Of COURSE I'll drive to Virginia to sit on a sofa

As soon as they delivered our furniture, we knew we'd have to get a new sofa.  The old one was Drew's and it fit just fine in the loft because well, it was a loft.  There was lots of space for a sofa with a chaise and a big ottoman.  It also fit in our old house because our living room was a nice big square and again, there was lots of room.  However, this house?  Not so much.

Not only did the sofa have an ottoman, but the chair did too.  

That's a lotta ottomans for a dinky rectangular room.

Additionally, Maya had made a home of the chaise part of the sofa.  That was her lounge spot and you could tell.  Even with the best cleaning, it was getting spotty and dingy and it STUNK.  I was on the floor playing with Sofia and I made the mistake of turning my head toward the sofa while I inhaled.  I nearly passed out and immediately texted Drew that we were buying a new sofa as soon as we moved.

Soon enough, it came time to sofa shop.  We both knew that we wanted a regular sofa this time.  A sectional would make things feel too closed off and we need all the floor space we can get.  We searched high and low for a sofa that wasn't too boring but not too fancy, and that we both could agree on.  We looked at over twenty sofas, none of them being 'the one.'

Then we found two contenders, both from Z Gallerie.

The Brighton, although we were looking at the Moonbeam.

Or the Harrison

We both liked the interesting arms, we liked the colors, but we couldn't arrive at a final decision.  I was super way extra nervous about spending that kind of money on a piece of furniture sight unseen.  I wanted to sit on it, lay on it, feel it and make sure that aaaaaallll those dolla bills were going to the right place.

We were so close to just placing the order and crossing our fingers but the thought of  aaaaaaaallllll those dolla bills paralyzed me.  I just couldn't bring myself to okay that big of a purchase without seeing it in person.  Except, there was one tiny problem.

There are no Z Galleries in the state of Pennsylvania.  In order to lay hands on this sofa, I would have to make a field trip to the nearest store - in Virginia.  

Now I know driving to another state just to sit on a sofa sounds ridiculous but that's a lotta dolla bills so it was worth it to me.  

Tyson's Corner was two and a half hours away and we set off right before Sofia's nap.  I have a champion car-napper - the kid will sleep in her carseat at the drop of a hat.  She can have an awesome nap at home and will still sleep in the carseat.  I used to worry that she wasn't getting enough sleep because of course the internet says you're a bad mother if your kid sleeps in their carseat because it means they're not getting enough sleep at home.  But after 11 hours of sleep at night and a good hour and a half nap and she still falls asleep, well, I just shrug my shoulders and count my blessings.

Sofia slept nearly the whole way, waking up about twenty minutes out.  I was insanely grateful to her and as we headed toward the store, I promised her a pony if she would just hang with me for a few more minutes.

They had the Brighton at the front door, in the color we were looking at and everything!

My model was less than enthusiastic and not quite a lady.  

We're working on it.

I'd asked the saleslady to take pictures of my so I could text them to Drew.

If I sat all the way back on the Brighton, my feet couldn't touch the floor.

I wasn't a fan.

Again with my daughter not being a lady, but at least my feet touch the floor with the Harrison.

The other thing I liked about the Harrison is that the arms were higher than the Brighton.  I like having an armrest, as they come in handy while nursing.  I assumed the position with Sofia just to make sure I could nurse her and it was nice and comfortable.  Of course, she was not aware that this was just practice and demanded the real thing.  It's super fun to nurse in a furniture store, btw.  I'm totally down for nursing in public, but this particular sofa was right in the front window, with all the people just passing by, looking at my daughter trying to undress me.  I opted to take a quick nursing break in the bathroom and come back to finish my sofa-sitting.

After a boatload of deliberation, and I mean picture me going back and forth and back and forth and BACK AND FORTH, literally sitting on one sofa, then the other one, I finally decided.  I couldn't help it - that sofa was nasty expensive and I didn't want to make the wrong decision for us.  Drew entrusted me with the final choice which was no pressure at all.  But I did it.  I handed over the debit card and signed on the dotted line.

That was four weeks ago.  Which by the way, why in the F does it take so long to get an in-stock sofa?  It's not like they were sewing it by hand!

At any rate, please welcome Harrison!

I busted out the fancy camera for these pictures, but I have no idea how to use it.

That's why the lamp on the left is all blown out.  My bad.

It's so pretty and fancy and I love it so much!  And there is no way in HELL that I'm letting Maya stinkify this one so I got a scat mat too.  It's on the sofa but I haven't heard any yelping yet so I'm assuming Maya isn't interested in this new sofa yet.  

We also got the buffet and I'm nervous because it's so shiny.

I've wanted a mirrored piece of furniture since forever and now that it's here,

I'm worried that I'm not up to the task of owning a piece of mirrored furniture.

It's not for the faint of heart!

After I took this picture, I straightened up a bit so it looks a little more presentable.

With all the ottomans gone, there's so much more room but now I'm debating whether we should get a smaller storage type ottoman instead of the baskets.

Plus, if you look at the TV wall, you can kind of see how the silver gray paint is going to really brighten the room.

I took away one of the long bolsters and brought in the pillows that were on the old sofa for some color.  Also, we NEED window treatments like woah.

I'm really happy with our new sofa and buffet and my next task is to finish painting the living room so I can hang some pictures in there!  All of our walls are so sadly bare and they need some major sprucing.  Once the kitchen is done (Lord help me), Chris is going to get started on the built-ins for our bedroom and the living room.

Home renovation is definitely a marathon rather than a sprint, but new living room furniture is a pretty major piece and it really makes a huge difference.  Now we just have to send out the brown chair to get reupholstered among the 80,000 other things on the list.

Baby steps y'all....