The Couch
I hate my house. If you’re wondering why, well let me tell you.
Today I bought a new couch. We’ve wanted a new couch for a long time, but kept saying we can’t afford a new couch and it wasn’t a necessity. Well yesterday when we were cleaning our house there was a clear consensus that it is now a necessity – our old couch has been peed on way too many times and the fur is ingrained in the fabric itself. It’s disgusting, and it smells a little bit. (We haven’t actually sat on our couch in months.) With a newborn on the way, this is unacceptable.
So I said, “What is my price limit?” and Den said, “Hmmm, $300?” I said, “I’ll go check Craig’s List.”
And I did. Craig’s List had some sorta-options but not really. Most of them were ugly. Many of them were too expensive. Some of them were too huge for our small living room. (One was actually a REALLY nice looking couch – in brand-new condition. It said, “We just bought this. I brought it home and realized it’s not really what I wanted.” So they were selling it… for far more than we could afford.)
I said, “I’ll check Bob’s tomorrow.” Bob’s is a local furniture place that has nice stuff at good prices. Even his good prices are too expensive for us, but he has a Bargain Basement where all the scratched and dented stuff goes. So I figured I’d take a look at it, see what I could find.
But first I logged on to his site online to take a look at the living room sets. Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to pick out whatever I wanted. Sigh. Den and I looked at a couple of sets, saw some we liked, some we hated. Then I turned it off because we still can’t afford $500 for a couch. Oh well.
Today I went to Bob’s and went straight downstairs to the bargain basement. WOW was there a lot of furniture!! Dinged up, sure… but in our house that happens within a week anyways. I was so excited! I saw a sage couch for $300 and thought, “Hmmm, this could work.” It was nice enough looking. I asked why it was in the bargain basement and the saleslady checked it over and found some threads loose holding the back cushions down. I laughed. $200 cheaper because of some loose threads. Hot damn. But then she kind of frowned and said that the throw pillows that were on the couch didn’t actually belong with that couch. They were there, so I could have them if I wanted, but they weren’t supposed to be with that particular couch. I told her I really didn’t need throw cushions anyways. She sighed in relief and said she’d put them back then. She walked them down an aisle to another couch…. and I blinked. It was one of the couches that Den and I had picked out online last night… the ones we sighed and said we couldn’t afford. The wood along the bottom front was a little dinged up. I asked how much the couch was. She checked. $300. I called Den. I ended up buying that couch. (Also ended up waiting in line for like an hour waiting for the loading dock… with BIL, who I called as a favor, as he has a big truck to transport couches. It was a frustrating afternoon, waiting, but we got it home!)
I’m sure you’re reading all of this and thinking, “But Natalie, this doesn’t explain why you hate your house. A new couch should make you like your house more!” And you would be right. Except…
WE CAN’T GET THE COUCH INTO OUR EFFING HOUSE. It doesn’t fit through our front doorway. Or the breezeway door. Or the garage door. In fact, we cannot get it in the house. We could, possibly, get it in the basement – but it won’t fit up the stairs either.
So we have a brand-new couch in our garage, and the pee-couch in our living room. And Den and I are trying to figure out which wall to knock down to get it inside. (The couch will fit through the front door – barely – but the front door opens into a very small foyer, and there is no way to turn the couch to get it into the living room. We’d have to knock down a wall. Or something.)
I hate my house. *cry*
Try going thru a window!! We had the same problem in our last place and it worked like a charm!
Also, I’d suggest not registering for any toys bc we just had a shower and got sooooooooo much that was not on our registry and a ton of toys, towels, receiving blankets, cute blankets, robes, etc and this is w/ them not even knowing the gender!!! We wiped ours all off after that shower. Just at thought.
Thanks for the registry advice. :D
I don’t know if the window thing would work… we only have crank-open windows in the living room and they are narrow… so IF we did that it’d have to be the entire windowframe and all that came out!
Can you take the door off the hinges and get it in that way? Maybe the feet come off the couch? Or maybe it has to be angled to fit through the door. In other words, straight on it does not work by say a 30 degree angle might. I know a person who had to angle it in after being convinced it was NOT fitting. Or call a moving company and see what they suggest. I bet they run into this issue all the time. Congrats on the new couch.
OMG! :( We had this SAME problem with a couch that my in-laws bought for us for our “Christmas present” (who gives someone a used couch for a gift, but whatever). It wouldn’t fit in our back door and it would fit around the corner to come in the front door. So we sold it on Craigslist and doubled our money. SO annoying.
But I hope you can get it in, there’s nothing like a new couch to veg on! :)
Leigh – It’ll actually fit through the door itself… but there’s a very sharp corner to get it into the living room, and that’s what it won’t fit through. :(
Alison – Arg! I’d be so mad to sell a couch for that reason!! There’s no way I’m letting this couch go, LOL. We’ll figure something out… somehow…
Didn’t you guys want to knock down a wall for general home reno anyways? Is it one of those walls?
Unfortunately…. no. :/ And unfortunately the problem is that we don’t really have the money to do that kind of home reno right now!
Actually, let me correct that: sort of yes, we considered taking down this particular wall. Unfortunately we’ve discovered that it’s probably a load-bearing wall (= big problem and/or big money) and that there’s plumbing in it that would need to be moved (for the washer and dryer, which we have nowhere else to put).
So… yes, we considered taking down that wall previously, but it’s not something we can do right now. We can cut a hole in the UPPER part of the wall, but I think that would look kind of stupid….
My parents had a similar problem getting a new couch into the computer/guest room (a hide-a-bed). They ended up taking off one of the arms of the couch so it would fit through the doorway and around the sharp corner. And that’s after knocking out part of the wall above the door. Maybe that’s an option?
Can you stand the couch on end in the foyer or is it too long. If you can stand it on end you can get it into the living room.
Sarah – I looked at the couch… it’d be difficult to do it and we’d probably break the couch. LOL
Erin – Nope, ceiling’s too low… or couch too big, one or the other. They tried that too. :/
Hmmm… Sorry you’re having this problem. What a pain.
We did have the same problem getting out humungous couch into our basment- low ceiling and about 3 sharp corners. We called the manufacturer and they sent a guy to take it apart. (After we tried for about 3 hours to get it down stairs.) It took him 20 minutes to diassemble and reassemble and cost us about 20 bucks. (And since we have done it alone about 3 times- we had to move 2 sofas for our beasment renovation… so that call was a great investment.)
Wow, Ms. C, that is great that they sent someone out to do that!!
That is very frustrating! I agree with the others above who suggest taking doors off of hinges and trying again.
XOXO
Oops…the anonymous comment was from me….
Oh no!! That sucks!!! I would be so mad! Is there a large window it could go through? I hope you get it inside!