Remembering.

“We got married, because we were so in love and wanted to be together.  We hardly had anything, but none of that mattered.  We were in love.”

– Lavell N.

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When we were getting married and looking for our place, Matt took me to the cutest development of apartment homes.  It was picturesque, with well manicured lawns, fully stocked with pools, tennis courts, and screamed, “you would be so cool if you lived here,” as you drove onto the property.

The leasing agent directed us to the model apartment and we walked around, envisioning our lives there… It was relatively small at 764 sq. feet, one bedroom/one bath, but it was brand new and decorated with absolute stunning style…  naturally, which should make us want to live there.  The price wasn’t great, but it was pretty.  I think we were supposed to overlook the price tag, because the visions of us spending our first year of marriage together in this little haven would cloud out any hint of reason.

We didn’t sign the lease.  It was above our price range, but for me that wasn’t the deal breaker.

You see, in the living room, decorated in perfect blues and browns, complete textures that beckoned comfort and luxury, was this incredible teal couch.  It was the most beautiful couch that I had ever seen.  Hanging just above it was this brilliant piece of art, that made the wall pop and together the two aided in the attempts of striping reason from potential residents.  It caused my design-loving heart to skip a few beats and truly made me want to live there, with that couch… happily ever after.

We drove away, promising the leasing agent that we would let her know our decision as soon as possible, because naturally, there was only one model available and someone else was really interested too. (Do they all say that?)  Matt asked me what I thought.  I told him, we should keep looking.  He  asked why, and this is how the conversation unfolded,

Me: We can’t live there.

Matt: Why?

Me: Because, we can’t have that couch.

Matt: Oh?

Me:  We can’t afford a couch like that and so our apartment would never look as good as that one and I wouldn’t like it as much and so I don’t want to live there, if I can’t have that couch.  Plus, it’s more than we want to spend on rent, but mostly, it’s about the couch.

Matt: Fair enough.

He thought the first con should be the money, but I knew I couldn’t live there without that couch.  Boys and girls are different.

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Thank God for that couch, because we found a bigger (1200 sq. ft, 2 bedroom/2 bath) apartment at a better price that we could handle.  As we walked through this model, complete with floral patterns that my mom would love, I found myself thinking, I could make this place look so much better.  

We started out with used furniture, because we didn’t want to be sitting in our living room thinking, we’re still paying for this.  Most of it was given to us, because no one else wanted it.  It was months before we even had a couch, we borrowed a futon… the one that everyone else borrowed from Lavell, when they were just starting out too. 

Our apartment wouldn’t have won any contests, but we loved that place.  We loved that first year of our lives together.  It didn’t matter if the furniture was used or mix-matched, because we were in love and so happy. 

We knew we had a whole lifetime ahead of us to have really nice things. We realized that it was a process and we were only at the beginning.

Three years later, we’ve bought  a few things, but still so much of what we own is used.  We don’t care, because we’re happy and in love. 

Furniture has nothing to do with it.

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Do you remember those first years or marriage?  Were you lucky enough to start out with the whole package- nice house, cars, jobs, furniture?  Or was it a slow process as you created your home, bit by bit?

P.S.  I still dream about that couch.

{Liv