couch
davenport if you are my dad.
(let's say 10 because I have no earthly idea)
This bad boy was going to last FOREVER
and then we were going to give it to one of the girls when they got their first apartment.
But here we are
(let's say 10 years later)
and it looks like this:
 |
| Can't you just hear it sighing?
The back cushions are supposed to be zippered into the back.
My husband, Monte, has a habit of sitting only on the far left cushion
(see how more flattened it is?)
and then spreading his left arm out and under the middle cushion pulling it forward and out of its zippered position.
Drives.
Me.
Crazy.
This is what we are left with after years of the habit:
There is lots of punching and fluffing and rearranging that needs to happen before taking a seat.
I find people go out of there way to NOT sit on the couch when they are here.
Now this is starting to happen ALL over the place:
I made an appointment with an upholsterer 2 years ago to give me a quote on refilling the cushions.
|
But someone in my house threw up the morning
of the appointment and I had to cancel.
Life happens.
Our wedding anniversary is December 16.
Since it is so close to Christmas we decided early on to stick with the recommended anniversary gifts as deemed by
you know, I am not sure who deemed
paper for the 1st anniversary
and silver for the 25th.
It has been a lot of fun following these gift guidelines and a great outlet for being creative.
We celebrated our 17th this year.
The recommended gift was
wait for it
furniture!
Can you believe it?
It is almost ALWAYS
jewelry,
copper,
iron
or watches
not something actually useful
and completely relevant
to our current needs.
When I informed Monte of our gift recommendation,
he said, "It's time."
I knew what he meant.
We started doing research on refluffing the down feathers in the cushions.
No easy task which involves
a bucket of water,
a big stir stick
and the possible threat of mildew
if the feathers don't get properly dried.
So. Not. Trying. That.
Then there is the method of removing the cushions from the leather and then placing them in the dryer with tennis balls to hopefully beat the fluff right back into them.
But let me remind of you this:
I don't want my dryer/laundry room/ENTIRE HOUSE
to look like a goose massacre.
And it would.
We know this about ourselves.
Things happen to us.
So, we started researching having the down replaced.
Y-I-K-E-S!!
The cost
of course these were online estimates
not face-to-face after seeing our particular need estimates
was going to be more than buying a new (non leather) couch.
So. Not. Doing. That.
ALL THIS TO SAY,
we went sofa shopping Saturday.
(could be my new record on how long it took me to get to the actual point)
We went by ourselves so as not to be swayed by any teenage or tweenage girl opinion.
(They love the slouchy leather couch and see no need to replace it.
They are SO getting it when they get their first apartment.)
Monte said he was ONLY coming along for the negotiation part (you know, delivery fees, cleaning sprays, etc.)
He even said,
OUT LOUD,
that it was ALL UP TO ME on what we got in a sofa.
We went to 5 or 6 different furniture stores.
We didn't know
what we wanted
or how we wanted it to look
or in what color.
We were a salesperson's nightmare.
And that was before we sprawled out horizontal on each and every couch and asked if it would show drool marks.
Hey, life happens.
We did quickly narrow down what we wanted.
Let me rephrase that, MONTE quickly narrowed down what HE wanted.
For someone who said it was ALL UP TO ME, Monte sure took the reigns back quickly.
RIGHT AWAY he declared that anything less than a 3-cushioned couch would be a travesty.
Travesty.
If the cushions weren't SEWN into the back of the couch
Keep walking.
Don't even sit down!
(Remember, his bad habit? He didn't want to be responsible for ruining another couch.
Heaven forbid he just NOT do it anymore.)
Where was I? Got a little lost getting mad at Monte…
He, okay, WE, also had issues with the depth of the sofa.
Too narrow and Monte feared he couldn't get a proper nap roll over in.
Too deep and my feet wouldn't touch.
Seriously, I am 5'6" and there were MANY couches where my feet
did
not
touch
the floor!
Honestly!
Who are these manufacturers making couches for?
There was one couch that met all Monte's criteria:
•3 cushions
•Back cushions sewn in
•Ample nap roll over depth
•Karmen's feet could reach the ground
•Decent price
As Monte was working his negotiating skills on delivery fees and asking for actual dimensions to see if it would fit through the front door,
Monte found out that there was a WEIGHT LIMIT for one side of the couch.
As in,
No more than 250 pounds should ever be on one side of this couch.
WHAT?!
I don't know about you, but we have BIG family
and BIG friends.
How do you tell them to NOT sit on one side of your couch lest they snap the thing in two like Goldilocks did to Baby Bear's chair?!
So we didn't buy anything.
Took all day for us to decide that we haven't found the "just right" one yet.
(Might as well keep on with the Goldilocks thing.)
Oh, the joys of furniture shopping! It's actually much more fun when you're not really planning on actually buying something! We have been very pleased with a sofa that we got at Big Lots of all places. We've had it for 7 or 8 years now and it's still serving us well! Our youngest son had gotten into the habit of only sitting on the far right-side cushion to play his Xbox, so it it a little "flatter" than the others and so is that arm rest where his elbow would dig in. But we ended up getting him his very own HUGE bean bag chair where to which he is delegated for his Xbox playing!
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