We want a new living room

It seems strange to say, but we want a new living room. We don't like what we have.

First there's the couch. When we moved, we sold the leather furniture I had in my living room. I loved that furniture. Even with the various cat scratches, I loved it for its blackness, simple design and super cozy feel. However, after ten years or so, it didn't make sense to take it with us, especially since it was unlikely that we'd have room for it. Reluctantly, I sold it. Although I am amazed we got $350 for it.

That meant we brought the L-shaped microfiber-with-leather-armrest-and-body couch that I had in my office/sun/reading room. I loved how it looked, and it was a fairly outstanding piece to crash and lounge on. I have many great memories of that couch, in that room. Unfortunately, as a primary living room couch, it has really kinda sucked. Given its shape, there's only one position it can exist, if you're lucky. Also, because of its shape, you can't put an end table in the corner. We've ditched our coffee table because the living room is pretty much Simon's playroom. It's just not a piece that's friendly to rented (that is, smaller) spaces.

So we're going to investigate a new couch, and perhaps a chair-and-a-half. A love seat would be too big, a one-person chair too small. We have a little person, after all. Oddly enough, this would be the only furniture we have that is truly "us" furniture. Everything else we have, except the matching second nightstand I bought when it got serious, is stuff one of us had prior to meeting.

There's another issue in the living room: the TV. I bought it in the start of 2006 when I finally scored an Xbox because I needed something to play Zuma in HD on. It's a 37" Westinghouse LCD with no tuner, and no HDMI (it was less common then), but a bunch of other connections. It was expensive at the time, I wanna say just a bit under two grand. Anyway, the power supply to the display and speakers is cutting out, requiring you to cycle the power. Once it's warmed up, it seems fine, but it sometimes does it two or three times.

I think this means it will need to be replaced as well, soon. I looked around a little at TV's today at Costco, and can't believe how huge and cheap they are. LCD panel making is really efficient these days. That doesn't actually surprise me, because I haven't had a dead pixel in a display in any of the last eight computer screens I've had at work or home (not to mention the iPad, two iPhones and a Windows Phone). This is not something we need at all, more of a want.

A part of me thinks, wait until bonuses come out (end of August), but that's a long time. Diana in particular lives and works in the living room, every day. I want her to be comfortable. I suspect some furniture shopping is in order.