Need or Want?

I was really feeling the need to spend time alone with Melon Man today.  Although taking my new job was supposed to alleviate most of the long hours, it seems as though the last three weeks haven't really changed much from the prior six years and again I am missing out on seeing Melon Man.  So, yesterday I decided to cancel having Holly come so we could spend part of the day together. 

We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast, homemade by Melon Man, of course, went and got gas where we noticed just how cold it was today...

...then we drove down to Estrella Marketplace to bum around. We went into Mega Furniture and were going to order the nightstands for our bedroom, but they have been discontinued. Dang!  We looked at new sofas too but couldn't agree on anything.

We then went down to another store just down the way thinking it was more of a decor store like Real Deals but it was more of a furniture store instead.  Couldn't find any nightstands there that I liked (found some that Melon Man liked but...um...no...!)  However, as we were waiting for the sales guy to come back we were sitting on a sofa and we both actually liked it!  We both liked the fabric, the color, and the style. The price wasn't too bad either.

But, as we sat there on it, we started to question the color.  We wondered if it would clask with our floors or if it would blend in too much with the floor, or just make the room seem too heavy.  So, we started looking at alternate fabrics.  I really likes this gold tone color, but didn't care so much for the texture.  It just didn't feel as "sturdy" and with my Melon Man and Dog, I worried about the color being too light and showing any dirt or stains (which WILL inevitably happen with those two).

We reverted back to wondering if the cranberry would clash with our floor so we decided to go home and check it out before making a decision.

We headed home but not before going to Lowe's and checking into a contractor to build a Trex deck for us.  Amazingly, they do not have a Trex contractor on staff in our town's store. They are checking into it for us to see if there are any others locally, otherwise we will have to contract it out with someone not recommended by Lowe's. We're going to try Home Depot first and see if they have someone or not. Too bad my soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law is a royal creep butthead and soon not to be part of the family. I would have had him do it.  The deck he built on their house is beautiful!

When we got home, it only took me half a second to determine that the sofa color would clash incredibly and that it just wouldn't work in our living room.  So...that made me start to question...was it a need or just a want? I recalled sitting there in the store looking at other fabrics and this and that and looking back I realize that I was just trying to mentally justify buying it. We don't really NEED it...well, maybe a little bit...but we can continue to live with what we have so it's really not a big deal to us. Personally, I would rather spend money on travel or food storage or the like at this point.

I then posed the question of myself regarding the deck/backyard changes we're making. That one, I felt was more justified since it would give us more space, more use of our yard, and allow us to actually enjoy the table, BBQ, hammock, etc. we have out there.  (Yeah, I WISH this was our backyard!)

I would love to be able to come home in the evenings and just sit out there and work on the laptop at the table, or eat dinner out there, or lay in the hammock. But right now, I can't. The area is small, there is no place to put the hammock except on the grass and it will get ruined if pummeled with water from the sprinklers every day so it's rolled up and stored in the garage. Plus, the barbecue takes up a lot of space too. And, to top it all off, there is pigeon poop everywhere because the pigeons eat Doodles' food all the time. I've noticed that if we don't feed him out there, they don't come around. So...to get back to my point, while I wouldn't say the deck is a major need, it's also not just a want.  There is some element of a need to it as well (but is that need the level or higher than the need for a new sofa?  I don't know, but I'll say yes for now.)

After we came home from Lowe's, Melon Man went to bed and I worked on my blog book some more.  It's going to be over 200 pages and I'm on on page 36 so far and it and another book need to be done by the 27th to get the 20% discount deal going on right now which is a really good deal.  I guess I need to get cracking!