Sponging, borrowing, storing... Furnishing on the cheap!

Circa 2005

We hear it all the time, "You guys are really making Dueselhouse look great, but how can a lowly teacher and decor coordinator afford all this?"

Truth is, we couldn't, if we weren't astronomically wealthy.

We, literally, have debts well into the hundreds of dollars on our credit card. We cut extreme corners wherever possible - this is why so many of you haven't gotten thank you notes for wedding gifts yet. Next month, I promise!

Rooms like the Man bathroom cost nearly forty four dollars to remodel. Our bedroom closet almost broke the bank costing over a hundred dollars, not to mention the intrinsic costs of two full days of work! The revamping of the kitchen (paint and the Ikea countertop)... well let's just say it was the equivalent of a dinner and several drinks at Smith and Wollensky's, for one person!

Point being, we have been mortgaging Frankie's future college fund in this pile of sticks and plaster. It's time to start cutting back and stop spending what we don't have in the first place.

It's election season, so we did what any natural D.C. citizen would do, grass roots furniture campaign! Those with the least are likely to give the most, right? You already know how we milked mother and father Duesel for the back door, Katie's brother for a table saw (do I still have to give that back?), my sister threw in a shopvac, and paint labor from Katie's sister and husband. The time had come to look for more suckers friends.

We began at the bottom of the barrel, former roommates, college friends, and generally people who wouldn't likely want whatever they offered returned any time [soon]. After an exhaustive few hours on the phone, Katie hit on our first donor,  John Birkhofer! Always the cautious optomist, staunch republican, and friend of over seven hundred on facebook; Katie and I were confident, that John was the man to abuse!

On the same Friday as the man bathroom remodel, John pulled up to the Dueselhouse donation center with a fancy futon with underneath storage drawers. Awesome!

"It's been in storage for almost four years," he revealed, "So you're welcome to it until I get my own apartment again." What John doesn't know, is that by the time he gets his own apartment, there will likely be a girl involved. We all know that women don't like their man to bring along his single guy furniture. Proven fact.

I expected a flashback to college, until we began assembling the futon. Solid oak construction, steel gliders, magazine storage in the arm rests.

No, we not on campus anymore, Toto.

As we finished tightening down all the screws, Katie paid the man. Cold beverages for everyone! Not a bad exchange for a futon; when a thought crossed John's mind. "Do you guys want a coffee table for up here too?" he motioned to the TV just sitting on the floor opposite the new couch. With that, he increased his donation to silver-status.

Already in the truck, we only had to walk downstairs and shuttle the generous "map table" up to the attic room. In minutes, the newly air conditioned space had turned into a room. We are greatly appreciative to John for all his generosity. While much of my phrasing is in jest, the appreciation is very real.

Next up at the loading dock, the eldest Indrisano offspring, Lynn, is going for platinum-donor status with a corner cabinet, and who knows what else, for Dueselhouse. But when you walk upstairs, it becomes clear that there is a real room for guests to settle into; or just escaping my random escapades - not that Katie ever needs a break from me.

Not a bad looking room either... it just needs a quick coat of paint. We could knock that out in a single evening, right?