Comforts of home...

The Facts

We bought a new sectional.

His Side

Kristi and I usually differ on our attitudes toward money. I generally take the approach that we make money to spend it. I’m not against saving or anything, I just think that having steady jobs affords you the opportunity to get things you want sometimes; it’s not just about getting the things you need. With Kristi usually taking the opposite approach of saying “well we don’t really need that so why spend the money on it,” I was shocked when she texted me one day and said “we should get a couch.” It shocked me because we have a couch that works just fine. But I’m not one to turn down the prospect of a new couch, so I said “let’s go shopping.”

The shopping part took a lot longer than I expected and we saw a lot of comfortable things. It seemed like each place we went had something we liked better than the last place. We eventually finalized the fact that we wanted a sectional with built in recliners. I wanted built in recliners all along, though, because there is something inborn in all men that makes them want to sit in a recliner.

Before the couch

We finally found what we wanted and I went into negotiating mode which was more successful than I expected. We got the price we wanted so we signed on the dotted line and ordered the pieces to our sectional.

That week of waiting for our sectional to arrive was bad. I just wanted to lounge on the new couch already! But the day finally arrived and I had confirmed a 2-5pm window for the delivery. That was perfect because my nephew’s first birthday party was that same day and ended at 1pm. While at the party, though (around 11:30am), I got a call saying that the delivery truck would arrive in thirty minutes. That was frustrating, but I left the party, let the delivery guys in to set everything up, then hightailed it back to the party.

After the couch

When we got home, though, I realized that I had overlooked a minor flaw in the couch. Two of the pieces don’t fit exactly like they should. Kristi noticed this and I felt like I should have seen it while the guys were there so they could fix it. After some phone calls and getting stern with customer service, they sent a technician out to fix the problem. He was very nice and tried a lot of things, but couldn’t fix it. It seemed that the pieces were just slightly defective.

Luckily, the manager at the store from which we bought the couch has been very helpful and we will be receiving replacement pieces later this month. Hopefully they fit better than these do! In the meantime, we have been thoroughly enjoying our new couch. And so has Fletcher!

Her Side

I’ll just come right out and say it… we bought a sofa. It’s not just any sofa, but one that is so comfortable I might be willing to give up sleeping in our beloved king bed (ok, well not exactly since I LOVE that bed). This sofa is one that puts comfort above all, and I’m ok with that. Now, let me walk you through how we went from being content with our previous sofa to the proud new owners of this brand spanking new sofa. It all happened rather suddenly. In fact, it really came out of nowhere and I’m pretty sure Nolan was blindsided when I casually brought up the idea of a new sofa one day about two weeks ago.

New look of the office

Nolan and I have actually been tossing around the idea of getting a new sofa for a while. It’s not that the one we had didn’t suffice, but it simply did not allow us to comfortably have another couple over without feeling like sardines lined up on the sofa. I have always dreamed of having a sectional… and honestly that dream has come from very selfish reasons. I want that corner section all to myself. After all, everyone knows that is the most comfortable spot there has been and ever will be. So, my heart has been set on finding the perfect one. The only problem we have had up until now is that the space we have in which to fit a sectional is rather small. In past times, we have fallen in love with sofas only to find out they were inches and sometimes even feet too large for our room. I thought we would never be able to find the perfect fit.

So, when I suggested that we start the search again, we wasted no time. Before we started our search, we made sure to take specific measurements so we would know what we could and could not fall in love with! We went from store to store and found a few that would fit in our space. It seemed that in each store we went we found one we liked better than another at the previous store. After sitting on sofa after sofa we finally found one that we both loved and our wallet wasn’t as unhappy about. If it were up to me, I would have chosen a sofa that was first and foremost aesthetically pleasing and, if it were up to Nolan, comfort would be the key. Well, when we stumbled upon THE sofa, I’m pretty sure we both knew it was the one; it was both stylish and comfortable. It was the right color, we could configure it to fit our space, it was so comfortable, and even though we weren’t even looking at this feature… it had reclining sections. As soon as we sat down we both knew we would have that sofa in our home.

Nolan took some lessons from the agents on Million Dollar Listing and did some hard bargaining to get the sofa at our “magic number.” He did great and we left the store with huge smiles on our faces!

Now, with every great thing comes some hiccups (at least in our household that’s the case). We had to wait a whole week and a few days before we could actually enjoy this new sofa… a definite test of our patience! Once delivered, we discovered that two of the pieces don’t quite fit together like they should, so we are in the process of having new pieces delivered to fix the issue.

New look of the living room

Even though we purchased only one new piece of furniture, the result was a makeover of three rooms in our house. We were able to rid our living room of a hand-me-down sofa and love seat and put our old sofa in that room. We moved my piano out of Nolan’s office and down the hall and it now has a new home in the living room. Our living room was one that we NEVER used before, but now it’s so inviting that I can see myself wandering out there to play a little piano or maybe just to sit down and read a book! After moving my piano out of Nolan’s office, we were able to move our nice recliner that was previously in the family room into his office (lucky guy) and my stationary bike found a home there as well thanks to Nolan’s generosity in giving up some space!

It feels like we have a new home now, and that’s kind of refreshing. Sometimes you just need to rearrange a few things to have an entirely different outlook on your home. It’s not that I wasn’t excited about our home before, but now I find myself walking through the house with a silly grin on my face.

So, if you come over to our house in the next few months, kindly oblige us and go on a brief tour of our “new” home. We’re proud and definitely want others to enjoy it just as much as we do!