Petrie sofa, interrupted

See this big empty space in front of the windows?

That's where my new sofa should be.  You might notice that its not there.  

That's because today, for the SECOND time, I sent the sofa back.  The first time it was delivered there was a hole in the upholstery, right in front.  Today, the second sofa was delivered, and it had damage to the fabric behind the cushions.  Mr. Delivery Guy says "you know, three people in the warehouse inspected this and picked it out for you." 

Well, clearly they didn't inspect it very well, now did they??  

Step up your game, Crate and Barrel.  I have wanted this sofa for three years, and I'm not too happy with the service or product provided for the amount of money I have spent.  

William Morris Project: the garage, phase one

When we looked for houses out here, I was looking for a house with a garage where we could store stuff, not a garage where we would park our cars.  That is remarkably hard to find around here---many communities here will not allow you to park on the street; you MUST park in the garage.  I'm not sure why this is.  My guess is that the development roads are so narrow that if you parked on the street, your neighbors would not have enough room to get out of their garage.  I guess no one ever entertains or has friends over?

Our house in New Jersey had an attic with an office, a basement, and a garage.  All of those spaces had stuff in them.  This house does not have the attic room, the office, or a basement.  Although I purged quite a bit, I needed places for all that stuff.

We were lucky enough to find a place that had a two car garage, plus a driveway, and street parking.  However, we won't be parking in our garage any time soon, because its full of stuff.

When the movers left, it was all stacked neatly, like this:

To the right you can see the laundry basket and a drying rack--that's where the laundry is.  In this picture, the boxes are stacked in five rows, with two very narrow corridors between rows one and three.  You could wedge yourself in to see what was in each corridor, but you couldn't lift a box down if you found one you wanted.

Ten minutes after the movers left, I started looking for things, and everything in the garage multiplied as if a Gemino charm had been imposed upon them (thankfully, not the Flagrante charm), and for days I couldn't get to the laundry.  I also had to walk out the front door, around to the garage, and open the garage door to get to the trash cans and the stroller.

This would be a much more impressive post if I had taken a picture of that mess.  I thought I did, but...clearly I can't find it.  Pretend there is a picture of a really messy garage filled to the brim right here.

Last weekend I spent all of Saturday in the garage.  From 9 am to 6 pm I unpacked and unpacked and unpacked and purged and rearranged.  Now it looks like this:

I know, the before picture looks better, doesn't it.  You probably can't tell from any of the pictures I took, but I got rid of three rows of boxes.  That's about sixty boxes.  The laundry area is accessible, and I tuck the double stroller in that blank space on the left between the yellow bike and the trash can.

I also sold nearly all the furniture that was in the garage--an Ikea Tullsta chair, a large wooden cabinet, an office chair, an Ikea Melltorp dining table, and a dresser.  If I were judging southern California based on the sampling of people I have dealt with on Craigslist (every single one of whom has sent me an email with the opening salvo "would you take $20 for that piece you have listed for $200?"), well, hmph.  

I made a little side table city, and I can access my treadmill.  For a while there we couldn't find the safety key for the treadmill, which, to be honest, was the impetus for unpacking the garage.  Greg flat-out refuses to go for a walk with me, so my opportunities for exercise were limited until I could use the treadmill.  I was starting to panic when I got about two-thirds of the way through the boxes.  It was in the second to last box I unpacked.

There are a few boxes that the Mister needs to deal with (that pile there in the front), and a few boxes of old records we need to shred, and some more rearranging to be done.

We need a better tool center, but for now, most of the tools are corralled in the black sideboard.

I tried to be ruthless in purging.  In fact, I sold the Melltorp table, then the next day realized I could have used it for a headboard project.  Oh well.  I had a large pickup for the Vietnam Vets:

Round Two will involve organizing the tool center, getting rid of old papers, and going through the boxes of the Mister's stuff.  I have pared down to more acceptable levels of stuff.  There are things I don't want to get rid of---I have three large boxes of picture frames and three boxes labeled "decor" that I repacked, but I do hope to buy a house in the next year or two, and there are things I don't have room for in this house that I am hoping to use in the next place.

In any event, that's my William Morris project of the week.  I hope next week's project is smaller in scale and does not involve my aching back.  Something like a linen closet or a dresser drawer sounds about my speed. Since my version of unpacking was to take things out of boxes and throw them in the nearest closet, I have plenty of closets and drawers that need organizing and beautifying.

I am linking up to Pancakes and French Fries William Morris Project.
  

art in the foyer (house # 10)

Our front door opens into the living room, but there is a small foyer space with just enough room
for a small console right inside the door.  I have moved a little changing table from house to house, even though we haven't really used it as a changing table since Greg was born.  Its a nice size and a simple design, and I love the color.  My law school mentor gave it to me when I was pregnant with Greg, and I painted it a pretty spring green  to match his nursery.

Its just the right size for our foyer. It could use a fresh coat of paint and different knobs, and I'll get around to that eventually.  I had hopes of putting the nekkid Botero in the foyer, but the glass is broken.

I tried it with the Klimt:

and with the nailhead mirror, but the scale was too large.

And finally we settled on the peacock mirror.

I really liked this one, and it felt....familiar, for some reason.  And then I remembered--it reminded me of this picture:

via YHL

I love the styling in that picture, so I'd say I need two small lamps to complete the picture. I am impressed with the owner's ability to keep that surface clear of junk mail.

In reading Danielle Oakey Interiors I discovered that Z Gallerie has a peacock mirror similar to mine (which was from Pier One last year).  

The Klimt was installed in the upstairs hallway:

and the nailhead mirror lives right around the corner from the foyer.

hardware, the Dread Pirate Roberts, boobytraps

I had high hopes for showing you my new sofa, except it was delivered with a large hole in the upholstery, so I did not accept delivery, and my new sofa will be arriving for the second time on Friday, hopefully without holes.

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I had big plans to go to Target and Lowes, but while at Target I was That Woman, the one who abandons a full cart and her purse in the middle of an aisle while her toddler makes a break for it and runs into the parking lot.  Lots of judgmental pointing but no one reaching out to STOP the toddler hellbent on freedom. Except Greg, thank goodness, he managed to stop her with a flying tackle. (But still, in the parking lot.) After that I was feeling frazzled and we came home and I laid on the sofa with a large lemonaide and some chocolate chips to soothe my nerves.

I needed to go to Lowes (which I did after the Mister came home and I went alone) in order to look for hardware for Greg's bed.  Greg broke his third bed in three years, two days before we moved, and so I have been hunting for vintage bed hardware since the day we got here.  Unfortunately I have come up empty-handed, despite much driving all over southern California to furniture repair places and vintage hardware stores.

This is the hardware that I am looking for, and no one who repairs vintage furniture  has ever seen anything like it:

Basically, the narrower side slots into a bracket contained within a hollowed out portion of the leg of the bedframe.

If you have ideas on where to find this hardware online, or if it has a special name beside bedrail fastener, I would greatly appreciate the help. I have tried ebay and every vintage hardware store known to man located in southern California and gotten nowhere.

I am willing to scrap this particular hardware and move on to a more modern/readily available means of fastening the headboard and footboard, but I cannot find a fastener that will fit over this hollowed portion:

I would like to use something like this, but everything modern I have found is too narrow or too short to fit over that hollowed out portion.  My last-ditch option is to drill holes straight through the front of the bed into the bedrails, but clearly that will ruin the aesthetics of the bed and I am trying hard to avoid ruining an 80 year old bed.

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Princess Pegleg stumped around the house wearing this tin cannister on her leg, shouting "I'm a piwate! I'm a piwate!" and then taking off her tin leg and bashing Peter with it.

As you wishhhhhhhhhh....

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Greg found a spool of string and created a boobytrap for unwary marauders and piwates, wherein you might be attacked by ninjas.  There was much jumping over and rolling under. They begged for baby powder so they could throw it on the string, as if to make invisible lasers show themselves, but I drew the line there.

I was unwittingly clotheslined by the first boobytrap, but I limped off to the sofa in the playroom to nurse my wounds, and that spool of string (which is still tangled over every conceivable surface in the living room) provided over an hour of entertainment to my children.  I may go buy another spool of string tomorrow.

my Grandma corner

I think of this area in the foyer as "my grandma corner." It has the paintings my grandma painted, and the chair my aunt gave me that is like my grandma's throne chair.

I will recover the chair again once I get the other fabrics in the living room, but for now its a nice place to put your shoes on in the morning.

new house William Morris Project: playroom

This whole house is a William Morris project waiting to happen. (Warning, there are no pretty "after" pictures today.)

I'm not going to make an exhaustive list today because it will depress me (or rather I could by simply putting one item: house), but I have a few areas I need to focus on.   I wrote this post thinking I would make a short list of those areas, but then this turned into a long, rambling post about the playroom, so I'll just focus on that for today.

Area number one is the playroom.  I purged the playroom when we were living at the old house.  When I unpacked here, I purged again.

I got rid of five trash bags of toys that will go to Goodwill, as soon as I figure out where one is.

And yet, this room is still too full. It needs another round of purging.  I would like to have only the toys that fit in this wall of cubes, and as of right now, there are still some toys that don't fit.  I want the Wii accoutrements to fit in the cubes, the outdoor stuff like bubbles and chalk, and room for more books.

I  would really to find room for the art supplies in here as well.  I hate art projects.  I'd rather poke out my eyeballs with sharp sticks than do an art project.  I'd be thrilled to get rid of the art supplies.  But the kids like doing them (blarg) and so they must stay, and thus I must find a place for them.

I also find that the cubes are very heavy on older kid toys like Bey Blades and weapons, but not very much on little toddler toys. When the boys are home Princess bashes and crashes with her older brothers, but when they aren't around she does like to play with her baby dolls and her (vintage, used to belong to me in the eighties) My Little Ponies.

Its really hard to decide what to get rid of. I feel like what is in here are the toys that get used the most.  I suppose I could combine some categories. Each bin has a separate category of toy: balls, superheroes, cars, playdoh, food for the kitchen, dishes for the kitchen, Legos, blocks, etc.  Food for the kitchen and dishes for the kitchen could go in the same bin (the horror! No, I don't have OCD.)

I would also like a more organized solution for the costumes than the bin they are currently thrown into.  This armoire redo by Rambling Renovators would be fabulous but I don't really have room for that in here.

That kitchen countertop is a William Morris project all its own.

I'd like to put up a corkboard next to the tv to hold the kids' artwork.  Currently the artwork is held up with tape.

Last but not least, I would like to downsize the plastic play kitchen. I found this large plastic one on the curb on trash day a year ago, so I'm happy to donate it and pass it on. Princess does use it frequently, so perhaps DIY-ing something in a smaller scale that could tuck in under the eat-in counter would help.

My "after" picture is hardly any better than the before, but this is going to be a while.  At least its usable now.

I'm linking up to Pancakes and French Fries's William Morris Project.

craigslist, first day of new school

I am selling a number of pieces of furniture on craigslist, and searching on craigslist for an ottoman for our living room.   From the woman who sent me seventeen emails about my dresser only to huffily say OH, NEVERMIND, to the four people who have emailed to ask if I will take $20 for a dresser listed for $100, to the guy who said "its none of your business if I have pets" (I asked if his ottoman has been in a home with pets since my son has severe allergies), craigslist brings out the best in people.

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Greg's first day at his new school was Monday.  I took some "first day of school" pictures (which may remind you of a few previous years "first day" pictures, as you can see here, and here).  Greg is not all that fond of the camera.

His first two days seemed to go pretty well.  He is going to a year-round school, so he only has one week of school before he goes on a three week break.

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The Mister and I often refer to the children's more destructive antics as "Hulk SMASH!!!!"  I came across these Hulk fists in Target and they made me laugh.  The kids want to play with them SO BAD.

what to do with the playroom?

Let the decorating begin!

Oh wait, I have to finish unpacking.

I have unpacked the playroom.  I was planning on buying a new sofa for the playroom, but the Murray sofa I already have from Room and Board is the perfect size, and the kids have broken the springs on the seat and peed on it anyways, so I decided to stick that sofa in the playroom and buy a new one for the living room.  (The new sofa is supposed to arrive on Sunday, so hopefully I'll post pictures of it then!)

Its still a mess. 

The tv is not centered--we couldn't find a stud anywhere in the middle of the wall, and the Mister drilled many, many holes to find it, so we went with off-center.  That puts paid to my idea of hanging something on either side.  Ideas for decorating around a tv stuck randomly at 3/8ths of the way across on a wall?  I am not really the kind of girl who places art organically, I am more of a rigid grid type person.  This is probably going to drive me nuts the entire time we live here.

The playroom shares space with the dining room--its a long, 20 x 13 room.  One half is the playroom, and the other half is the dining room.  I had hoped to do a banquette in the dining room, but I cannot find a seating solution for an amount of money I want to spend that doesn't involve mounting kitchen cabinets to the wall, and thus I am putting that idea aside for a while.

The nice thing about this space is that it gets great natural light.  The bad thing about this space is that the natural light will sear your eyeballs in the morning, especially where the sunlight comes in through the high window and glares off the glass table top.  I'd like some curtains in here.

I am, however, undecided on what color direction to go here.  And whether I should do curtains? Pelmets?  Roman shades?  What to do with that top window, which doesn't have blinds like the others?

This room is open to the kitchen, which has navy blue tile counters, and the toy storage is contained in bright green bins, so I'd like to work with these colors.  The room is also open to the living room, which will have a brightly colored curtain pattern including red, teal, green and yellow.

I'm partial to the Stockholm Blad curtains from Ikea.  I think cobalt blue and bright green are a fabulous color combo, so the curtains and bins would work nicely with each other. 

We had the green colorway in our playroom in the apartment, so obviously that works as well:

What to do?  And what do I do with that window up top?

campaign dresser mystery; observations

The movers arrived on Friday, so we are now firmly ensconced in a zillion boxes in our new house.  The new driver let me know that the old driver "had the ammonia" but was out of the hospital and on the mend.

You might recall that the night before the movers came, I got an email telling us our estimate was over what the Mister's company would pay for and thus I owed a zillion dollars for the extra amount.  I decided that there were a few furniture items that I would be willing to part with, and since the campaign dresser weighs about 200 pounds, I decided to give it to my sister.  I had the movers move it out to the garage, along with a matching campaign desk and hutch, and our china cabinet.  

I'll be honest, I have absolutely no memory of whether the campaign dresser and desk were in the garage when I did the walk-through with the movers at the end of the day.  I had told the movers that once we hit the weight limit they would be walking stuff back off the truck, so they probably were. I truly can't remember.  

A few days later I went to the garage to take some measurements of the furniture for my sister.  I opened the garage door, and.....where the hell is all the campaign furniture??  I guess the movers put it on the truck?  Sorry, sister, you aren't getting a campaign dresser after all. 

Since I thought the campaign dresser was on the truck, I mentally drew up a floor plan using that under the tv.  

On Friday all the furniture was unloaded and the movers started assembling stuff.  I looked around and asked "is there a big white dresser still on the truck?"  

Nope.  

Uh....where the hell is it?  

We called poor Brad the truck driver, still suffering from the ammonia, wheezing and coughing, who claimed he put it in the garage. 

Basically, this means someone stole a 200 lb dresser and a desk and a hutch.  They were extremely heavy, and certainly not the type of items that you would say "ooh, let me carry that home, it will just be a minute!"  Lifting the desk or the dresser would be a two person job, and you'd need a truck. 

Not a clue.    

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Awesome thing about this house:  completely fenced in yard and three walls of windows that means I can see the kids nearly everywhere in the yard from inside the house.

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I thought Southern California was warm year round.  I was wrong.

When we flew out a few weeks ago on our house-hunting trip, the weather forecast said that it would be 72 degrees.  Since it was 30 degrees in NJ, I thought that sounded warm, so I packed a bunch of sundresses.  When we arrived in California, I dressed up in my cute sundress, went to breakfast, and made the Mister turn around and take me back to the hotel to change into the pants I wore on the plane, and then we went to the mall and I bought a sweater.  I wore that outfit for the next four days.  My pants nearly walked off the plane themselves at the end of the trip.

Now we are here in California, and its 52 degrees and rainy, while the weather in NJ is in the high sixties and sunny.  Hahaha.

You would think that I would be all "pish tosh, you silly Californians don't know what cold weather is! This is nothing!"  But these Californians seem to think that rainy and 52 degrees is perfect weather for tank tops and shorts.  I am still bundled up in my winter coat.  I feel somewhat misled.

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My own personal episode of Hoarders.  I didn't get a picture of the first 58 bags we took to the dump. (Its mostly packing paper that the movers used to wrap our stuff in when packing it.)

There's  more where that came from!

At least that ginormous pile of packing trash and cardboard is keeping my kids from catapulting from the second floor.

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Welcome to our chair and small side table convention!

I bought another sofa.  Should be here next Sunday, yippee.

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I have unpacked nearly all the boxes inside the house.  (The garage is a different story and it will be months, if not our entire lease period before we can park in there.)  I have hit that last 10% of stuff, of where the hell do I put this, this will NEVER BE OVER JUST THROW IT ALL AWAY FOR THE LOVE.

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I'd like to end this on an up note but there is just TOO MUCH STUFF here that I need to put away.  Also, there are only three overhead lights in the whole house, so I am putting things away in the evening in the dimly lit ambience of a cave.  I do have plans for some lamps but that would require finding the extension cords and some light bulbs, which are in the garage, and I have not yet braved that hell.

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I think we are going to like living here, but I am not so great at the transitional period, you know?  

no water landings

We are here in California!

Peter, reading at the airport, surrounded by our 400 carry-on bags.

Our flight wasn't bad, although my older two asked every thirty seconds "what if we have a water landing????" I reassured them repeatedly there would be no water landings.  I refrained from telling them, even on the 498th asking, of my fears that we were far more likely to slam into the Rockies than to have a water landing.  Thankfully there were no water (or mountain) landings.

As we were waiting for our flight I got an email from the moving company letting us know that our truck driver had suffered some unknown ailment that landed him in the hospital, and thus our belongings are in a parking lot somewhere in the southwest, and will not be showing up on Thursday as previously scheduled.  They may show up on Friday.  Or not.

Tonight we are staying in the Mister's executive housing (he has been here for a few weeks already), but this apartment has one *very small* bed, and originally we figured that for one night we would suffer it so as not to spend even more money, seeing as all our stuff (ie. our beds, and toys, lets not forget all our toys) were showing up the next day.  Thankfully after tonight the moving company will be putting us up in a hotel until our stuff gets here.

This is not actually the worst thing in the world.  (Except for the truck driver, I imagine he's not so keen on this scenario.  Did I tell you about our truck driver/head of the moving crew? He is the spitting image of Ron Swanson, and talks like him too.  I hope he's ok.)  However, instead of going over to the new house to supervise all my stuff showing up, I will go over tomorrow and clean the house (it will be a contact paper party!), and we might explore the neighborhood, and register Greg at school, and generally try not to be stressed out.

I find a large part of my being stressed out at the moment is feeding Peter.  We eat mostly at home where I can prepare foods that I am certain are peanut and tree nut free.  Peter has had three reactions in the last month, two of them to food from restaurants (the third was a rebound reaction the next day), and I am just very leery at the moment of eating out.  Which is problematic when one is moving and traveling and has to buy food at airports and all of one's kitchen utensils are on the back of a truck in a nameless parking lot a thousand miles away.  

Not related to anything, but as we drove home from the airport I said "goodness, the sun is very strong for 7:30 at night, isn't it??  That daylight savings is something extra here?"  The Mister gently reminded me that it was only 4:30 in California and yes, the sun IS still strong at that hour.

Anyways.  The only way out is through, right?  We are drawing closer to being settled in here, hopefully in the next few days.  The weather is lovely.  And there are palm trees all over the place.  I have sofas to shop for.

It was a very weird feeling getting off the plane, knowing that I was not returning to New Jersey.

Its only 8:30 here, but I know from past experience that I will be awake at 3 am until I get used to the time difference, and my children will probably be up at 2 (or earlier, the horror), so I will stop my inane ramblings and go to bed now.

(As some writerly guy I can't remember right now once said, I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I haven't had the time to write a shorter one.  In that vein, please forgive my excessive parentheticals and lack of coherence or editing. Basically this is a post to let my mother know I'm alive.)

Goodnight, New Jersey. I miss you.  Good night, California.  

I talk about my feeeeeelings. AGAIN.

I stopped at Whole Paycheck Whole Foods last night for some groceries, and swung through the card section to pick up a card for Greg's teacher.  The card section was chock-full of positive affirmations.

One of them really jumped out at me:

Leap, and the net will appear.
   ~zen proverb

I am not really the kind of person who leaps without checking for the net.  I am the kind of person who Yelps four recommendations for net makers, asks what kind of tensile strength the rope has, how long the net maker has been making nets, and how sturdy the edifice is to which the net will be attached.

Moving to California feels very much like leaping and hoping that a net will appear.  

One more day.

Here's hoping all those Zen followers are right.  

pumping gas; chesterfields

Two more days till we leave!

Ack!

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It occurs to me that I will have to learn to pump my own gas when I get to California.

If the majority of you are scratching your heads at that, let me inform you that New Jersey is unique in two aspects: you can't make a left off a major road here, and you don't pump your own gas.  Obviously on small local and residential roads you can make a left, but generally on roads with more than two lanes in each direction, you will have to get in the right lane and go around a circle at a light to make a left, much like an exit ramp.

via

These U-turns are known as jug handles, and they are confusingly placed. Sometimes they are before the light. Sometimes they are after the light.  Sometimes there won't be one and you'll have to go to the next light, or even the light after that.  And sometimes, for no reason you can discern, there will be a left turn lane.  If there is someone sitting in the middle of the intersection, trying to make a left into four lanes of oncoming traffic where there is no turn lane, and there are twenty cars behind him honking with rage, 100% of the time that car will have out-of-states plates and a driver gesticulating wildly.

Anyways, we don't pump our own gas.  The gas station attendant will do it for you, and you are not charged extra for the privilege.  I had a job in Georgia a few years ago, and I managed to spend four months there and only pumped my own gas twice.  The rest of the time I batted my dewy eyes at strapping young men and had them do it for me.  (That was before I had children who stole my youth; I was prettier then and young men were quite happy to help me.)

New states, new adventures, I guess.  I look at it as adding to my life skill set.

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I am obsessively shopping for the sofa for the playroom.  Its distracting me from the fact that I am leaving nearly everyone I love outside of my nuclear family behind. (Waah. Hold me.)  Also, that's what I do--shop obsessively for something once I have a design idea in my head.  Between the sofa and trying to find a way to do the banquette inexpensively, I am a shopping MACHINE.

I went to West Elm and sat on the chesterfield sofa.  It was....eh.  If I wanted a small loveseat for an entryway, or a second small sofa for a rarely-used living room, then that would be a nice choice.  It was a bit hard and stiff (oh, so many jokes here) but not very comfy.  Since I anticipate logging quite a few hours on that sofa, I want something that we can all snuggle on.  That sofa was not it.

Yesterday I was drooling longingly over the green Atelier chesterfield at Anthropologie.  At $6000, its wayyy out of my budget, but oh my heavens, is it not just the most beautiful sofa?  I can't get it out of my mind.  On the other hand, I haven't sat on it either.

And it comes in yellow!

Pottery Barn has a nice one, but at 90 inches long, its too big for the playroom.

Jules has an aMAAAAzing one she found on craigslist.  Stuff like this never turns up on my craigslist.

This picture has been in my inspiration files for quite a while.  I love everything about it--the white chesterfield, the vintage art, the black window trim, the rug, the metal table....I would love to have this living room.

via

The rest of my sofa shopping will have to take place in California.  Less than 48 hours till we are there.  

Sofa for the playroom

The playroom and dining room space is a long space, about 20 feet long by 12 feet wide.

The space to the the left will be the playroom space, and to the right, under the light fixture, will be the dining space.

My plan is to put a sofa in the middle of the room facing the back wall, so the back of the sofa acts as a room divider.  This means I need another sofa, since the living room around the corner will have our other sofa.  

My first thought was to buy a leather sleeper sofa.  This sofa will be in the playroom space, and having a wipeable surface would be great with the kids.  I know that we will have plenty of visiting family and friends, so a sleeper sofa seemed like a good idea, especially since we don't have a guest room.  Some cursory internet shopping, however, revealed that leather sleeper sofas are mostly ugly and start around $4,000.....so.....I'm not getting leather or a sleeper sofa.  

Moving on to less expensive options!

A strong front runner is the Movie sofa from CB2, which was a contender last year when we bought a new sofa.

Last year we both said "that's too modern and a bit too slouchy," but it was definitely comfortable.  And I don't mind how it looks--for my playroom.  I wanted something a little more sophisticated for my living room, but for a playroom, I think it would be just fine.  Also, a huge plus--its a tight-back sofa, so my children would not disassemble the sofa fourteen times a day, as they do with my current sofa. (Every time I want to sit down I have to pick up all six cushions off the floor and put them back on the sofa.)

One drawback to the Movie sofa is that it is 88 inches long,  The room is 12 feet wide, and the sofa is nearly 8 feet long.  After we move in I will tape off the dimensions of the sofa to see how it feels in the space.

Another possibility is the tufted chesterfield sofa from West Elm.

I have yet to sit on this sofa, so I can't speak to its comfortableness.  But, it does have two advantages; it is a tight-back sofa without cushions, and it is 77 inches long.

The Club sofa from CB2 is also 77 inches and a tight-back:

I really like this leather sofa that Dana at House*Tweaking bought for her new home:

Its leather and its the right price, but it seems to be sold only on the internet, not in stores.  I am reluctant to buy a sofa without sitting on it.

Seen any good sofas lately?  Would you buy a sofa without sitting on it first?