A Deep Clean, A Search for the Perfect Chair, + A Power 🆙

I must be making progress on the flat with sorting out the moth infestation and repairs from the damage (like,who knew it could ever come to all that?) because today I was able to have in a professional cleaner help me tackle some of the work I had been DIY'g.

On Friday, the pest control professional came and did the dirty work that surpassed my efforts. First thing this morning the "big guns" showed up to muscle the rooms most effected by the damage, plus the bathrooms and the kitchen. I've lived in this Leeds flat for two years, and never has the kitchen shined like this!

Check out this refrigerator & freezer! Have you ever seen one so pristine? I'm particularly happy to see the freezer in such good shape. Part of the mitigation of the moth & larvae damage was to put affected items into the freezer. I thought I'd never want to eat food from this appliance again. But look — it's as good as new!!

After the three hour deep clean on those rooms, I knew the day had come to go get a proper desk chair. An added bonus would be that if I were to find one that's really great to buy in the UK & is available in the US as well, then I could also buy one for @bitterirony so he'll finally have a work chair at the loft apartment in New England. Poor thing has been sitting on a small ottoman in his work area for more than a year.

The idea that I could buy the same chair in two countries with no lead time and easy assembly (oh yeah, I dig assembling IKEA furniture!) inspired me — one design choice to solve the same problem on two continents. So I ordered an Uber and went to IKEA Leeds!

The first useful thing I found as a storage solution are these little hexagonal foot stools for my electronics (photo above). I didn't buy them because that would've been a distraction from the chair search. But don't you think they'd work well?

Of course, I had to walk a 5K distance before getting to the workspace showroom, but after trying a half-dozen chairs I found this orphan in a shoppers' traffic lane without any tag for price or information.

Unable to find a member of staff to assist, I used shopping AI to identify the chair and I prompted it to guide me as to the procedure to purchase it. It's an Easter Egg Hunt to purchase big items at IKEA.

But take a look at this bad boy (photo above)! First of all, it's in Hive fucking Red!!! The rolling base is shaped in a five point star and even the castors are crimson. It's light weight as the upholstery is mesh so it'll be cool in the summer and it features a hydraulic lift and swivel. I'm in love!! 😍 It'll be delivered to the flat on Wednesday.

On my way out of the store, I took a not-so-quick browse through the rug department. I am living in faith, I realize, what with the moth issue not exactly finished...but I went for it. I bought this handmade wool rug for the living room that has only had a way too small polyester rug that the cocktail table could barely ride as a magic carpet. My design plan is to place this large one on the floor, then add the small one on top for depth dimension, then place the oversized marble table back in its place of honour.

Back at the flat, I brought in the newly purchased hangers that I desperately need to be able to move back my clothing back into the bedroom wardrobes. That will need to wait until tomorrow. I'm all out of juice today. Ya know, I won't even mind sleeping on the sofa again tonight, because things are getting better!

Taking baby steps to do it, I'll add more to our overall community mega-stack of HP now. Here's my wee 9 HIVE for 9 February. ⚡️

Much love! 🥰
Alessandra