Over the spring, our family made the decision to switch to a different rental company to handle all of our reservations and house upkeep. The new rental company had some good suggestions to increase our rental volume and since Matt and I were there just before peak season, we did all the heavy lifting on making those changes!
The two main changes we focused on were 1) ditching the tv armoir in the living room and 2) adding bunkbeds to one of the jack-and-jill bedrooms upstairs. We did a little pre-work before traveling and had already ordered two sets of bunkbeds that were set to arrive the same day we did. But as we rolled into town early that morning, we still had to shop for four new twin-sized mattresses, bedding for the new beds, a new tv to hang on the wall in the living room, and a piece of furniture to set underneath it. Doesn't sound like much, but when you have only one day to do it all, one car to do it in, and two small, restless helpers in tow, it turns into quite a heavy day's work.
I'll spare you ALL of the details (it was a LONG day and the kids did really well considering) but we did have to rent a truck from Home Depot at one point. And here's a couple things we learned - none of the mattress stores we visited (about four maybe?) had four twin size mattresses in stock that we could walk out with that day. We had to buy two sets of two from different places, or else we'd have to order them to be delivered in a week. And, you can't legally sell a used mattress anywhere in Florida. We had a queen set with less than a year's worth of sleeping on it but we couldn't do anything with it! We could have sold it ourselves through Craigslist, but time was not on our side for that. In the end, we had to pay one of the mattress places to let us drop it off at their dumpster to be hauled off. Isn't that crazy?
Also on the list of activities for the day was to find a consignment store to sell the queen bed, dresser, and tv armoir that we no longer needed (and a few other odds and ends). We learned that there is no longer a market for tv armoirs so once again, we were stuck with a piece of furniture we couldn't do anything with! The consignment store let us dump it in their warehouse to be donated to charity.
I had to send pictures of the bed and dresser before the consignment store would agree to sell them.
Here is an old picture from move-in weekend of the tv armoir we had in the living room. Ironically, we originally purchased it from the consignment store that wouldn't take it back.
Here is how the living room looks now without the tv armoir, a slightly bigger tv on the wall, and a new piece of furniture from Kirkland's underneath it. It's amazing how much bigger the room feels without the armoir sticking out from the wall.
I gotta give ourselves a hand and say we did a dang good job of knocking out everything on our to-do list that day. Our goal was to have all the "house work" done before our guests arrived so we could actually enjoy the week's vacation. Everything went according to plan until late that night when we finally started putting together the two sets of bunkbeds only to find we were one box short.
We were only able to put together one set of beds that night which frustrated me and Matt but the kids were thrilled to get to sleep on them. (Pictured here with a comforter from Walmart I took back the next day.)
While we love the beds we ordered from Wayfair, their customer service over our lost box was pretty horrible. I tried to leave a negative review on their site about it but it wouldn't ever post. Weird. It was the shipping company that eventually found our box and delivered it to us mid-week. By the end of the week, we had both beds set up and the new bunk room ready for renters.
I purchased the quilts from two different Bed, Bath, and Beyond stores (again - why can't you get four??) and I love the way the stripes look on the white beds with the grey walls. The other side has anchors which is a good touch for the beach house. My mom made the throw pillows with some sailboat Premier Fabric.
Hopefully the next time we visit the house all our new furniture will still be in good condition and we'll get to enjoy it without having to shop for it or put it together! I hope that visit comes sooner rather than later!