Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Old and New

Each morning, as I was sleepily stumbling downstairs, this is the first thing I saw:



Only, I usually had it covered with a blanket because *shudder* this is one ugly sight.



Now when I wake, this is what I see:




(Though usually Marin is not there to greet me; instead she's confined to her crib where her morning crowing wakes us all up waaaaaay to early.)

It's a great improvement, and I've been trying to think of excuses to veg on the new furniture. (I can report that the longer couch is very nap friendly.) Our living room was a rarely used place before- all of us opting instead to hang out in the family room on the comfortable (and pleasant to look at) leather seating.


Now that we have REAL! couches, instead of something that belongs in a smelly frat house, we are all more likely to wind up in the living room. Even the kids seem affected- choosing to play in the living room more than ever before. I am very sensitive to aesthetics, so you can imagine that this improvement makes me happy.


Now, what to do with the old couch? Currently it is sitting in my dining room (AHHHH). Do I drag it to the curb and put a "FREE" sign on it? Put an add on Craig's list? Is it better to advertise it for free, or to ask twenty bucks for it? (My grandma argues that you will get more people interested if you sell it rather than give it away. This, at least, has been true for her in the dog-selling business.)

11 comments:

LoriD said...

The new couches are lovely. I love the clean lines. I would be spending a lot of time in there too.

I would post it somewhere (Craig's List, freecycle.org) free or almost free and have the new owners do all the hauling. I've used freecycle a lot and if you say something like "must be gone by the weekend" someone out there will be willing to come right away with a truck!

Jess said...

Wow! Beautiful! I wholeheartedly approve! And I'm with lorid, free on Craig's List has always been good to us (both as takers and givers).

And HAH! to Marin being downstairs in the livingroom waiting for you in the morning.

Kelsey said...

I love the couches and your wall color, it looks a bit like ours! :-)

Kristin.... said...

Try Craigslist, then the curb. :)

Tess said...

Those are GREAT. I am RUING THE DAY we decided to get couches in that fake-suede material. Before we had a kid, OBV. SIGH.

Sarah said...

SIGH. I am even more disenchanted with our stupid, plaid hand me down loveseat in the den now. It IS a quality piece of furniture, all right, grandpa, and they just don't make them like that anymore. But at least the crap they DO make they cover in neutral and eye-pleasing fabrics.

Astarte said...

What an improvement!!! Isn't it amazing what a difference in our lives these things make? When a room looks beautiful, you use it. When it doesn't, for whatever reason, no one wants to be in there, even if it's the best space.

Can you donate the couch? Some places will come and pick things like that up. We just donated a couch and huge entertainment center to a local firehouse, and got a tax write-off to boot.

Erin said...

Throw it away! It is not worth the $20 of trouble to give it away. And you will feel so GOOD about throwing it in the trash. Or something like that.

The new couches are beautiful. I am coming over to nap on them.

Janell said...

Ahhh - still looking forward to the day of "real" furniture - but so happy for you to have such an awesome change.

LOVED your comment on Casey's blog - I feel the same way. As we were going to bed hubbie and I were talking about how we all have stress - but the stress of how are we going to pay the mortgage and insurance is different to the stress of how am I going to feed my children. Anyway - appreciated your comment.

Katie said...

Wow! That is a great improvement! I love the new living room!

I had ZERO luck selling an old couch on Craig's list....we ended up having to PAY the trash people 21 dollars to haul it off (pathetic!!!) I hope you find a better solution than that!

Tracy said...

What a difference. It looks like it needs a good friend and two cups of coffee and some good adult company!