get her here to build the thing?
Well, she calls me and says that she's going to be in our town two days from then and could build it for us then. Except that we didn't have plans to fetch the thing before then. So she offers to fetch the thing and bring it down here. I said thank you. As it turns out, we wouldn't have been able to fetch it before she was to be here because our van was in the shop for some minor repairs.
Later that afternoon, BIL calls to ask if we can't pick up the crib because it's really too much to expect his wife to do it for us. Well, I didn't ask. I said no, we wouldn't be getting up there and our car didn't have room. "Can't you borrow a friend's truck or something?" he asks. I said we couldn't and that if W wouldn't be able to bring it, we would figure something out. He then calls G at work to suggest G rent a truck to fetch the crib so W wouldn't have to. G says no and then said don't worry about bring the crib here or assembling it, we would come up with something else.
We found a crib and mattress on Craigslist and bought it. The instructions were attached and it works fine. Meanwhile, G's dad is still bent that the crib is at his house. G and I went to his house, fetched the thing with the plan to dispose of it, so now all is ok with him. We thought, wouldn't it be funny to figure out how to build the thing and then sell it ourselves. Hee. It's currently in pieces in our place.
This was about a month ago. Three days ago during afternoon naptime on the couch with H (she takes a nap everyday at around 5), G called about the crib. It seems that he wants the receipt from Goodwill. Yes, that's right. The crib that was supposed to be given to us and that we removed from G's parents' garage is, apparently, his property again, such that he should get the tax write-off. If I had been awake when he called, I probably would have lied and said we already took it to Goodwill and didn't get a receipt. But I'm not that quick when I am half asleep. So I said we still had it. He then requested that we mail the receipt to him. Hmm. One telephone called to Goodwill revealed that they don't accept baby items.
Since I think it still smells like smoke, I think we will just take it to the city dump. Then I'll forward the bill for dumping it to BIL since, after all, it's his crib.
posted by JenL at
5:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home