Our Microwave Handle

Our family room couch is almost 11 years old and while it has held up remarkably well, there is a big tear between one of the cushions from which some of the stuffing has been slowly coming out. Furniture shopping is about as enjoyable as pulling your nails out, but more boring. But there came a time when we agreed that it could not be put off any longer. Of course, it wasn't as simple as just getting another couch - would we have to change our end table, our coffee table? The moment you overcome the mental barrier to doing any kind of significant home improvement project is a dangerous one for any homeowner: it signals the advent of a freewheeling consideration of every other project that had been ignored either due to a lack of urgency or just plain old apathy. It was no different for us.

Ok, so we are going to get a new couch, but what about that sliding screen door? It doesn't close properly and its upstairs cousin is all torn. Maybe we should replace the whole sliding door? Oh, what about the curtains then? We had installed them about six years ago and the exposed mounting hardware had always been an eyesore. I was a bit more tolerant of them, but Malini had never really liked how the curtains had turned out. But, but, Malini goes, what I really want to fix is our garage floor. We had attempted to epoxy-coat it twice with rather indifferent results (those episodes deserve a blog of their own) - now it was a peeling, stained mess that mockingly reminded us everyday of our futile attempts to make it presentable.

So I started making some casual inquiries - a post on the 'classifieds' mailing list at work yielded some leads and also some alarm at the potential cost. Multiple home visits from various flooring, blinds, and door folks ensued and after much back-n-forth, it was decision time. Should we do it all? Or maybe just the garage floor? Or maybe just replace the couches and bide our time? Eventually, I gave into the siren song of a new and improved house and decided to do all three projects.

We lined up all the contractors and the projects mostly finished on schedule and remarkably, they were all trouble-free and almost completely satisfactory. When I think back on it, it never fails to astonish me that we did three, rather expensive home improvement projects that we had not even contemplated till we decided the couch must go. Now have new wood blinds through out the house, new glass doors upstairs and downstairs, a beautifully finished floor and cabinets (oh yes, this was another incidental addition to the project) in the garage, but the couches? Well, I put some duct tape on the tears and we are still using them.