Flea and bedbug market

TLOML and I hit the fleamarket scene hard yesterday. There is a risk attached to this, given the New York bedbug epidemic. Our building is certified bedbug free, and there would be massive shame attached to being the new residents whose flea market rug, say, was the carrier for a bedbug infestation. We are considering asking other friends to provide evidence that their home is bedbug free before meeting them. No-one wants to be 'those bedbug people.'

That said, there's only so much IKEA our little rabbit hutch can take. And we still need stuff. Although we won't be in NY for long, we don't want to feel like we're camping. And for me the difference between camping and actually living somewhere is the presence of a nightstand.

So... meet our new fleamarket nightstands: 

$25 for a nightstand in the shape of a tiny chair... a bargain

TLOML splashed out $40 on his tin solider box. Worth every penny for the masculine touch it brings the bedroom.

While we were at the Chelsea Antiques Garage, dodging fleas, men with green beards, and hallucinatorily awful art, we also kept our eyes peeled for a room divider. Something that would cunningly hide our desks from our living room area, and make us feel like we did not live in a rabbit hutch. So we found this cool shuttered screen, which makes it at least feel like a charmingly bijou rabbit hutch:

Something tells me we will never get around to sanding and repainting... shabby chic, or summat.

And on the advice of a good friend, we cleaned every inch of these pieces with Lysol wipes. Apparently it kills the bedbug eggs. Though surely if it were that simple, New York would not be overrun?

The efficacy of our bedbug precautions is yet to be known. Rest assured, dear reader, if I wake up itching all over, you will be the first to know. After TLOML that is.

Speaking of TLOML, he is of the opinion that the possession that marks the line between camping and living is a wine fridge. So as I type he's u-hauling it to Brooklyn in search of a Craig's List bargain.

I think we're almost actually living here!