Old Sofa Sunday

Yesterday morning was pretty placid. Lots of reading time, a little houseplant care, some minor household tasks. I spent a couple of hours with an interesting book of letters between Allen Ginsburg and Neal Cassady -- something I found while weeding the library's poetry shelves a couple of weeks ago. I don't know much about the beat poets but I'm intrigued by their interaction and discussions of their creative process. I'm not reading the whole book cover-to-cover, just jumping around and reading random groups of letters here and there.

But a veil of apprehension was hanging over the day, because I knew at some point we had to get the gigantic old brown couch out of the house.

Now, some backstory on this couch, in case you've forgotten. We arranged to move into this flat in July 2014, taking it over from some co-workers who were moving back to the states. They had recently purchased new furniture, and we agreed to keep it. Our previous apartment in Notting Hill came furnished, so we were leaving all that furniture behind and we needed something to sit on, and it would save our co-workers from having to move or dispose of their new stuff. Here's the first picture of the couch to appear on my blog, though it went on to feature in many, many photos, mostly as Olga's favorite snoozing place.

Dawn, the woman who sold us the couch, told us at the time that it had been a nightmare to move into the flat. It was too big for the interior hallway, so the delivery men brought it up the side return, through the garden gate and in through the back door. This apparently took some doing.

It was a perfectly good couch for 11 years, but at the same time, I never loved it. I would never have chosen something so big, or wide, or brown. It didn't make sense to invest in a new one while Olga was alive, but after she died in July we took the plunge, and it arrives Thursday. (Incidentally, Dave has agreed to stay home that day to intercept both the couch and the new rug, so I won't miss any more work and further annoy my boss.)

We waited until the middle of yesterday afternoon to make the move, so I could sit on the couch as long as possible. Rather than use the side return I decided we'd carry it out the back door, across the patio and back through the bedroom, then through the foyer and out to the street. I measured everything and didn't see why it wouldn't work, and it seemed a heck of a lot easier than using the garden gate.

Some of you asked for a video of the process, and I puzzled over how to make that happen. I couldn't very well hold a phone AND move a couch. We have a Go-Pro but no way to mount it to my body, so that wouldn't work. Finally I decided to use our home security cameras, which we can set to be triggered by movement. The result is the video above, which I'm pretty darn proud of, if I do say so myself.

It starts with some accelerated footage of preparations, like moving plants and shifting cushions. Then you'll see two minor mishaps -- we nearly crushed a little orchid by the back door until Dave saved it, and he almost lost his shoe backing into the bedroom from the patio. The hardest part was getting the couch out the back door, because there's a wall there and several big garden plants -- we had to tip it immediately upward to navigate that tight space, and carry it vertically around the corner of the house. But overall, it was a fairly smooth process with no breakage or injury.

And now the couch, sans it legs, is sitting out on the pavement out front, waiting to be collected today by the council -- along with two decrepit garden chairs. (We saved the smaller pillows and one of the cushions on the back of the couch, which I can use to sit up in bed. I'm using it as I write this!)

Until the new couch arrives on Thursday, this is where I'm relaxing in our living room. Pathetic, I know.

I am so relieved to have this done. I'm not kidding when I say I have wondered for the last 11 years how we were ever going to get that couch out of the house!