Time to Say Goodbye

This couch, oh let me give you some serious history here. We got this couch about a year after we bought our house in September of 1998. It was given to us by someone who delivered furniture, and it had been traded in for a younger model by a previous owner. So it had some history before we had it. We liked it! It beat the futon we used as a couch at the time. It was a nice couch, almost ten years ago.

Since then, we reupholstered it with this sage green fabric I still love today. It has a gardening motif I really like.

This couch has seen history:

* I have held, read to, slept with and cradled both my babies on this couch.
* I have slept on this couch when I have been mad at my husband, and my back screamed "foul!" the next day. It's not good to sleep on if you have back issues.
* Both of our kids have been sick with their blankies on this couch and stared glazed over at the TV on it.
* We have entertained guests on this couch.
* Toys have found their way into the inerds of this couch, only to be found by me. I know where the cracks and crevasses are.
* This couch has had it's cushions removed and the covers washed oh so many times for so many icky reasons, let's just agree on that.
* One end of this couch has a serious butt-impression. The left side is the most conducive to TV watching, so if you sit there, your knees will meet your collar bone. I haven't sat there for quite some time.
* This couch needs to go to couch heaven. Why?

Because it bites! As you can see by the front, the little skirt is bunched into the couch. Why? There is a nail sticking up and it gathers the fabric each time one sits on it, where the butt-impression is. We have dealt with that for over a year, and just avoid the nail.

About a month ago, I did my motherly sweep into the cracks and crevasses for toys and money. I got my right hand fingers sliced open by a nail that wasn't there the last time I did the sweep. Nostalgia aside--not cool! The couch is growing teeth and you have to kind of watch where you're sitting. More than a few nails have been found. Scary!

So, I have done my research. I want a leather couch for two reasons. 1) Durability. Two kids, husband, dog, cat. Need I say more? 2) When things spill on it, I can wipe it off, instead of it seeping into the cushions only to stink badly two days later.

Much shopping, sitting, dragging, internetting, saving, and cajoling later, we bought a couch. It got picked up today.

New furniture. Nice huh? Well, there is a process that happens when you take the old one out, there is all the garbage underneath, nearby, inside, outside the area of the couch that one must clean up before putting a pristine, shiny leather couch in it's place.

Enjoy the pictures!

Goodbye old friend!

And the piles of junk, toys, wrappers and mounds of dust after our old friend goes away. This was a two hour project of vacuuming and dusting. Notice how thick the dust is on the lower shelves of the bookcase.

And when the dust is gone and all is vacuumed, trashed, and put away.

Our new friend has arrived. Five bucks says it's not that shiny in two months.