My sofa has proven itself an imprecise, yet telling measurement of the time since I moved in. I imagine these stages I suggest are not unique, and thus I present them in universalized language.

Stage 1: Partially-constructed. The sofa is not yet usable. Its surrounding space lacks cohesion as it is understood to be a work in progress.

Stage 2: Finished. The sofa is completely assembled and contributes aesthetically to the room. Order in the space is maintained to complement this aesthetic.

Stage 3: Catch-all. As the space’s inhabitant begins to recognize the low probability of presently entertaining guests, the sofa begins to accumulate domestic detritus, including, but not limited to sweaters, literature, and writing implements.

Stage 4: Counterbalance. The explication of the previous stages spurs the inhabitant to a feat of cleaning and organization, restoring the space to the state of Stage 2.

Once a reliably regular period of stages 2-4 is established, it can be calibrated as a more precise chronographic rhythm.

I knew I wanted a TV. I didn’t know I wanted a Kull.

Of course, I knew I would need something on which to set a TV. An entertainment center. So I turned to Ikea, and it was there that I found Kull. Kull is a “TV bench,” wide enough to hold a few things along with the set and just tall enough to accomodate TV viewing while still sitting low enough to hit that difficult mark of “subtle.” It looks, in a word, cool.

However, the retail price of Kull was above what I felt I should spend on a “TV bench”. I resigned myself to the prospect a simple Fl√§rke supporting my future TV.

And then, this week, I discovered a Kull in Ikea’s “as-is” floor model section priced scarcely over half retail, docked for some slight cosmetic damage that would only face the wall.

As a worker and I shared the burden of lifting it onto a cart, the thought crossed my mind that I would likely have difficulty loading it into my car and ultimately taking it up two flights of stairs to my apartment, even with disassembly prior to transport.

Eighty minutes later, I stood in my living room, reflecting on the odyssey which had brought the four major parts of Kull from store interior to vehicle interior to residential interior: After finding a person to tell me where I could get disassembly tools, taking a number, waiting, picking up the tools, trying to disassemble Kull, not succeeding, finding help, waiting for help, helping the help, moving the pieces to the loading dock, leaving Kull unattended while I fetched my car, solving the deviously chanced puzzle of fitting all four Kull pieces into my car without scratching them or the car, driving home, extricating each piece under the same constraints to take them inside, and reassembling them, I at last had Kull.

Now all that Kull lacks is a TV upon it, a sofa before it, a DVD player within it, and cable or satellite programming behind it.