New Chairs

My hubby shares my frugal tendencies, so when we make a big purchase we tend to put a lot of thought into it first. Being frugal is not the same as being cheap (or so I try to convince my kids). We do want live in a nice house and have nice things, we just don't want to pay more than we have to for such things.

We spotted out a pair of Lane, mission style recliners at Macy's years ago when we were shopping for a couch. At the time, we couldn't afford the chairs, or at least we couldn't justify the expenditure to ourselves. We bought our couch, which we still have, and left the store with our bank accounts more or less intact.

In the ensuing years several things happened. We had two more children; our old, pre-kid, cotton covered furniture wore out and needed replacing; we replaced it with much less expensive mission style chairs; and finally those chairs too, wore out.

Now before you start thinking that we were foolish to buy the less expensive chairs to start with, we knew going into that purchase that they would have a limited 'upstairs' life. We hoped for three years out of them. We got five and a half. Don't worry, we're being eco friendly, and using them in the basement playroom now.

So now, after only waiting ten years, we finally purchased our dream chairs. We even caught them on sale! They're amazing, managing to be both stylish and comfortable. They've given new life to our family room, where they've joined the old couch that we bought when we first saw them. I'm in furniture love!

Now BadDad and I have a problem. We're scared that our kids will wreck them. We're scared other people's kids will wreck them. I'm not kidding when I say that the delivery guys hadn't even brought in the second chair yet when the kids were taking turns sitting in the first one! Yikes!

One thing about having old, worn out furniture is that you just don't care anymore if your offspring are sitting on it while eating greasy popcorn or sticky candy. Now we do. Very much.

If you think I'm being overly paranoid, let me explain a bit about our history with new things. We have two leather couches. With both couches within days of their purchase someone threw up on them. That is why I swear by leather, they cleaned up fine.

At our old house, we had new, Berber carpeting installed in the family room. Sure enough, that first night, K-boy got sick and ran for the bathroom but still ended up spitting up strawberry applesauce all over the new carpet. That is why most of our floors are hardwood.

When we bought a new, black painted kitchen set, a friend's child kneeled on the bench with buckle shoes and scratched deep, white gouges in the paint. That is why we buy extended warranties on this stuff now.

BadDad and I are savoring this time with our new chairs. We're sitting side by side in our recliners, enjoying their newness. Because sooner or later, something will happen to them. It never fails.