A Couch Dilemma

We have a large playroom. Our playroom was an optional Master Bedroom upstairs but we chose to make it a playroom before ever moving in. Tony and I use the Master downstairs. When we moved into this house, we put our old couch and chair in this room. It wasn't a pretty couch but it was taken care of. It was not horribly stained or ripps in cushions or any of damage besides wear and tear but it wasn't attractive. I bought it right out of college in 1997 - my first set of furniture I purchased and it was the cheapest I could get. I had went a few weeks, maybe months without anything in my apartment living room except boxes used for a table.

Anyway, this set stayed in this apartment and then went to our next apartment. (We got married not long after I had bought this set.) When we put a contract on our first house, I said we'd keep this furniture until our downstairs basement was finished and it would go down there. Well, we spent time on fertilty issues, drugs, etc, had my first miscarriage, went on again forking out money so we could have a child. Logan came along in 2002 and I became a stay-home mom. When he was a year old we began finishing our basement. It took a while because Tony and I did most of it ourselves. Eventually it was complete but the old furniture never moved downstairs b/c we began forking out the money again for fertilty drugs and surgery. I became pregnant with Reagan and still no new furniture. It wasn't long after we lost her, money started going into the adoption for Madelyn. Still no new furniture.

We sold that house and moved into an apartment temporarily moving the old furniture into it b/c we had to have something to sit on there. While pregnant with the twins I made sure we were going to have a new couch, loveseat and chair in our new house. It wasn't the cheapest, not my first choice out there but it was NEW. It was better, more comfortable. The old couch and chair still followed us to our house but went to the playroom.

We've been here over 2 years so the old couch was 11 years old. We had been noticing when Madelyn was in the playroom, she had more drainage from her nose than any other room in the house. The only thing we could figure out was it was from this couch. I tried cleaning it with our carpet steam cleaner since it has an upholstery attachment. It didn't seem to make a difference with that. We used to have two dogs in our other house and even though they were not indoor dogs, they did visit plus we had the cat too in the old house, the apartment and here. Madelyn tested highly allergic to dogs and cats right under that.

So, we made the decision to FINALLY get rid of this couch. I put pictures on Craig's List to sell and it sat there for months, reposting, no hits until finally we got someone interested in buying it for a friend of her's getting a divorce and having a hard time financially. I let it go so cheap but I was going to take to Goodwill or Salvation Army anyway so it didn't matter. Then a few weeks went by where they couldn't get a truck. We brought this set downstairs last week thinking they were coming and they never showed up so we had two couches in our living room. After two days it made it to the garage where then I made arrangements to deliver to this woman in our truck. It's finally gone!!! AND Madelyn seems to breathe easier in that room now so not sure it was moving this couch out or the new, expensive medicines she's on now or a combination of the two.

Now the next dilemma. We can't find a replacement. I had intentions of putting a sofa bed upstairs so we had a guest bed at the same time. Placing a bed in that room is a bad idea b/c the toddlers think beds are trampoline's but having one that hid was going to be okay, at least I thought. I never thought about not being able to get one up the stairs and turning the corner into our playroom. When our old couch was placed up there, movers took it up no problem. Tony and I got it downstairs. What we weren't thinking about was this couch has a much lower back than most made these days. The door is only 29 1/2 inches wide and you have to make an 180 degree turn once up the stairs.

I have been to numerous furniture stores measuring couches, sofa beds, sectionals, etc. Most are telling us to get futons but we don't want futons. It's a big room to just put a futon in. A futon also doesn't sit a family of six. Yesterday I was so close to purchasing one b/c a salesman had me convinced one in his store that reclines the back came off making it easier to haul up the stairs. One other salesman somewhere else had even said all that recline have removeable backs but what they didn't make clear was many don't just slide off. They have to be disassembled, not just slide out like our recliner we have in our living room. Tony fortunately went to look at the one I almost bought last night and checked it out himself to see how the back came off and it needed more work than what we were told.

Now we're back to possibly only two brands of furniture we can get up there. My original plans were a cheap sofa bed and now it's turned into name brand furniture that reclines. Tony and I even tried to get our furniture downstairs upstairs and we could not get it up the stairs b/c it was too wide. This means our playroom furniture will be nicer, better than our main living room furniture. Looks like we'll be turning this playroom into a nice den vs. a room that looks like Gymboree.

Looks like I have a summer project now. I'm going to repaint the playroom depending on whatever we pick out. Maybe I can get some good ideas off some of the re-design shows on HDTV. I'll probably devide up the room so one side is our tv, reading book area and the other side is toy storage and train tables. This room is bigger than our living room so I definitely have the space to make it a fun place for our entire family to hang out if we ever find a replacement.