The Living Room

Since we moved to the house January of 2015, we haven’t done a single thing to the living room.  Well in truth, all we’ve done to it since we bought the house is paint the walls.  We moved our old furniture to this house.  We really didn’t care about the living room at all.  We were NEVER in there.

The old furniture was good for the childcare kids…We didn’t use it.  We didn’t care that the chair Roger sat in had stains.  It truly made no difference to us at all as the living room was a room in the house we rarely ever used.

Fast forward to 2019 and cancer.  Kramer and I have spent so much time in the living room.  We had company over on Saturday and Kramer said to them that he thought we had spent more time in the living room over the last 4 months than we did our entire married life before.  We’ve been married almost 33 years but I don’t think he is exaggerating.  We truly never use the living room.

So about a month ago before we knew the cancer spread to his bones, I suggested the two of us get new recliners.  Our chairs were 10 years old.  I hated my glider as the childcare kids all want to sit with me whenever I feed a baby and there’s no room.  I also wanted a chair that I could put my feet up in.  I’ve been cross stitching a lot and my chair wasn’t comfy.

Kramer said no for the first few weeks I mentioned it.  Then he started watching Carver get up on the recliner with me.  Then I mentioned it a few more times.  Then finally he was starting to think it might be okay but his chair was fine with him.  I could just get a new chair.  UGH.  I wanted to move from brown furniture to gray.  How was that going to work?

Then they found bone cancer and Kramer broke his neck.  He said HE wanted a new chair.  Then the couch frame broke and he said I should get whatever I wanted.  Thankfully I had been setting some money aside for furniture so I knew it was all do-able financially.

Kalissa is my doer so she started looking at Pinterest to get some ideas.  If I let her go, she’ll go wild and do the whole living room.  She had some good ideas we okayed so off Kalissa and I (and Gannon) went on Saturday to Lansing Furniture.  Kalissa kept laughing at me but every time I sat in a recliner I would do this….I would test it out.  I would do this…..

I was checking for room to see if a little one had room on the arm rest to sit next to me.

We thought we had everything in place and that we found what we wanted but UGH.  The furniture was discontinued.  I could buy what was on the floor but I couldn’t pick the color.  I couldn’t get a matching recliner.  AH!!  So we were back to square one as one of the top things I wanted was a recliner.  I really wanted to get a matching set of furniture.  We’ll already have Kramer’s chair that doesn’t exactly match so I didn’t want yet another piece that doesn’t match.  So the sales lady suggested this….

It was from the same company.  The furniture had the same features.  But UGH.  Immediately I said I didn’t like the love seat as there was the council in between the two seats.  No thanks to that…it will encourage spills and I’m a “no food in the living room” girl.  The sales lady said it was available without that.  Hmmm.  Maybe this would be okay.

I never thought I’d want it but we ended up really liking this.  It had something that I always said I’d NEVER get….recliners in the couch.  Everyone I had ever tried of couches like that were uncomfortable for laying on.  This one was not.

Here was the matching recliner…but darn.  It didn’t rock.  I needed it to rock.  Well the sales lady said it was available as a rocker.  Okay.  I could live with that.  There was enough room for grandbabies in the chair.  Hmmm.

Well this one wasn’t the color I wanted…..but the sales lady said it was available in different colors and fabric textures….SO, “I said YES to the furniture”.  It will be in the dark color Kalissa has her finger on.  It’s a dark gray.  Yes.  Dog hair is going to show up on it, but oh well.  I can’t have everything.

I do like that I feel like I can switch our decorations with this color.  It’s a good neutral.

As I was at the check out Kalissa was trying out a massage chair near the counter.  She insisted I try it out too.  At first I hated it but then Kalissa kept telling me it was because I wasn’t relaxing.  I finally did and ah, it’s was actually nice…but not something I would buy.

We were at Home Depot too.  Kalissa saw these pillows and was insistent I get them but I opted not to.  I love the colors but I wasn’t going to afford everything all at once.

I do really like the colors though.  Red is my favorite and these would really give a good pop of color.  I have a terrible time spending money on pillows.  Frugal to a fault in some cases.

This guy…he was the perfect shopper.

Maybe even a little too good of a shopper.   He let us spend a little more money than I was planning.  In the end, I really think it was the right purchase.  All of us want to spend as much time as we can with Kramer.  He’s in the living room so we all want to be in the living room too.  This new furniture will let us all stick together and be exactly where we want to be.