Sofa Saga

About a week ago one of my neighbours asked me for help to get rid of an old sofa. She didn't want it any more as she was changing her colour scheme and it didn't go. I waffled on knowledgably about Freecycle for a while before asking her what it was like - 7ft long, terracotta soft leather, perfect condition, and she had tried to sell it but no one wanted it, so she just wanted rid because she was having a laminated floor fitted and had ordered a new sofa to go with her new lilac curtains and photo frames. I thought it sounded rather nice, went to have a look, and offered to give it a home myself, purely out of the goodness of my heart, you understand. That fact that the colour exactly picks up the detail in the wallpaper, our old sofa is knackered and too small, and we had recently acquired a dark brown leather big armchair was all totally irrelevant...

The only and obvious problem was in the size of it. Phyllis lives in an identical flat to ours but the ground floor version. Her grandson, who had put it in for her in the first place, was quite confident about getting it back out again, but would it go in our front door, round the twisty stairs and through the living room door, unhelpfully not quite opposite the top of the stairs but down a narrow passageway? He said it would, Ron thought it wouldn't, I only hoped, as I can't even offer advice at the moment, let alone lift furniture.

So last night the grandson and friend turned up, took it out of Phylis's and four doors along to us. Ron had taken the banisters down on one side of the stairs and they got it up to the first floor quite easily, the only casualty being a dangly light fitting that came away but isn't broken, and with a lot of grunting and groaning got it solidly wedged in the living room door frame. It was almost there, but it wouldn't go. Not turning it round and trying it backwards, tilting this way, tilting that, no way was it going through. By this time Ron was threatening to redesign the door frame with a saw and a big hammer, but they finally succeeded after taking the door off its hinges and removing some draughtproofing from round the inside of the frame. It just fits, looks lovely - and will have to be covered up except when we have visitors because that is an easier option than retraining the dog!

Of course, we still have to take the old one away, which is scheduled for this evening, mend the hall light and replace the door and banisters. Or do we? The door has always been wedged open, but opened into the room, so there were things hidden behind it. With it not there the room seems much bigger, somehow. Maybe not, then...