Flirting with map cabinets . . . storage space aka impossible dreams
One of the joys of writing is the stash of books and maps and odd sized bits of research material that are endlessly fascinating . . . and equally endlessly impossible to store.
Well, the books aren't so hard to store -- there are just so many of them. We have more sets of bookshelves than dogs and kids (now and forever) combined. And there are still homeless books wandering around this house.
But more than books, there are homeless maps. There are deed indentures. There are charts. There are newspapers. There is an ungodly assortment of oddly sized, mostly flat, bits of flotsam and jetsam that have meaning and need to be kept. They also seem to breed when we're not looking, but that's another story.
For more years than I can count, I've been looking for a map cabinet. I see them occasionally -- in libraries more than a hundred years old, in mansions I tour when on trips where walking off with the furniture is strongly discouraged, in the homes of acquaintances (one or two) who also might have noticed and disapproved if I'd departed with a 3'x4'x4' piece of oak furniture stashed in my tote bag. Not, of course, that I am given to stealing things -- just to coveting my neighbor's map cabinet.
And yesterday I found one. An eligible one.
I had taken a good friend to a town about 30 miles away so we could look at some thrift and antique shops during her weekend visit (we'd done the thrift and we were working on the antique bit) and she liked to look at the little stuff because occasionally she could find something she was looking for that was affordable. And I said, okay, but I'd prefer to look at furniture because it was big and untransportable and not affordable and thus perfect for what I had in mind, which was not buying anything and going home empty-handed but solvent.
But it's always nice, when the store people say, "Can I help you find something?" if you have something to reply other than "No, thank you."
So we went in the shop and I said, "Do you have any map cabinets?" which generally gets a universal, "No, sorry," if it doesn't get a bewildered look and a, "What? Never heard of 'em."
But yesterday a nice young man behind the counter said, "Yes." And another one took me back to see the most gorgeous map cabinet it has ever been my pleasure to meet. Oh dear.
I do sort of believe in love at first sight -- of the hormonal variety anyway -- and I fell for the map cabinet with almost as much enthusiasm as I fell for my husband the first time I saw him (helping some other girl move into her apartment at university). The map cabinet was less fickle. We flirted a bit.
It was, of course, too expensive. We negotiated. I talked to The Prof (which is apparently why God made cell phones), fully expecting a truckload of negatives from him. Astonishingly -- and primarily because old houses like ours have NO CLOSET OR CUPBOARD SPACE -- he was interested, too.
He was especially interested when I explained it could be used to store all those things he's forever sighing about when they fall off shelves and bop him on the head or get tucked into the corners of rooms and leap out when he passes by. He was particularly enthralled when I said we could stop renting the small locker we've had to rent to store paintings which could be stored where the odd-shaped objects are now being stored, and which wouldn't be as likely to bop him on the head or leap out of heavy oak drawers at him. (It wasn't the lack of bopping and leaping that appealed as much as the not paying rent.)
The handsome map cabinet almost began to seem like a bargain. Well, not quite, but worth the cost. And it isn't going to depreciate either.
We ruminated. We discussed. We went on at length with each other. And we agreed. Then I went back and bargained a bit more (badly) with the shop guy. I should have walked out and let him run after me. Next time (what next time?) I will.
Anyway, I now own a map cabinet to die for. It's coming home next week. I can hardly wait. I'm lining up maps and odd-shaped objects (the fairly flat ones and the ones in tubes) and briefing them on their new home. It will be great. I expect the map cabinet and I will have a lifelong relationship. In fact, I'm counting on it.
I just hope I get a royalty check with a comma.
Well, the books aren't so hard to store -- there are just so many of them. We have more sets of bookshelves than dogs and kids (now and forever) combined. And there are still homeless books wandering around this house.
But more than books, there are homeless maps. There are deed indentures. There are charts. There are newspapers. There is an ungodly assortment of oddly sized, mostly flat, bits of flotsam and jetsam that have meaning and need to be kept. They also seem to breed when we're not looking, but that's another story.
For more years than I can count, I've been looking for a map cabinet. I see them occasionally -- in libraries more than a hundred years old, in mansions I tour when on trips where walking off with the furniture is strongly discouraged, in the homes of acquaintances (one or two) who also might have noticed and disapproved if I'd departed with a 3'x4'x4' piece of oak furniture stashed in my tote bag. Not, of course, that I am given to stealing things -- just to coveting my neighbor's map cabinet.
And yesterday I found one. An eligible one.
I had taken a good friend to a town about 30 miles away so we could look at some thrift and antique shops during her weekend visit (we'd done the thrift and we were working on the antique bit) and she liked to look at the little stuff because occasionally she could find something she was looking for that was affordable. And I said, okay, but I'd prefer to look at furniture because it was big and untransportable and not affordable and thus perfect for what I had in mind, which was not buying anything and going home empty-handed but solvent.
But it's always nice, when the store people say, "Can I help you find something?" if you have something to reply other than "No, thank you."
So we went in the shop and I said, "Do you have any map cabinets?" which generally gets a universal, "No, sorry," if it doesn't get a bewildered look and a, "What? Never heard of 'em."
But yesterday a nice young man behind the counter said, "Yes." And another one took me back to see the most gorgeous map cabinet it has ever been my pleasure to meet. Oh dear.
I do sort of believe in love at first sight -- of the hormonal variety anyway -- and I fell for the map cabinet with almost as much enthusiasm as I fell for my husband the first time I saw him (helping some other girl move into her apartment at university). The map cabinet was less fickle. We flirted a bit.
It was, of course, too expensive. We negotiated. I talked to The Prof (which is apparently why God made cell phones), fully expecting a truckload of negatives from him. Astonishingly -- and primarily because old houses like ours have NO CLOSET OR CUPBOARD SPACE -- he was interested, too.
He was especially interested when I explained it could be used to store all those things he's forever sighing about when they fall off shelves and bop him on the head or get tucked into the corners of rooms and leap out when he passes by. He was particularly enthralled when I said we could stop renting the small locker we've had to rent to store paintings which could be stored where the odd-shaped objects are now being stored, and which wouldn't be as likely to bop him on the head or leap out of heavy oak drawers at him. (It wasn't the lack of bopping and leaping that appealed as much as the not paying rent.)
The handsome map cabinet almost began to seem like a bargain. Well, not quite, but worth the cost. And it isn't going to depreciate either.
We ruminated. We discussed. We went on at length with each other. And we agreed. Then I went back and bargained a bit more (badly) with the shop guy. I should have walked out and let him run after me. Next time (what next time?) I will.
Anyway, I now own a map cabinet to die for. It's coming home next week. I can hardly wait. I'm lining up maps and odd-shaped objects (the fairly flat ones and the ones in tubes) and briefing them on their new home. It will be great. I expect the map cabinet and I will have a lifelong relationship. In fact, I'm counting on it.
I just hope I get a royalty check with a comma.
posted by Anne McAllister at 1:45 PM
2 Comments:
It is a map cabinet to die for! Lucky you finding it.
It is certainly covetable.
Enjoy.
The map cabinet is beautiful! What a great find! Hopefully it will serve you well. I know the feeling when you find/buy something you coveted for so long.
Congrats!
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