The Deal of the Century

If you've known us at all you know we've had hand-me-down couches from both sets of parents since we've been married. And we're thankful that this is one less expense we had to incur after we got married. The couches have been masked by some illustrious khaki slipcovers that don't particularly like to stay in place. We also love to decorate and have always dreamed of getting leather couches.

Since we're planning on buying a house in the next few months, we've started saving for new couches and looking for them. We have always loved a certain set of couches from Pottery Barn - the Manhattan, but for us Pottery Barn is cost-prohibitive, in a big way. We did find out if you work there you can get a 40% discount, but even then, that was pushing it for us. Though we hadn't totally put away the thought of one of us working a part time job there for a short time, we were trying to find other couches that we liked. We've only looked passively, but still nothing was measuring up.

I was visiting my cousin Pam, a decorator, a few weeks ago and told her what we were looking for. I asked for store recommendations and she said she would keep an eye out for us. She called me the other day and said I wasn't going to believe what she had done. She was at an antique furniture auction and they started auctioning off new furniture. She saw a leather sofa and two leather chairs that looked exactly like what we wanted, so she bid and bought it. She told me it was ours if we wanted to buy it from her, and if not, she'd resell it. She was going to send us pictures so we could decide whether or not we liked it, but, she didn't have too. After looking at the couches and the Pottery Barn website, she thinks that it's the exact same couch and chairs. The exact same set we wanted in the exact same color we wanted! And the best part - for the the whole set she only paid the cost of ONE of the chairs, on sale! It's a steal, not only for leather couches, but for any set of couches, especially from Pottery Barn. Needless to say I am out of my mind excited! Way to go cousin Pam!

As soon as we buy the house to put them in, you're all invited over for a test sit!