A Furniture Puzzle

Shopping for furniture in Zambia is a lot different than shopping for furniture in the States.  First of all, we buy our furniture off the side of the street in a carpentry district known as Kalingalinga.  There are several small shops that specialize in furniture.  Today, Kerri went to pick up our new bunk bed.  She had a few of the guys at the shop load the bed on top and inside of the car.  Yet another difference.  No delivery service here.

Now, in the States, the furniture stores usually sell stuff that fits in your home, or can at least be assembled once you get it in the house.  And most homes have more than one way of getting furniture into a specific room in the house.  Well, we were out of luck on both fronts.  The bed (which was very well made, by the way) was a quarter of an inch too long.  You might not think that is a big deal, but it is.  You see our house has one hallway that leads to all of the bedrooms.  All of the bed rooms have bars on the windows.  So, there is one way in and one way out.  We had planned on putting the bed in Maddie's room and moving Gracyn in there with her.  But, because of that quarter of an inch, there was no way we could get the bed in the room.  We spent over 2 hours flipping it over, turning it this way and that, and trying to determine if there was any way to take the bed apart, until we finally gave up.

So, the new bed that was going to go in Maddie's room, got put in Caleb's room.  We then decided to take his bed, which was small enough to fit through the hallway, into Maddie's room. We'll just paint it white and make it into a girly bed!   The kids didn't mind too much, but after all was said and done, the adults were worn out!