Buying new furniture

We bought a futon about 4 years ago that we have used as a living room couch ever since. We now have a family of 5 and just one couch. While I really like the futon, the whole family barely fits on it. Then if we have company someone has to sit on the floor. We decided that it's time to have real living room furniture.

We had a couple criteria for our furniture. We wanted it to be green. I haven't got a clue how to decipher what goes into furniture as far as chemicals etc, so that was going to be tough. The other major criteria was that the furniture had to fit me. You see, when you sit on a couch with your knees against the couch, your hips are still several inches away from the back of the couch. Most couches force you to slouch. That drives me nuts. So I had to find a couch that would not force people to slouch in it, but would still be comfortable.

We went to several stores looking for the perfect couch. Couches that fit real people don't seem to exist anymore. We therefore looked at used furniture places. This also helped us find 'green' furniture. We ended up at Habitat for Humanity. And we happened upon an Amish made couch and love seat. Evidently they were custom made and painted black, but the buyer changed his mind. The Amish store that made them does no carry painted furniture, so they donated the furniture to Habitat for Humanity. This was a $3300 couch and love seat that was drastically reduced at a second hand store. With that said, it was by far the most expensive furniture in Habitat for Humanity.

I was extremely grateful today to be able to not only get new, green furniture, but to be able to make a substantial 'donation' to Habitat for Humanity. I got a couch that fits real sized people that is really well built for less money than a new living room set that they have at the stores. It's not very often that I feel good about spending as much money as we spent, but I feel really good about it.