First Dinner Party

We hosted our first dinner party at the new house Friday night. It was a lot of fun. We had a great time. I think it was a success. And judging by the empty pitcher of Mexican Martinis and the recycle bin full of beer bottles, I think our guests had a great time also. We had Roger's family over for dinner. It was an assortment of special occasions. We celebrated Roger and his sister Mirna's birthdays. Roger's was February 13th and Mirna's is March 3rd. It was a mini-reunion as Roger's god mother Martha from Puerto Rico who has lived in Oregon for at least thirty years now was visiting. And our family friend Larry who hadn't seen Martha from when everyone lived in Puerto Rico also came. It was also the first time for Roger's mom Laura, sister Cindy, brother-in-law Joey, nieces Ariana and Cyrene and our dear friend Denise, who is like a sister, to see our new house. So there were many things to celebrate. Roger's dad made his famous tacos which were delicious. I wish I would have eaten at least three more. They are so good. As you can see by the pictures, we had a lot of fun and laughter. And it was great practice for having dinners and parties at our new house.

We did have a dining table dilemma which of course did not affect our fun. But it was a little disappointing for Roger and me. We ordered a custom dining table last Thanksgiving. We were told by the designer and their brochures that with a second leaf added it would seat ten people. We were so excited to be able to seat ten. At our last house, and even our apartment in DC, we could only seat four properly. Of course we would pull out every chair we owned to fit more, but it's not the same as being able to seat ten properly. I was really excited about the new table. It was supposed to take 30 to 60 days to be made and delivered. Sixty days past and I called the store and everything was in except one side chair. At first I was like, well it can wait until the one last chair comes in since I figured it would be maybe another week. I called back a week later and it still was not in the warehouse. The dinner party was a week away and I asked them if they could deliver what they had and they did. We would only have nine chairs, but there were only nine adults coming to the dinner so it would be fine. The little girls would not sit around the table long anyway. And I thought maybe the last chair will come in before the dinner and if it didn't it would be fine. Then we found out another person was added to make it ten adults even. We knew it would all work out. We've pulled chairs from other rooms before. No problem. So Friday afternoon I was getting ready for the dinner and I separated the table to add the second leaf. I went to the second bedroom to get the spare chair and put it under the table and it wouldn't fit. There was no way that chair was going in under the table. Talk about not happy.

I went from disbelief to unhappiness to disappointment. And for me, it's worse for me to be disappointed with you than mad at you. I felt betrayed and lied to by the designer. I felt like maybe she told us that just to sell us the extra leaf and two extra side chairs. Then I was very disappointed with the store. But I always had the knowledge in my mind the store would take care of this. Their service in our past experiences with them have always exceeded our expectations. So I knew I had to talk with them, but of course decided I would wait until the next day to do so. No reason to take it out on them especially since the designer we worked with was no longer employed at the store. Roger and I went yesterday and spoke with the store manager. She was well aware of our delayed pieces. We also ordered a chair and ottoman for Roger and the designer told us 30-60 days but leather pieces take 90 days. So either we were misinformed which would have been easy to do since our order was so large or through the whole process we got it confused and lumped it all together time wise. We explained the new dilemma. And of course she was very apologetic and sincere. We talked about our options, returning the two extra chairs and only seating eight or maybe getting a third leaf which she offered to pay for so we could still seat ten. We had already spread the table out at the house to see if a third leaf would fit and it would. She attempted to call her district manager to see if she had any advice since they had never put a third leaf in their tables and none of us were sure it would be structurally sound. They don't even offer a third leaf in these tables because for that length you would normally add another set of legs for support. But her manager was in interviews and she spoke with someone else there who had the idea of us trying the leaf from the floor model in our table to see if it would work.

So we took it home and tried it. It almost fit. All the pegs lined up all around and it slid in fine all around except one corner. There was a piece of the leaf that hit a piece of the table which prevented us from sliding it in. Since they make the whole table and any leaves at the same time, your leaf might not fit into another table. So we went back and explained all this. The whole store of designers got in on the problem while we were gone. They found the brochures that say with a second leaf it seats ten so we're sure that's where the designer got that from but they all agreed there's no way ten chairs could fit in there. And none of the other designers had ever sold it as that. Of course, our designer wasn't there any more. Although we could order another leaf, there might be a chance it doesn't fit. And there's no way the finish is going to match our table exactly because they make each table complete with leaves individually by hand. No table will ever match another table. So the store manager is going to call her manager to explain the whole situation and see what solutions they can come up with for us. She also mentioned speaking with their corporate office about the misleading brochures. I know they will take care of us. It is disappointing but there are a lot worse things in life. This is really nothing and it will get taken care of. I would still recommend this store in a heart beat. And I know I will order furniture from them again. I've got their catalog open right now to see if they have an end table like I want. So as the young folks used to say, it's all good.