Castro Convertible most known for their fold-up sofas

I live on the second floor of a two-story duplex, in a small apartment with one bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen that has a counter separating it from the combination living room/dining room.

When I purchased this duplex, I had the apartment renovated to suit my own living style because I live alone and only entertain a few close friends at home.

After the renovation, when the time came to purchase furniture, I needed to find items that would fit into the small living room area, which would also be the dining room.

Unfortunately, I lived on a small resort island in Florida that had absolutely no furniture stores. Soon after, I was visiting New York City and while there I began hunting for furniture at its many stores.

I was fortunate to find the perfect piece of furniture on my first day there at a store, Castro Convertible, most known for their fold-up sofas! Read more »

Outside on our deck we have a long wooden table

Outside on our deck we have a long wooden table that we bought from Ikea a few years ago.

When you pull out the extensions it can seat 10 people comfortably. Unfortunately we only have four matching chairs with thin blue cushions so we are always scrambling to get extra chairs around the table when we have people over in the summer.

We were told to “oil” the table the first year to keep it in shape but we never did. Consequently, it’s started to warp and crack.

The biggest problem is the table has a hole in the center to put the umbrella through but sometimes you don’t want the umbrella and if you put a table cloth over the table and forget about the hole in the middle, stuff usually falls through. Read more »