Farewell

This weekend we said goodbye to the big red couch. It was bittersweet. I LOVED my red couch. I fell in love with her just over 7 years ago when we were still newlyweds living in our teensy basement apartment. We had inherited a hide-a-bed couch from Ian's parents when we got married, but it was not exactly my style or up to my preferred comfort level, so we bought a new couch. This was our only couch for many years. We added a loveseat in the den a couple year ago, but still the big red couch was our main place to sit and relax. It was also my escape at night. I slept on the big red couch often. Almost every night for the last few weeks of my pregnancies and many other nights when Ian was snoring or I was having insomnia I could always get a few good hours of sleep on my couch.

The big red couch the day we got her (Sept. 2004)

Then something sad happened. The frame on the red couch cracked during Davin's blessing weekend. I tried to get it fixed, but the furniture company had gone out of business and the manufacturer was downsizing and wouldn't answer my repeated calls. Finally I gave up on getting it fixed and accepted that we would be replacing it. I have pretty much been looking for the last 2 years. I wandered furniture stores, looked at store ads every Sunday, but never found just what I was looking for.

This last week I saw this cute gray set on sale at Smith's Marketplace. Weird to buy furniture from a grocery store, but whatever. I took the kids to check it out. I sat on it and I knew. This was the one. The color was right, the design was right, the price was definitely right. I texted Ian this picture and told him he had to come see it.
That night after we went to the temple Ian and I went back and looked at it again. We sat on it and chatted about where we would put the pieces (we've never had an actual furniture set before). It was fun. Last night Ian and our friend, Kerry, went and purchased the set and brought it home. It took 2 trips in the van, but by 11pm we had new furniture! Our big red couch went to a good new home. I am very happy with the new set (and it ended up being an even better deal than I thought with some last minute coupons!). I think we will take the chair to Ian's work until we move to our next home and have a place for it. In the meantime we are all enjoying hanging out on our new furniture!
Before:
After:

So the next time you come to visit us you will have a nice, comfy place to sit. Welcome to the big gray couch era. :)