I'm Sorry, It's HOW Much???

So, you read the headline and thin I'm going to talk about being taken advantage of, don't you? While I could, perhaps tell some stories like that, this isn't one of them. In fact, I'm going to talk about what I consider to be the most amazing bargain. El 3atal and I are spoiled. Really, I mean that. In the US, our walk-in closet in the bathroom was as big as a small bedroom. It was huge. We each had our own side and all of our clothes fit fairly easily. So, moving to Jordan, where built-ins or closets are somewhat unusual has been a challenge. In our apartment, the kids' rooms has built in closets, but ours did not. All bathrooms have pedestal sinks with no closet, cabinets, drawers. Nothing... So, what were we to do. Well, we went and looked at furniture, just to see what things would run us. We found some very typical Sauder (build it yourself pressboard with "paper" veneer) stuff in the stores. And, it cost about what you'd expect in the US plus the 30% mark-up. We looked at folks who come and "build in" closets as well. The cheapest of the cheap seemed to run about JD 1000 (just under $1800). Now, El 3atal's family has a carpenter. From what I hear, a good one. But, how much do I really know about that? So, we called him in to assess our needs and give us a price. And, finally today (after a really short 2 week wait), we have managed to secure the following: a wardrobe for our bedroom, a large cabinet for our bathroom, a smaller cabinet (but still large) for the kids' bathroom, and a custom built gate.

Let me wax on rhapsodic about the quality of the workmanship of our wardrobe. This thing is gorgeous. Truly, it is a beautiful work of art. We got our bedroom set at rock-bottom prices from a furniture manufacturer. In fact, our entire house was furnished in their store. The bedroom set is mahogany. It is lovely, but is, perhaps a bit hard to match. And, given how spoiled we were with lovely furniture at such low prices, I had a great deal of concern about what we would be getting for such a low price. But the workmanship is astonishingly good. And, while the color match is not exact (it's a bit hard to match the brightness and red hues in our bedroom set), it's close enough. In fact, the wardrobe looked so nice, I started to think, maybe we should get a whole set made. Teehee. Or perhaps we should simply be thankful for the blessing of such a lovely closet and move on. Yes, that's what we'll do. Regardless, to buy the same pieces at the same quality in the US would have cost us North of $5000. Easily. So, once again, I'm counting my blessings and saying prayers of thanksgiving. If I ever figure out how to get pictures from my digital camera to the computer, I'll post a pic of the wardrobe. But for now, you'll just have to envision it as best you can. After a day of playing with the kids, getting up and down to work with the carpenter as he built the cabinets, and putting clothes and supplies away. I'm exhausted and headed off to study Arabic.

Peace and Joy.