We purchased our house in Tucson in 2001. \u00a0It was a place with some deferred maintenance issues. \u00a0We bought the house in April. \u00a0In June, when we returned from our first European adventure to find that the remodel on our Bellevue house had been \u2026 we\u2019ll just say, somewhat delayed. \u00a0Between the kitchen remodel and our double-paned window replacement, things were so bad that we couldn\u2019t even unboard our dogs, Nikki and Tess back then. \u00a0(Named for Nicolai Tesla, by the way.)<\/p>\n
So since we had this new (old\u2014vintage 1954) house, we de-boarded our dogs, loaded our stuff (bedding included) into our 1994 Suburban (which we still own, by the way) and headed south. \u00a0As we neared Tucson, we called our favorite hotel, the Arizona Inn, and discovered that dogs weren\u2019t welcome. \u00a0(They still aren\u2019t.) And so, remembering that there was a mattress store in town, Bedmart. \u00a0(Closed now.) \u00a0We called them up, and asked if we bought a mattress that night, would they help us load it on to the top of the Suburban? \u00a0\u201cLady,\u201d the guy said, \u201cif you buy a mattress from me tonight, I\u2019ll deliver it myself.\u201d We did. He did.<\/p>\n
But before we went to the mattress store, we stopped by the house. \u00a0The dogs raced into the living room and rolled like crazy on the orange shag carpeting. \u00a0(Note to real estate purchasers: \u00a0Neither one of those things is a good sign.) \u00a0The carpeting in the other rooms was equally unacceptable. \u00a0So we went to the mattress store and bought a mattress and a bed to go with it. \u00a0On the way home, we stopped by a carpeting store and asked if they would come out the next day and measure our house for new carpets. \u00a0We told them, \u201cWhatever kind of in-stock Berber you have on hand.\u201d \u00a0Then we went to the house to meet the mattress guy. \u00a0The library was the only room that had parquet flooring instead of filthy carpeting, so we put the bed there.<\/p>\n
Then the rehab began. \u00a0Over the course of the next week, we fixed things. \u00a0The new Berber carpeting was installed. \u00a0We had the ducts cleaned. \u00a0(We broke one vacuum and had to have them bring over another. \u00a0The duct-cleaner guy told us he didn\u2019t think the ducts had ever been cleaned. (Since 1954!) \u00a0We had AC installed, two units to replace the piggy-back AC\/swamp cooler system that had been used before.<\/p>\n
By then, we had already been to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and done an amazing Sunday morning buy-everything shopping trip that involved THIRTEEN CARTS! \u00a0(By the way, at B,B, and B, you have to break orders like that into two transactions. \u00a0Don\u2019t ask me how I know.) \u00a0We called the mattress guy and bought three more bed and mattress sets. \u00a0He obligingly agreed to move our first mattress out of the library and into our newly carpeted master at no charge.<\/p>\n
And then what did we do? \u00a0Because I seem to thrive on pressure, we invited company (two couples) to come visit. \u00a0There was a problem, though. \u00a0Other than the four beds and an outdoor dining table with four chairs (Which we still have, by the way!) we had zero furniture. \u00a0And so, on Saturday morning, with our company due to arrive around five, I went shopping. \u00a0I went to a second hand furniture store, Terri\u2019s Consign and Design, on Wilmot at Broadway. \u00a0I went through the place like a dose of salts. \u00a0I had them put sold stickers on all kinds of things\u2014chairs, lamps, end tables, side tables, and a couple of flower arrangements. \u00a0Then I went to get Bill so he could pass judgement. \u00a0He added in a dining room table and six chairs. \u00a0We paid for the whole lot\u2014not much more than two-thousand bucks\u2014and it was all delivered by three that afternoon. And voila! \u00a0By the time our company arrived, that new (old) house was fully furnished.<\/p>\n
A couple of years passed. \u00a0We remodeled the house. \u00a0We went back to Terri\u2019s Consign and Design on occasion, looking for bargains. \u00a0At one point, we found a table\u2014a former corporate conference table\u2014that would work for our newly designed dining room space. \u00a0We bought it for $1200, found a collection of leather chairs, and brought it home. \u00a0The old dining room table, the $600 one, moved to the library. \u00a0It\u2019s still there. \u00a0When we\u2019re in Tucson, that\u2019s where we usually eat. \u00a0The dining room table is reserved for \u2026 well \u2026 company.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re snowbirds. \u00a0We are part-timers in Tucson. \u00a0The next time we went back to Tucson, Terri\u2019s Design and Consign was gone. \u00a0When we asked around town, we were told that they\u2019d gone through bankruptcy. \u00a0We were sorry about that, but with no further information, that\u2019s how things stood. \u00a0Until last week.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll confess. \u00a0I watch ID Discovery. \u00a0I watch Dateline. \u00a0I watch Forensic Files. \u00a0I watch 48 Hours. So last week, on ID Discovery, the intro said something about a consignment furniture store. \u00a0And so we watched. \u00a0It turned out that Terri\u2019s Design and Consign was a partnership between Terri and her mother, Loretta. \u00a0It was a booming business. \u00a0At some point Loretta hooked up with a boyfriend\u2014a great guy, to all appearances. \u00a0For the next several years, he \u201chandled” the finances. \u00a0When Loretta gave him checks to pay taxes or make mortgage payments, he washed them and made them payable to himself instead.<\/p>\n
Eventually Loretta caught up with him. \u00a0On the day she realized her house was about to go into foreclosure, she disappeared. \u00a0Initially the case was treated as a missing persons case. \u00a0Before there was any resolution, Terri\u2019s Consign and Design was swallowed up in bankruptcy proceedings. Years later, when the boyfriend\u2019s duplicity was discovered and he was about to be arrested, he committed suicide. \u00a0End of story, right? \u00a0Not quite.<\/p>\n
Years after that, Loretta\u2019s skeletal remains were found in the desert\u2014with a plastic bag still over her head. It wasn\u2019t a missing person\u2019s case. \u00a0It was a homicide the whole time.<\/p>\n
It was good to know the real story. \u00a0It was awful to know the end of the story. \u00a0Terri\u2019s business is gone. \u00a0Her mother is gone. \u00a0She\u2019s still grieving.<\/p>\n
We still have all that wonderful furniture, but I\u2019m sorry, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We purchased our house in Tucson in 2001. \u00a0It was a place with some deferred maintenance issues. \u00a0We bought the house in April. \u00a0In June, when we returned from our first European adventure to find that the remodel on our Bellevue house had been \u2026 we\u2019ll just say, somewhat delayed. \u00a0Between the kitchen remodel and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tucson"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-r3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}