Now that this thread has been resurrected, I should probably offer an update on my chair situation.
The chair I mentioned in my
previous post bit the dust back in 2008, and I had to buy a new one, because it was killing my back and cutting off the circulation to my legs. It was beyond repair and too bent up to straighten out.
I ended up buying a high back Sealy Posturepedic chair, like this one, for about $200:
The differences between mine and the one pictured there, is that on mine, the fabric is brown. Yes, fabric, because I still can't stand sitting on leather, vinyl, or plastic.
At the time that I purchased the chair, my back was killing me so bad I could barely walk.
I did show mouser the chair I was considering buying, but at the time he thought it was way overpriced and that I could get a "decent" chair for much less. While I did understand his concern at the time, because I was going through some financial difficulties, I am glad I didn't listen to him and bought the chair, any way.
My thoughts on it, which justified the price, is that one spends 6-8 hours per night sleeping in their bed, and would not think twice about spending $600+ on their mattress & box spring, for the purposes of comfort and avoiding a bad backache, so why not spend some extra on a chair that I spend far more time in, than my bed?
If I could have afforded a $600+ chair at the time, I would have bought one, but my budget at that time was around $200*, max. And that was the best $200, fabric covered, high back chair with arm rests that I could find, that was made by a company with a reputation for producing mattresses that offered good back support.
When the chair arrived, my back was in such bad shape that I could barely stand up. My husband brought the box upstairs, and I assembled the chair while sitting down, on my old chair. Then it was a matter of just pushing the old chair our of the way and sitting my butt in the new one. Within 24 hours, I noticed a real difference, and instead of my back getting worse, it actually started to heal, and within a few days I was good as new.
And the chair has served me well enough over the past 8 years, that I'd even consider tossing away all 4 of my
oak kitchen chairs (that have seen better days), and replace them all with something similar to this desk chair, if I could get ones in leather, without arm rests. As much as I hate leather to sit on, it's much more practical for use in a kitchen, where chairs would need to be able to be easily wiped clean and not absorb spills directly into the cushions. And the adjustable height would make them perfect for my kitchen table, which is unusually high, too high for standard height kitchen chairs. And that also would mean that when using my laptop, I could have the same comfort as sitting at my desk, without having to drag my desk chair into my kitchen. And having wheels, nobody would ever have to hear that horrific sound of a wooden kitchen chair sliding across a textured floor, ever again.
But that dream will have to wait, since I have better things to do with my money, at the moment, than spending $800+ on new kitchen chairs. And before anyone gets the wrong idea, no, I am not requesting or accepting donations to help cover the costs, because the wooden chairs I have are still quite usable and replacing them can wait as long as I need. A trip to Home Depot to buy the appropriate drill bits & screws, to finish reinforcing the chairs, along with a good set of the right type of steel glides, would cost far less and make those wooden chairs last a another 20 years, at least.
*Thank you again, to everyone that has used my software and donated to support further development, during 2006-2008. I wouldn't have been able to afford the new desk chair without your help.