It's only a piece of furniture

Call me sad, but I am already lamenting the imminent sale of one of my most treasured items. This is it:


I bought this bed years ago - when I had just moved to the metropolis of Henty, NSW (pop 1000) to start my first job. I turned up there and the local real estate agent had ONE house on his books for rent. Err, where do I sign? Being fresh out of uni I had nothing remotely resembling furniture, so I began buying a few bits and pieces, one of which was this bed.
I got it at the local secondhand dealer's store. He'd initially shaken his head when I'd asked if he had any beds. Then he told me to come with him and we went out to a shed behind the shop and that's where I first saw it. As with the rent situation, with a choice of just one I took the bed. I think it cost me $80.
Back then it was, if I remember correctly, pink. Desperate as I may have been, pink just wouldn't do, so I began sandpapering the bed myself on weekends and after work. This was a loooong and pretty soon unsatisfying experience. So I asked around and found a guy who would do it all for me.
It turned out that under the pink paint was more paint ... and more paint. But when I found it the bed dated back to the early 1900s, that was hardly surprising. And the verdict, once it was all stripped back, was that I had me an antique oak bed. A real beauty.




The metal base may be a tad rusty and squeaky, but I adored that bed from the minute it was restored. I like the idea that it's so well made (it's solid) and that many people before me have slept on it, perhaps even babies born on it. It's possible. I used the bed for a couple of years, until I moved overseas. Then it was stored at my parents' house before I used it much later in the first flat I lived in on my own.
When Shaun and I moved in together it was into a teeny house with a spare room not big enough to fit the bed. And so it was relegated to down by the side of the house, tucked away under a tarp. In our current house we've not had the opportunity to use it either. And so ...
I am selling my beloved bed on eBay. For $20 (after all, it does need some fixing - it's a bit wobbly). There are so many things to love about this bed: it was a bargain; it has huge sentimental value as the first piece of furniture I bought as a grown-up; it has a beautiful tulip motif; and of course there are all the memories that rest on it.
However, it's no good to anyone sitting sadly in the shed. It's time for it to move on, hopefully to an appreciative owner. I see that several people are watching the bed on eBay and I suppose that is a good thing, but it will be hard to say goodbye.