The List

Today we replaced one of the pieces of furniture we lost in the flood. It has been a year since those twisty old pipes burst up in the ceiling of Sanctuary, and almost exactly a year since it was discovered and we made the long, sad drive up to see it for ourselves. Not an anniversary to celebrate, really, but I am very glad to be on this side of it.

I have been working away at The List. It is this wrinkled up scrap of paper I carry with me almost everywhere I go. It contains the names of the items that were lost and need to be replaced. Things that we have already found are crossed through with yellow and orange highlighter.

The remaining items on The List are things that, for one reason or another, we have not yet found. I know, I know. I thought we’d have gotten this taken care of much quicker, too. This should be one of the good parts of this whole experience, right? But for nine months, while the big house was under repair, we just didn’t have any room to store large items, and saw no point in purchasing them just to put in a rented storage unit or something. For most other things, we had to wait until they were returned to us from the warehouse so we could see with our own eyes what we could salvage and what we couldn’t.

The List is pretty much down to the few remaining electronic items that National Asset doesn’t trust me to pick out on my own and he hasn’t had the time to shop for, and the eclectic things we bought one by one over the course of a few years. You know, the one-of-a-kind treasures you come across at a yard sale, or in a thrift store on 50%-off-day, or occasionally even in an antique store. The kind of things you just can’t find on Amazon.com, and wouldn’t trust to buy anywhere, really, without turning it over and running your hand over the wood.

I have been looking. Honest. And I’ve just had to resign myself to the fact that I probably won’t be finding a 1930’s wooden cabinet for storing games that matches Grandpa’s old radio/record player. Or the antique padded stool Ron gave me for Christmas that just fit me perfectly. These serendipitous things are both hard to lose and hard to find.

Over the holidays we did some browsing with our kids and grandkids. Upstairs in a Nevada City antique store, Ron and I were checking out a dining table. Uncle Ray and Aunt Jo had passed on a wonderful, 40-something-year-old table that was large enough to fit our whole family. We worked puzzles and played games on it, and had one Christmas dinner around it. Then we found it standing in water, covered with wet, moldy insulation and drywall from the ceiling above and we couldn’t save it.

So I am on my knees, looking under this antique table to see how many extensions it has and how they work, when Ginny says: Too grand!!

I think it is an odd phrase for her to use, but reply: You think it’s too nice for Sanctuary? I think it would look fine…

Ginny: But for two grand! You could get a great handmade wooden table for two grand!

I giggle.  Nope, you can’t. I already did some research on that…

We have scoured thrift stores, antique stores, and today lined up with a small contingent to be the first at a couple of estate sales. Nada.

So I tried one more thrift-estate-sale-leftovers store. And I found a piece, an old, well-loved wooden cabinet. It doesn’t really look like any of the three on my list that I’m trying to replace. But it does look like us. And I think that will do.

Only nine things left to highlight on The List.