Tag Archives: furniture

Lessons in Adulting: How Much Should Living Room Furniture Cost?

When we moved in together two years ago, my Craigslist-purchased couch with ripped cushions and protruding feathers, along with my once-glued together, now peeling-apart IKEA coffee table and self-desctructive Tar-gey bookshelves which are not safe to be around a small child, seemed perfectly fine for a trancient space. With barren white walls and a few half-filled and altogether empty frames scattered about the floor, this now-married couple is trying to figure out how to create a place that feels like “home” without overdoing it (you know, like we (…ahem… I) overdid our wedding.)

Right now, we really can’t have guests over because the place is embarrassing, even on its good days when I’ve cleaned up the piles of mess. Our lease is up in May, but it is doubtful we will move next year or anytime soon (the only real reasons for us to move is 1 – rents going up an unreasonable amount, 2 – we have a child and said child turns 2, or 3, one of us gets a job super far away, like, in another state, and we need to move.) Otherwise, it looks like we’re hunkered down for a few more years in our 800-square foot, overpriced-due-to-Silicon-Valley-rental-costs abode.

This furniture has got to go. Continue reading Lessons in Adulting: How Much Should Living Room Furniture Cost?

Couch Update

We bought a couch! Well, sort of. My roommate convinced us to go in for a couch. It’s not a great idea, but it’s not awful either. We’re getting a $150 couch. It was on Craigslist for $250, but we talked to the guy down to $150. It’s a fairly nice, 4-year-old couch from Macys that was originally $1200. Instead of any one of us buying the entire couch we’re splitting it $50 each. I’d really prefer not to purchase any portion of the couch, but we figured that is the best way for us to get a couch that everyone will be happy with. A free couch would likely be somewhat gross… this couch is rather nice. We could probably resell it when we move out… we could prob sell it for $100 at least. So it’s not too big of a deal. The only problem is that likely one of us (me) will move out before the other two… so I’ll just “lose” my $50. Except it’s kind of like $50 to rent a couch for a year or so. At least. Not a bad deal. We need a couch. Our chair setup is getting so so old. 

To Couch or Not To Couch

My roommates and I get along really well, but one area of tension is that of a couch purchase. The three of us all agree that we should get a couch, but the question of how to get it and how much to spend on it are up for negotiation.

We’ve been living in our nice apartment for the past seven months and never had a problem finding a seat – because we have about 13 chairs of various sizes sprawled across our living room and dining room area. But it looks, howdoyousay, ghetto. And not even ghetto fabulous.
For me, I’m fine with just chairs. Then again, I’m fine with a pile of clothes on my bedroom floor about 2 feet high. My roommates are birds of a different feather. Well, one is planning to buy a fairly nice new couch at some point in the future, and the other wants a couch now, and is willing to buy one used, but she’s picky in terms of its quality. Me? I say lets get one for free off Craigslist and put some fabric over it and call it a day.
I’m pretty adamant about not going in on a couch together (that will cause a lot of unecessary drama) and I don’t want to buy one on my own because I’m probably going to move in a year or two. The other roommates both are willing to buy a couch, but neither can agree on when or what to buy. I kind of feel bad that I’m not willing buy a couch, but it would be silly to spend money on a couch when I’ll be moving who knows where in a few years. I already own a bed, a coffee table and bookshelf.