In May of 2020, after about two months of Steph working from an extra table in the upstairs alcove, we determined that this Covid thing might last a little longer than we thought, and we should probably come up with a more permanent working solution.
In February of that year, completely unaware of the shitstorm coming our way, both of our older children moved out of the house, leaving us with a few extra bedrooms. We decided to turn one into an office, but the old kitchen table was not going to work as a desk. It was too tall, and the ergonomics were terrible.
If you’ve read our blog before, you know that Facebook Marketplace is our jam. We aren’t just sellers there. Well, ok, now we are, but back in the day, we bought quite a few things there as well. When it came time to furnish an office, we turned to Facebook Marketplace to see what was out there.
We found this Mid-Century Modern walnut desk with a leather inlay in perfect condition. A couple was moving and were selling it for $50, sort of like those “free” pianos that you have to haul away yourself.
We struggled to load this massive desk into the back of the truck. We had to call friends to help us unload it and bring it into the house. Our friends called it the Resolute Desk, on account of it being almost ridiculously big and heavy. (Funny side story, in keeping with the Resolute Desk running joke, they gifted us a copy of the U.S. Constitution that stills hangs in the office. It took us a week to realize they had signed their names right below John Hancock.)
For 4 ½ years, Steph used The Desk every day. Even as we started this blog and began the long process of decluttering and offloading possessions, we joked that the Desk would stay in the house when we sold it, as a “gift” to the new homeowners.
We assumed we would leave it because we were thinking about The Desk as a very heavy, very big desk that we bought for 50 bucks. Then one day, Steph did a Google search for the desk. And found this: https://midcenturywarehouse.com/alma-castilian-mid-century-walnut-and-leather-executive-desk-2/#:~:text=Alma%20Castilian%20Mid%20Century%20Walnut%20and
Suddenly this was not a $50 desk, and it was definitely NOT being left in the house when we sold it. We knew that if we wanted to sell this desk before we moved, and get a decent amount of money for it, we needed to be patient. We knew the market for this desk at that price would be small.
We snapped a bunch of photos and listed it back on Facebook Marketplace. We priced it at about half of what we found it for online, and even dropped the price a few times.
And last week, we sold the desk! It was listed for about 3 months before it found its person, a venture capitalist from Kansas who is furnishing a new office. This guy was much smarter than we were; he hired movers to transport the desk from our house to his office.
While we are sad to see the desk go, it was only a matter of time. It is better off in its new home and we got one more thing off the list toward our nomading plan. Should we send the guy a copy of the Constitution?
Leave a Reply