Bravery, thy name is Dalcher.

My lovely wife is away to her Longaberger Basket Convention (heretoafter referred as The Bee) and I have been planning a surprise. Without realizing it, she actually planted the seeds for this surprise herself with an off the cuff remark about our bedroom one Saturday afternoon.

We were in the car driving to Wal-Mart and she mused about how nice it would be to get some lightweight material and string a few along as a canopy of sorts for our bed. This started my web browser humming and I came across a cheap, huge canopy on Ebay for MUCH less than I’d have to pay at a store. I snapped one up and had it sent to my parents house so I could install it while she was away.

Unfortunately, the train of thought did not stop there. About a week and a half ago, we were discussing how nice our 300 thread count sheets were (don’t laugh, they seriously kick ass) and I noticed BEDDING flash up on a commercial for Overstock.com. I got on there and they had a nice set of 600 thread count sheets in striped beige for only $50. This matches both the canopy I bought and the wallpaper that Tasha loves from our bedroom. They are normally like $129 most places, so I bought those too.

What? Not brave yet? You people need to be patient.

The next bit came to fruition completely on my own. We’ve been using these nice wooden TV trays that my parents loaned us to use when we moved into our old house. They are very low, and very small. Since we got our gigantic bed, I consistantly grope around looking for my Coke/phone/alarm whenever those items are desired. I hate these trays as ngihtstands so I vowed that when Tasha was gone for her convention, I would find some better ones.

No, friends. I am not a fool. I did some detectivework first. I have had the opportunity in recent weeks to casually steer conversation toward furniture choices. I found out that Tasha desired darkly stained wood like maple or mahogony, but not painted wood or metal. Aside from that, she seemed to like various styles so I figure that’s not that big of an issue.

Today I recruited my Dad to help me find furniture places that might have something like this. We struck out BIGTIME at our first few places… American was too expensive, none of the other places had two of a certain kind or any in stock, so as a last ditch effort we tried K’s Merchandise. They had two IDENTICAL two drawer maple nightstands, one marked down to $90 and the other one was $109. The guy tried to sell us some crap that they were different name brands, even though the tag said they were made by the same place. I could buy different distributors, but these things were THE SAME. I complained to his manager about them charging two prices for the same item, however while he was checking I found that the $90 one had a broken drawer runner.

He claimed that it was the only one from that distributor that they had left, but he had another of the one marked $109 in the warehouse. I protested still, saying that he couldn’t convince me that the one marked $109 was different than the broken runner $90 one. We settled on me getting 10% off the floor model of the $109 one, but I had to pay “new” price for the warehouse one. So I got both of these things for $225 out the door. They are quite nice. I am nervous at having bought them without Tasha’s official sign-off on them, but I think she’ll like them anyway.

Dad helped me deliver them back into my garage and I excused myself to head to Hobby Lobby to shop for some decor items to add to my project. Here, I was pleasantly surprised to find CLEARANCE marked ALL OVER THE STORE. I did the “Marge… I’m missing the chili cookoff” dance for a moment when I saw that the large chests that I’ve always wanted were marked 2/3 off. That’s coming home with me.

I made a beeline back to the metal wall art section of the store where I had done some pre-shopping with Tasha the weekend before. I found a few scrolly wrought-iron things for above the doors of my bedroom. I looked them over a few times before I realized that a sign hung a few pegs over that read simply: 1/2 off all metal wall art. Sweet Jesus, this is coming together too well.

I got two of the scrolly door threshold things and a large metal wrought iron thingie that looked like a vase with wrought iron ivy leaves sprawling out of it in all directions. This looked VERY much like one that Tasha had pointed out in a designer book that she liked. Its becoming our headboard, as it should fit nicely between the folds of our new canopy. Cost of wall art: $50.

On the way back up to the checkout, I saw in the middle of a display a floor piece that was this large silver vine looking lamp, but instead of electric lights it had lanterns to hold large pillar candles. I could see the price tag from here… $129. Damn, too hot for me… wait… I see a yellow sticker. Make that $43.33. It too will come home with me. This, I have no doubt, will light my wife ablaze if she hasn’t used The Force to tell I was looking at it already.

I can’t believe the whole shebang fit into my car. That third door is the best invention ever.

I got home and hauled the nightstands up the stairs. Between both of them and the bed, I have continuous furniture along the large wall of our bedroom. It looks very elegant, the only downside is I did not account for my closet door as much as I should have and I now have limited range in opening capacity. No worries, should be wort the hassle.

I put the metal lantern vine in the corner by my bathroom. It looks great. I put the chest under the windows for now, if Tasha doesn’t like it in the bedroom its going in my basement. On tap for tomorrow is swapping out the curtain rod and putting up the valence. I also want to wire the lightswitch to use X10 like the basement, so we don’t have to get up to turn off the bedroom light. That may wait until Monday, as I have some wall art to hang up.

I hope Tasha likes all this as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. If she hadn’t taken my camera to her convention, I would be posting progress pictures. My biggest fear is she’s going to hate it and I’ll have done all of this just to look like an ass. I’m about 80% sure she’s going to love it.

I wonder how long it will take to submit my application for Husband of the Year. Its either that, or the Darwins when my wife kills me for decorating without her.