Fuck. I just folded to being bank-of-sara again. When I can and can't afford it. (Budget=shot. Bank account=NSM.)

I have sort of expensive taste, but I don't mind other people owning stuff before me. I've pretty much purchased everything for my two bedroom on Craigslist, the majority of it being from Crate and Barrel. I'd like a new couch, and look at Craigslist daily for exactly what I want. The hard part is lining up a way to get it home, especially since I don't have anyone close who can help move it into my house even if I can get it home.

Yes, it is. That's its biggest drawback, IMO.

Chikat, if I do the fix that's recommended, and it works, I'll email you the info. It involves filling in the gussets with 5/16s clear tubing from the hardware store. And the other thing that causes so much of the noise is an apparently hollow casing for the sidemirrors. That can be filled with either putty or foam insulation.

Tep, we got our leather couch for $110 on Craig's List. It's served us well for the last almost 5 years. (Holy crap, my kid will be FIVE SOON. We got the couch when I was pregnant.)

Yay Tom for the fun evening. Fun is good.

Kat, I really liked Where the Wild Things Are. I know this sounds like a strange thing to say of a movie where most of the cast are CGI monsters, but I found it very human.

DH says James Gandolfini was miscast. My biggest gripe was that his monster was named Carol, not Moishe.

The hard part is lining up a way to get it home, especially since I don't have anyone close who can help move it into my house even if I can get it home.

I do have access to a truck. And I can probs find cheap labor, if it comes to that. (Ask megan!)

j, be careful what you offer! :) (and, thanks!)

Yeah put me in the expensive tastes but don`t mind used category. Our thrift store living room set was $200 for all three pieces and lasted over six years. When we moved here though, we bought an expensive modern leather couch which looks awesome but is not utterly comfy. It stood up to the dog but not cat. I use discount shopping not to buy cheap things but to buy expensive things for normal thing prices.

Microsuede is a cinch to clean, but I don't know how badly the cats might scratch it up.

We have a microsuede sectional with a scratched up arm that my old pal Josie liked to dig her claws into. However, I haven't seen my other cats scratch it ever so maybe it was just her thing. Love my couch, though!

I'm wary of getting a used couch, only because Cincinnati has a bedbug problem of EPIC proportions. And even if someone doesn't *think* their used couch has bedbugs -- i.e., they aren't being malicious and deliberately foisting a buggy couch on someone -- it might still have them without the person knowing it.

I realize that furniture stores could have a problem, too, but it's a lot less likely.

My mom has a microsuede loveseat from Jennifer that we like so much that my Aunt bought two just like it. No dogs and only one occasional cat around them, so I don't know how it holds up.

I, too, have a Suburu Forester 2005, which could be quieter -- javachik, very interested in how the quietening works out....