Of course, hindsight is always 20/20.
But that still doesn’t justify the foolish decision I made last year when buying my wife a birthday present.
Mary had hinted that she would like a new Adirondack chair, since our old ones were well beyond their useful life.
So I searched on Amazon, and found what seemed to be the perfect chair. Now since it was for her birthday, it just didn’t seem right to order two of them. I didn’t want it to seem like I was also benefiting from her special day.
So I ordered one (cost = $96), and it turned out to be exactly what she wanted. So far, so good.
Since we still had our old chairs, we could sit outside together. Having unmatched chairs wasn’t a pretty picture, but it was functional. But it wasn’t long before those old ones had to be retired. Now we were left with one Adirondack chair in our front yard. On our walks through the neighborhood, it soon became pretty obvious that we were the only house that had just one chair in the front yard, everyone else had a matching pair.
We got by for a while by bringing out our beach chairs when we wanted to sit outside together, or one of us would simply sit on the front door stoop.
Finally, about a month ago, I couldn’t take it any longer, and I decided to buy a second one. The problem was that in just one year, the price of the identical chair had nearly doubled, to $190. All of a sudden, it didn’t seem that important to have a matching chair.
So in hindsight, yes, I should have originally bought two of them together.
I wish I could blame the problem on COVID and how it disrupted the global supply chain, but in reality, it reflects my short-sighted, and cheap, approach to decision making.
So maybe someday we’ll get that second chair. But I’m sure even if we do, it won’t stop the neighbors from talking about us…
Boy, if that’s the worst that your neighbors can think of to criticize you, for having unmatched Adirondack chairs … then things can’t be too bad. Hey, if everybody else has matching chairs, then you are simply demonstrating your individuality, so I would stick with ’em. 🙂
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I like the way you think, Pearl!
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Here is an elegant solution. You buy the new chair for your wife. Certainly she deserves a birthday present with that kind of price tag. You can claim the original chair was just a test run to insure she liked her gift. She gets the new, slightly more expensive chair because she is worth it, and you get the hand-me-down chair. Now both chairs match!
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what a great idea! Dan Ariely would be impressed!
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i love pete’s solution, a win-win. or, could you sit on a bucket and have a lemonade stand as an adirondack chair fundraiser. my grandson is doing this to raise money for a shed/fort and i think you could do well.)
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another great idea; if I charge $5 a cup, I’ll have my second chair in no time!
Good luck to your grandson – I like his initiative!
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Good luck to both of you!
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Sound *exactly* like something I’d do.
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I wonder if it’s a husband thing…
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A “special” type of husband, I’d say.
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🤓
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Let the neighbours talk. As a matter of fact give them something to talk about. Pick a totally different new chair in a wild colour, in your price range of course, and plop it out there next to the Adirondack. Who made the rules that the two front lawn chairs have to be the same. Some rules are made to be broken. The only important rule is that the chair be very comfortable.
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I had thought of getting a different color if we get a second one; good to know I’m not alone…
And the chair is very comfortable (and it comes with a cup holder!)
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Comfort is top priority.
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agreed!
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I applaud you for getting your wife a great gift. So pat yourself on the back for that and don’t worry what the neighbors think! You could always wait for Black Friday special. Really give your neighbors something to talk about as you sit in a new chair in November in the snow! 😊
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But if wait until Black Friday, I’ll miss the whole summer of sitting outside 🙂
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Just get a car seat from the junkyard for the summer, like Jason suggested. 🙂
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I’m with bitchy on this one. When’s your birthday/. Just get yourself a chair that you like.
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it seems people are reaching a consensus here… 🙂
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I asked my neighbors and they said to go to the junkyard and find an old car seat and put that in your front yard next to an old washing machine. I gotta get out of this neighborhood.
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😂
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Perfect! 🤣🤣🤣
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👍
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that would make for some good photo opportunities…
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I think you should get two more chairs (making three) and ask your neighbors why they only have two.
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I like the one-upmanship 🙂
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Up the ante, Jim! If your neighbors comment, tell them you’ve noticed that they seem to have one less vehicle than the “neighborhood standards.” We can’t have them dragging down property values by their callousness and attention to detail. 🤣
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I don’t think I would have any credibility when it comes to cars either, given that both our cars are 2006 models… 🙂
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Haven’t you heard? Vehicles from 2006 on meet neighborhood standards.😎
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phew! just made the cut… 🙂
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If you do not buy the second $190 chair, you will someday regret that, just like you regret not buying the second $96 chair.
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just another one in a long line of regrets 🙂
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Be careful or one day you will regret time spent regretting so many things!
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You’ll be sorry you said that 🙂 (Sorry to butt in).
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🤓
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Excellent observation!
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👍
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🤓
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Not a short-sighted, or cheap, approach to decision making; but good, logical sense. More a comment on the supplier, I would have thought – have their costs REALLY gone up by that much? As for neighbours, I’m not greatly bothered by what they think. If all else fails, buy a couple of cheap (and portable) camping chairs – great for picnics, by the way – and host a ‘bring your own chair and booze party’.
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I did check today, and the prices have come down a bit, now the price is only about 30-40% more than it was a year ago.
And I like the way you Brits think!
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🙂
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Ha! Let them talk!! The price of lumber is crazy!! Thank God we redid our deck the year before pandemic! If you really care for the matching chair then I say go for it! Otherwise, could you buy the same chair but in birch or something and paint it yourself? 🙂
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ye, we were going to have a deck built this summer, but we are going to wait and hopefully lumber prices will come down a bit…
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That’s a ridiculous increase. Raise Your Garden recently had a giveaway, maybe it’s still on?
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I have not herd of Raise Your Garden, but I will look into it. thanks…
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Comfort is everything, Jim, I would just buy the chair.
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That seems to be the majority opinion!
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Ha ha. I salute you for opening up about what must be one of your biggest regrets. Cheers!
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I’ve got bigger ones that I don’t think I’ll be opening up about 🙂
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I can sense another post coming on….
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hmmmm…. maybe some additional minor regrets could be in order… 🙂
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The best moments in life always come in pairs.
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what a great phrase, Richard!
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😃
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That taught you, lol. 🙂
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lesson learned… 🙂
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🙂
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Lol… I live alone, rarely sit outside, and bought 2 adirondack chairs! But mine were $17/ea plastic ones from HomeDepot. 10+ yrs are they’re still holding up so well that I can’t bring myself to get new, prettier ones (mine are “putty”, I want green, red, blue… anything!).
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you had to rub it in how bad my decision was 🙂
sounds like you made a great purchase!
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Yes and no… durable but bad for the enviro. And of they weren’t so durable then I’d have cuter ones now.
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but at least you weren’t recycling them every year…
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But genuine, wood, ones are 1,000% cooler.
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and heavier…
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Nice but plastic is more longlisting
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