furniture for nomads?

We were very close to picking up an antique piano last week. I grew up in a house with a piano, and I often think that it would be great for my children to have access to the same musical enjoyment. Unfortunately, we have very little space for a piano, even an upright piano. So, although the deal we were looking at was one of those deals that you usually kick yourself for passing up, we had to turn down the offer.

The truth is - even if we had the room for another large piece of furniture, I'm not so sure that I want it. Every time that we have been relocated, I am painfully made aware of how much furniture we own. Most of it is heavy and bulky. Although we don't really own any antiques, we have none-the-less done our best to find only solid hardwood furniture. I'd love to pick up some antique furniture, or something truly unique and beautiful like faux Eighteenth Century furniture with a hand rubbed finish, but I don't want the headaches associated with maintaining it.

First, there is the trouble of having it delivered. When we purchases our bedroom set, we had to have various pieces of the set delivered six times before we got a set without blemishes or damage. One of the delivery men even tried to substitute another brand for us. The same was true for a large leather couch / love seat / chair and ottoman set. It took three deliveries before we had a set that matched and wasn't damaged in some way. On the bright side, I got them to knock some cash off of our total cost due to the headache.

When it comes to furniture, I am really left in a quandary. Unless you know that you are there to stay or you are selling your home furnished, how can you purchase nice furniture without getting stressed out about it getting damaged every time that you move? And what are the alternatives? We looked at some of the more modern lightweight stuff, but most of it doesn't last one or two moves, much less three or more. Sure, there's plastic furniture, but I'm not into that whole sterile space-age look. Maybe distressed furniture is the way to go - that way, you're not worried about it getting marred or scratched.