Sofa, so good

One thing guaranteed to dispel the doom and gloom of impending redundancy is a good old spending spree. I have an almost schizophrenic approach to spending money. I can go for months, or occasionally years, doing a passable impersonation of Ebenezer Scrooge. Living quietly within my means, not eating out much, not reinventing my wardrobe (I'm about as far removed from a fashion victim as it's possible to get), not splurging on any of the fabulous gadgetry that I admire from afar.

And then comes a tipping point.

This time round two tipping points have coincided, with almost tectonic results. Relief at still having a job, and exasperation at our ultimately tired, flabby and therefore distressingly uncomfortable sofas combined to force us out into Manchester's marvellous marketplace and not to return until we'd signed up for this:
Two of them actually: a three-seater and a two-seater. And two foot stools.

We tried to go for an armchair too, but after several hours juggling our existing furniture around in the living room alongside assorted chairs pretending to be something they weren't, we regretfully concluded that the current arrangement of sofas was the only one that made sense and we'd have to stick with a like-for-like replacement.

And I must just add: what a difference seven years has made to DFS! When we were looking to furnish our previous house in 2002 we wandered desultorily around their store and couldn't see a single thing we liked. Today? Well I could almost have bought anything in the store. There were dozens of super sofas of many different designs and fabrics. I think we sat on virtually everything in the store. But this one - the Harewood - was definitely the most comfortable, and also had a good story in terms of its likely resilience. The last thing we want is a repeat of the disaster we ended up buying back then. Something that after barely five years started to resemble a sack of potatoes and which a couple of years further down the track is almost as uncomfortable! The one we sat on has been in the store 18 months and still looks brand new (apart from the film of dust at the back of the arms).

Its wood bits are hand-carved, the leather hand-stitched, it's the first to offer pocket-sprung cushions, and since it's easily disassembled for awkward deliveries, there's no worry about whether it will fit through the door. All we have to do now is wait 12 weeks for delivery.