Perhaps it was crazy to buy a condo in San Francisco which I had seen only twice during a quick visit from London. It was a major downsize from a big house to a much smaller apartment some 6,000 miles away. The home purchase deal got done, including all paperwork, via email. How modern. So, buying a piece of furniture over the Internet and arranging its delivery should have been simple, by comparison.
My furniture is on a ship somewhere
The perfect gray sofa bed was ordered weeks in advance from a San Francisco supplier. Photos were exchanged by email, color samples and fabrics discussed. All I needed was something to sleep on while I waited six more weeks for my shipping container of household items from London to arrive in the Port of San Francisco. Somewhere to sleep and a toothbrush, seems reasonable enough.
The phone call
Alas, the phone rang at 3 am on the night of my departure. The perfect gray sofa bed did not fit into the San Francisco place. Not through the front door nor through the back door, not via the garage, nor through the window. So, the moral of the story is measure, measure, measure. Watch the tricky hallways and angles, too. And if you are not there to do it yourself, make sure that someone who knows what they are doing does it instead. They who deliver and leave your goods in the garage are not recommended!
Trusting others
My San Francisco supplier was all too happy to take my money for the sofa bed and its delivery without due diligence of obtaining the entry way measurements. And this is despite my having given them access to the keys via my realtor for just that purpose. Hello, floor.
No one can move a sofa bed alone
The solution? You likely guessed it. Removing the legs and base frame of a brand new sofabed to get it in through the garage. Luckily, we were able to screw it all back together once in situ. However, in between problem and solution were many trials and tribulations. There were international phone calls in the middle of the night, a 13-hour flight during which I knew I would likely have nothing but the floor to collapse onto upon arrival, tons of time invested in accusations and blaming, and finally, another check written to a nice handyman who removed the sofa legs and helped me with the heavy lifting.
Lessons learned
Penny wise, pound foolish. Don't bite off more than you can chew. And measure, measure, measure. Downsizing is a very tricky business; smaller places come with smaller doors. Measure, measure, measure...and make friends with people who have air mattresses.
