Our new-to-us sectional and a homemade plyo box

For the last few years, I’ve contemplated getting new living room furniture.  But there was nothing wrong with the furniture we already had, so I wasn’t in any hurry.  We don’t have a means of transporting furniture, and I didn’t want to invest a whole bunch of money in a replacement for something that didn’t really need to be replaced.  But the old set was a hand me down we had received several years ago, and it was 20+ years old.  The pieces were in very good shape for their age, but the patterned upholstery had never really been my style, and I was always drawn to the idea of a single sectional instead of three pieces arranged around the edges of the room.

But I had decided a couple years ago that I’d wait until I stumbled across just the right piece, at the right place, and with a convenient way to get it home.

Last month, we stopped at one of our favorite thrift stores to get an alarm clock for our son, and right inside the door was a fabulous chocolate brown sectional.  They had just put it out on the floor 30 minutes before we got there, and it was priced at $325.  An employee saw me checking it out, and I said how great it was but mentioned that I had no way to get it home.  To my surprise, he said that they would deliver it for $35, even though we live 15 miles from the store.  Score!  I bought it then and there, and four days later they showed up at our door with this:

We then sold our old set on Craigslist for $130.  Including tax and delivery, the new sofa cost just about $400, so our net cost was $270.  We love the new sectional, and we all agree that it makes the room more cozy, looks better, is more comfortable, and leaves more open space for basketball, kick boxing, wrestling, and all the other stuff that my guys like to do in the living room.  Definitely worth the $270 we spent, especially since this sectional is from Ashley Furniture and similar models sell for around $2500.  This one was flawless when we got it – it looks like nobody ever used it at all.  Maybe it was in someone’s second living room, or maybe they just preferred other seating.  Whatever the reason, we’ve got a practically new sectional that works perfectly in our living room, delivered, for about 10% of the cost of a new one.

This is everyone’s favorite spot in the living room now:

It’s right next to the window so you can look out on the backyard, and the chaise is super comfy.  With our old furniture, that corner was unused space that just had our plants in it.  They blocked a lot of the light from the window, and the room feels much brighter with them next to the center wall instead.  It also makes it a whole lot easier to clean that window now, since it’s not in behind a furniture blockade.

I was telling some friends about our sofa score yesterday, and one of them said “you’re the best bargain finder – you should start a blog!”  That’s not the first time a friend has told me that, but I’m too shy to let any of my real life friends know about my little corner of the internet.  But it’s nice to have their votes of confidence!

That plywood box in front of the couch is our jumping box.  My husband made it last winter so that we could do box jumps, and we both use it all the time.  We had to put it in our living room, because the ceiling in our basement gym is a few inches shy of eight feet, and especially when the box was set to its tallest height, you’d be hitting the ceiling with your head.  Our living room has a vaulted ceiling, so that’s where we do our box jumps.  The box can be used at 20 inches, 24 inches, or 30 inches, and it’s sturdy as can be.  My husband built the interior framework out of left-over wood from other projects, and it’s mostly 2x6s in there.  He over-engineered it for sure, which is a good thing for a box you’re going to huck yourself up on top of.  Those plyo boxes can be purchased online for around a hundred bucks – or more (!?), but all we paid for was one sheet of OSB, which I think was about ten dollars.  And we use it all the time.

So that’s our recent living room makeover.  A great new sectional that set us back $270, and a plyo box that cost $10 and doubles as a very sturdy coffee table.  Here’s to DIY projects and being patient about big purchases.  If you wait long enough, a perfect solution at a great price will eventually turn up!