Ebay Bargain!

DH and I bought this old blue couch back when we were newly married, meaning it is 7 years old now! It's served us faithfully, and moved with us twice. Unfortunately, while it was a great size for two, now that there are three of us, it's getting very squishy.

So it was well and truly time for a new couch. DH and I fell in love with the couch with chaise style after using one at a holiday apartment we stayed in, but until we re-arranged our living room a few weeks ago, we just couldn't find out that would fit in the space we have. A few weeks ago, we decided to take the plunge and get rid of the TV.

No, we're not really TV less. We haven't had commercial TV for more than 12 months now, but we do still watch out selected DVD's. Which, of course, can be watched just as easily on our computer! Our 19 inch monitor was just a little too small though, so we now have a 27 inch. This saves lots of space, and power as well I would imagine, since we no longer run the old CRT screen TV or the DVD player.

Anyway, once that was done, the hunt was on for a new couch. We looked around all the furniture stores (online and in person), and found several (seems to be a popular style right now), but nearly all of them were synthetic, which is something I'm trying to avoid these days. Ikea had lovely lounges, and as a bonus, the covers are completely removable so that you can wash them. Seemed ideal. Except that on closer inspection, only the WHITE covers were actually machine washable, the others were all dry clean only. This was enough to put us off for a while, until I hit upon the concept of dying the covers!

We probably would have gone straight to Ikea to get one, except they had none in stock. (And, of course, Ikea is a 2 hour drive away!) Thus instead, I have been searching EBay daily (you can have new items matching your search criteria e-mailed to you daily), until last week I spotted the EXACT couch I wanted. Bidding was steep, but with dint of much refreshing and last minute bidding, I am now the proud owner of a genuine Ikea couch, at exactly half the retail price!

As you can see, it's in great condition, only 6 months old. The white cover has a few minor discolourations (much of which was probably due to DD jumping up and down on the cushions pretending they were islands), which will undoubtedly be covered when we dye them. Currently, it's covered in sheets, as the owners had dogs, which DH is mildly allergic to. Hopefully we'll get the covers washed and dyed next weekend.

I'm so glad that we managed to find exactly the couch we wanted, at such a great price, and much closer than Ikea! Buying second hand has many advantages, as well as being more eco friendly in that items are reused rather than being thrown out. (In case you're wondering, our old couch now lives up in the garage, for use when DH is up there working.)

Right now though, I'm off to research eco friendly dying!