It Was Worth The Wait



This is my long-awaited new couch.

"New couch" has been an item on my wish list for a few years now.  The ones we had were pretty worn out.  Okay, a lot worn out.  Most people today would have been ashamed to have such shabby looking furniture in their homes.  The arms on one had the stuffing sticking out.  The seat cushions of another sport big long tears where the fabric wore out and split.  The reclining couch no longer reclined, rather one end of it listed drunkenly to the side.  I joked about taking a sawzall to it and making it into a sectional since it didn't seem to want to be connected any more.  The rattiest looking one sported a homemade slipcover--really just a queen sized blanket draped over it just-so and tucked in at the sides and bottom.

Most people would have gone out and purchased a new couch long before now.  But I'm not most people, and neither is DH.  When you live the kind of life we live, instant gratification is somewhere between a cuss word and a pipe dream.  It's not in the realm of financial responsibility--or financial reality--to run out and spend hundreds or even a thousand dollars or more on a new piece of furniture when there are more important bills to be paid and your savings account is still struggling to rebound from years of a poor economy.  Years of no raise at work, but increased utility costs, food costs, gas costs, insurance costs (multiple teenaged drivers), taxes. . . you get the picture. 

So, we spent a good long time working our way down the list of necessary purchases before "new couch" made it to the top of the list.  During that time, and especially in the last twelve months, DH and I spent a good chunk of hours doing what we came to refer to as "sitting on couches".  Some couples go out to dinner.  Some couples go out to the movies.  Some couples take weekend getaways.  We sat on couches. 

Meaning we would go to a furniture store and test out practically every couch on the premises.  We were looking for the just-right couch, so that when the list said it was time to purchase one, we'd know exactly the one to invest in.  I'm sure we looked pretty odd, as DH would sit on a couch, and wait several minutes for the feeling of it to sink in, then slowly get up, move to the next couch, and repeat the process.  I, on the other hand, would sit down and immediately know if it was a 'good' couch or not.  Some, I nearly got whiplash from my head snapping backward when the backrest was not upright enough--I felt like I was falling backward into an abyss.  Others, I felt like my hind end was sinking in quicksand on the non-supportive and squishy overstuffed cushions.  Others, my feet didn't touch the floor while seated (and I wear pants with a 32" leg!) because the couch was too deep. 

No long sits for me.  Nope.  Most couch testing went something like this:  bend knees, prepare to make contact with the couch.  Contact made with rear, fall backwards because backrest of couch was not in preferred position (I like to sit very upright, no slouching).  Or, contact made, pop up like toast ejected from a toaster because the couch was u-n-c-o-m-f-o-r-t-a-b-l-e and I was not about to sacrifice another second to a sub par piece of furniture. I probably averaged three seconds per couch, LOL.

 I was looking for a couch that had a firm seat, cushions that didn't get squishy toward the edges--front, back,  left and right--a backrest that supported proper spinal alignment (most seemed to want to rock me back onto my tailbone), arms that were a comfortable height, and that my feet could be flat on the floor while seated.  Oh, and was comfortable too.  It couldn't feel like sitting on a hard wooden bench, yet it needed to have all those desired supportive features and no squish.

While up north for Christmas with DH's side of the family in mid-December, we happened to stop in to a store that one of his childhood friends owns.  DH was talking to his friend about getting ahold of a used refrigerator (our Beer Fridge had died and needed replacing),  and I test-sat some of the couches in the store.  To my surprise, I found The Couch!  From the very first touch of my pants to the seat cushion, it just felt right.  It welcomed me.  It supported me.  It comforted me.  I was so relieved, after months of sitting on couches, dozens and dozens of couches, to know that The Couch really did exist.  It wasn't some air castle I was hankering for; it was real, made of wood and cloth and foam.

It took four more months for "new couch" to hit the top of the requisition list at this little place here.  When it did, I called up north to DH's friend and asked him to order me The Couch.  Not only did he order me The Couch, he gave me a great discount on it.  What he charged me, including taxes, was three figures less than the price on the sale tag back at Christmas time, which itself was 70% of the regular retail price.

I'm a happy camper.  A happy couch owner.  A very long awaited, very perfect, very comfortable yet supportive couch.  It was worth the wait.