Many furniture manufactures still have these delayed delivery schedules due to COVID. (Photo: Shutterstock).
By Mary Lynn Bruny
Many of us thought when the pandemic (mostly) ended that things would just snap back to normal. (Kind of like we thought we would be able to fit into all our clothes. Ha!) Unfortunately, this is not exactly the case. For example: buying home goods. Due to lack of materials and limited production, currently we have to wait for some products. Even though this is a temporary situation, it is rather shocking to us spoiled consumers who expect everything pronto.
For instance, toward the end of the pandemic our washing machine door rubber gasket ripped causing a leak when we ran a load. Rather surprising to me, a replacement gasket was not available. I stuck a big old towel under the machine each time we used it to stop the water from running all over the floor. For some reason my husband often forgot this critical step. Thus I did the laundry so he wouldn’t flood the place. Pretty sure I was outsmarted here.
After four long months, the appliance repair business called to say they had finally received the part. I felt like I had won the lottery. Champagne seemed in order.
I feel nothing but pity for folks whose appliances choose now to die. Many new appliances are backordered. To speed things along, I would advise prayers to the saint of new appliances, Saint Kenmore. This may do nothing, but at least you will feel like you are doing something positive. I’m giving our 20-year-old kitchen appliances a little pep talk now and again to encourage them to just keep trucking along. I’m helping them do so by not using them too much, especially the stove.
My friend Samantha moved during the pandemic and decided not to take her old living room furniture which, to say it kindly, had lived a full life. Instead she bought new pieces, assuming she could get them delivered within a month or so. It has been so many months without furniture that I’ve lost track. Perhaps she did not pray enough to Saint Pottery of the Barnage.
Many furniture manufactures still have these delayed delivery schedules. So keep your old ratty furniture, folks, until your new stuff arrives.
God help homeowners who now want anything made with wood, such as kitchen cabinets. Due to the current lumber shortage, lead times here are also longer. I’m sure smart manufacturers are currently dreaming up even more types of interesting composite materials to use instead of wood.
After recently restaining our splitting wood deck (which involved more swearing on my part than at a biker convention at a roadhouse serving two-for-one shots), I’m ready for everything to be made out of low-maintenance composite materials. (I would like to be made out of low-maintenance composite materials: No cracking! No sagging!)
My neighbor Andrea was earnestly opining about how composite materials just don’t have the richness of natural ones. “Richness” is not the word I think of when I get a huge splinter in my foot if I dare walk shoeless on our deck. (My swear jar runneth over.)
I suppose the good side of these temporary shortages is they do make us thankful for what we already have in our homes. My husband and I now have a newly finished deck that is great for outdoor dining with family and friends (with footwear on, of course). At least there is no shortage of fun to be had. A fun shortage would be way, way worse than a leaky washing machine.
By Mary Lynn Bruny. Mary Lynn writes about local real estate and home-related topics. Contact her at [email protected]. To read previous The Lighter Side articles, go to athomecolorado.com/the-lighter-side.
