Would you want to see Dustin Hoffman save the Alamo?*

Today I took a half day at work.  We can carry over up to five days of PTO (paid time off) at work at the end of the year, but we have to use it by the end of the first quarter (March 31st).  Being sick in January helped me to use most of it and all I had left was a half day.  So I decided to take it today since Ryan didn't have to work.  

Something I had been saying I was going to do since - I don't know when!* was that I was going to get a new couch.  I was sick most of January and then just kept putting it off because nothing seems as unproductive as going to "shop around". Plus - as I explained to Ryan today, I don't like the feeling of being pressured into purchasing something (you know what I'm talking about...cars salesmen style).  But Ryan said we could go in and explain that we were only looking, not buying today. 

The couch that came with the house

 There's not much wrong with this couch - which is why I have been fine putting off the couch shopping.  But it is a recliner couch and so there are these metal bars between the seats and people have hurt themselves.  Oh - and there's the whole part where there's a black hole in the couch....stuff (mostly people actually) get sucked in.

The Black Hole

 The first place that we went was Ashely Furniture (if you live in Richmond then I'm sure you've seen the Ashley Furniture cars driving around - usually in groups of threes).  

We walked in and a very optimistic and cheery man comes over and introduces himself.  His name is Caesar and he shakes hands with Ryan and then me and gets our names.  Caesar asks how he can help us and Ryan says that we are looking at couches, but we aren't interested in buying today.  So Caesar walks us around a little bit and explains how everything works.  He tells us that they aren't going out of business (which is good because of those cars - I always thought it was announcing a going out of business sale...for the last three years).  However, there is a liquidation sale and so the price tags don't matter.  

So he tells us not to pay attention to the price tags and then he turns to Ryan and says, "If your wife likes it..." something like that and then made a joke about how in the end it's my decision and not his.  Which is funny to Ryan and me because it is my decision because we aren't married and this couch is for me. But Caesar didn't know that.  I liked it though, because it meant that all attempts to sell would be aimed towards Ryan - not me.  He can resist because he's not buying a couch and I don't have to resist because no one is putting pressure on me.

It was funny to me though because to Caesar, Ryan was there with the money and I was there for the aesthetics - but the truth was, I was the one looking at the prices and Ryan was letting me know which ones matched my living room.

Caesar made sure we were good to go and then let us wander on our own.  I liked a few couches - but Ryan's concern was whether or not a person could lay down on it.  So in addition to aesthetics and cost, we had to consider length.

Out of the whole store this is the one I liked - surprisingly like the old one if you ask me - at least in color)

Caesar checked on us and asked Ryan if it was more style or price that we were looking for - I looked at Ryan, Ryan looked at me, and finally I told him we were on a budget.  He left us for a few minutes and that's when we snuck out (p.s. I feel horrible about it!)

Then we went to Value City Furniture.  Elaine approached us and Ryan said the same thing.  Looking but not buying today.  She told us where things were and really left us alone, which is exactly how I like it.  We looked over the whole store and came up with these two:

This one was firm and I like the color, but I wasn't 100% about it.

 

The winner in comfort however was this baby.

 

It looks black in this photo but it's a dark brown and it's so soft! Ryan and I both thought that it was really comfortable (part of it could have been because by this point we were really tired).   If I decide to go with a new couch - I think this is the one.