Furniture . . . PLEASE!!

I'm on the hunt for new furniture. Most of the pieces I had when Don and I married were accumulated from different sources and didn't match. I spent my money fixing up the house, not buying furniture. The only really nice piece of furniture I owned was a queen-sleeper sofa that I special-ordered in the fabric and design I wanted. My coffee table and end tables were bought at a yard sale - somebody else's throw-aways. My bed had been given to me. You get the general idea. Nothing matched.

Then Don and I married. He brought with him a few pieces of furniture, most of it old and manly - nothing I would ever have chosen for myself. But at least we had a decent dresser, a few chairs to go with our dining room table, and a loveseat for our den.

We've been married 11 years now. My lovely couch had seen better days 6 years ago. Now it's covered with a removable slipcover which has to be neated up daily and is messy immediately upon being sat on. Don's loveseat is falling apart and our bedroom furniture is just too bulky for my tastes.

When we gutted and redid our house, my parents began getting rid of everything they didn't want. They figured we had plenty of room, so all their throw-aways ended up here. My father had an old recliner that his mother had given him before her death. It has great sentimental value for my father, but NOT for Mom. She had decided to put it out on the street, despite the fact that my father sat in it for hours every day, because it didn't go along with her decor. My father asked and I took pity on him. So our living room has a blue spray-painted nogahide recliner (the most uncomfortable chair I've ever sat in) in the middle of it. In addition, my mother designed and had built for her in the Orient a sewing center. My mother was quite a seamstress in her day. The sewing center is room-sized and contains huge drawers for fabric, notion drawers, a full-sized cutting board, a drawer of spindles for thread as well as a cut-out area for a sewing machine. My mother used it for years but doesn't sew anymore and decided to rid herself of her teak sewing center. My sisters all begged her not to sell it. It has great sentimental value for our family. She decided MY BEDROOM was the perfect place for it and, before I knew it, I had inherited this huge catch-all (I don't sew) that takes up the entire wall on which I had intended to put a loveseat for private conversations with Don or just relaxing and reading.

I haven't yet come up with any solutions to the pieces of furniture I inherited from Mom, but I'm certainly ready to get rid of everything else in the house. We need a new entertainment center (the cabinet doors on ours constantly fall off and it's low and long instead of tall and narrow, which is what we need). I want a new couch for the living room and a new loveseat for the den. I have managed to accumulate a couple of nice leather gliders/recliners for the living room and den.

Down the road, I want to replace Deanna's twin bed with a full-sized so we have a bed for married guests. Her bed will go into the toy room as a spare. Then, if Grandma and Grandpa Doughty visit, they can have Deanna's full bed and she can move into the toy room.

I'd also like to replace our dining room table (a hand-me-down that was my parents when I was growing up and is in terrible shape) and get a china cabinet and hutch to match. In the kitchen, we have an old pressed-board microwave stand that pokes out way too much. I'd like to replace it with a natural wood corner stand that matches the natural wood kitchen table and my kitchen cabinets.

So I hunt ... and ask Don to buy ... and when he never responds, I hunt some more ... and ask Don to buy. Anybody notice a pattern here?

Yesterday, I found a leather sectional with 3 reclining seats and a chaise. I WANT IT. It has two tacky consoles stuck inbetween the other pieces. I removed the consoles at the store and the sofa without them was classy-looking. It's amazing how much two consoles can cheapen a beautiful piece of furniture. Anyway, the consoles are damaged (another reason they're tacky) so I wouldn't want them, anyway. The Manager quoted me a price of $700 for the couch. Remember, I said LEATHER. Now the big question is, will Don be willing to part with the money?

I asked him again if he has any intention of buying the couch for me. He responded, "You want a treadmill, a new car for me, a couch, a Y Membership, and a bike. I'm a little overwhelmed."

I can understand his point. It is all a little overwhelming. However, if he'd just begin making purchases, I'd feel like we're at least accomplishing SOMETHING.

Maybe we can have a few more conversations and nail down one of these to purchase right now. With a little planning and a push here and there for Don, perhaps I might get some new furniture within the next couple of years.

Anybody out there in Blogland want a blue nogahide recliner and a teak room-size sewing center?