From House To Home

Once, when I was about 8 years old, I ordered an enormous stack of pancakes at a restaurant. I remember being delighted to be able to select something from the grown-up menu, but when I got about a quarter of the way through it, I had to stop. I’ve always loved pancakes, but this was too much. “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach,“ my dad said with a grin.

I got the chance to pass this simple lesson on to my daughter recently while helping her find a new couch.

I’ve always enjoyed furniture shopping, and we set out with high hopes. But we shopped every single store in our area before—wouldn’t you know it?—she found The One. Nothing else would do; she fell in love with it. It was large, we both knew, but that was part of its appeal. She could seat quite a few friends or stretch out on it with her college textbooks, and it would be economical, too—she wouldn’t need chairs because it was so accommodating.

Next step: negotiation. We were able to get the price lowered a few hundred dollars because, it turned out, it was scheduled to go on closeout soon. Then I gave her a short lesson on acquiring her first credit card and explained how she’d want to pay the entire balance as soon as possible to maintain a good credit rating. I started feeling like this was turning into an amazing opportunity to impart some important knowledge about the worlds of furniture and finance.

That is, until delivery day. The furniture delivery truck appeared on time, but the movers promptly discovered that the only way it could be installed in her living room was by crane through the third-floor living-room window (which would need to be removed). It was just too big!

We were surprised how we could have overlooked its clearly massive size in the showroom because it was so beautiful. Shaking our heads and laughing, we returned to the furniture store where my daughter easily found the “love seat” version of the enormous couch she’d had her heart set on. It was delivered without incident (or crane) the next day. And she’s learned something beyond what my dad taught me years ago: start with the short stack, yes—but stay with your dreams.

From our home to yours,

Kim Malakowsky
Editor-in-Chief

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