I was going through files and came across these screen shots of our web site from previous years. Fun stuff!

Home Reserve site from 2001…

Home Reserve site from 2005…

Our latest version February 2010…

Getting a new sofa is very personal. Bringing an item into your life and interacting with it on a daily basis makes the thing intimate.  Add to that the fact that our furniture is ready to assemble, and you have the ingredients for a highly tactile encounter as well.

We’ve always known these things, have always regarded it as an honored responsibility that people would entrust us with the opportunity to affect their family life.  It’s a serious and actually somewhat heavy accountability that we feel.

Picking fabrics, selecting styles, manufacturing the item perfectly…these are the common elements of our work together in producing an experience in which you are proud of your purchase and feel satisfied that you’ve made smart choices.

It’s never just furniture to us. But rather, an avenue for respecting and contributing toward the principle that family life has natural and inherent dignity.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s a New Year already. We are really excited here,because just like everyone we have some New Year resolutions. We are looking for a new way to finish the bottom of the Laney,Tux, Ali and Brook arms. Who looks at the bottom you say? Well we do, because we want it to look it’s best. Brandon  almost has the project finished.

Randy has been working on a really nifty liner for the storage area to help protect and contain the items you put in there. I just read a comment in our guest book about small items falling out. Springs or no springs… Scott is working on a design along those lines .  Blaine ,Byron and Casey are  updating the web site to make it easier to use. These are just a few of the really cool things we are working on this year.

If you have any ideas we can do to make your Home Reserve experience better just let us know. So you can see why we are excited!

Every year, right after Christmas, lots of folks start shopping for sofas.  Google has a neat tool called “Google Trends” which show the popularity of search terms through the year. Notice the spike in the graph below for “sofa” searches that happen at the end of December each year.

So besides the excitement of the season  it’s always a fun time for us at Home Reserve as we get ready for all the phone calls and emails coming our way right after the Holiday. We look forward to seeing you all on our web pages!

Many people ask us, “Do you have the furniture in your house?” It’s a good question, because it reveals our personal level of involvement.

The answer is yes and we are enthusiastic about it too! I wrote some months ago about my wife and I getting a new Home Reserve sectional. Now just this past weekend we got new fabrics for it and redid the living room. Wow, it really does work. It was up close and personal experience with changeable fabric sets.  I still get excited about seeing the things our furniture can do being put into action!

Here’s the way it looked previously, and a close up of the fabric.

Here’s it is with the new fabrics (Sundance Latte) . My little camera didn’t show the fabric well, so I added a close up below. We changed the ottomans too. (To Lapaz coffee)

There you have it….
Blaine
(President of Home Reserve)

Casey and Jen were up in the studio yesterday taking some “seasonal” photos.  They were working with a Classic Loveseat in our Holiday Red fabric.  I thought it looked really energetic and elegant. You should see this next week on the front page of the web site.

Ok…It’s finished! You’ve got your brand new Home Reserve sectional…and it looks really great! But what’s the next step for the shipping boxes?

The kids have played with them, the cat and dog have run amok around the boxes and now, other than keeping them as toys, you can choose to recycle the cardboard.

We’ve added a new tool to our site that will make recycling easier to do.  Go to our “Green and Community” link and on that page you’ll find a widget for locating your closest cardboard box recycling center. I like this tool. –Sandy

Number Three
“Is it difficult to put together?”

Number Two
“Is it durable? Is it strong?  What’s the likelihood of it falling apart and making me look stupid?”

Number One
“Is it comfortable?  It’s online so I can’t sit on it and check it out…so tell me, is it comfortable?”

I totally relate to all these questions. No one wants to spend money and then regret it. We know the questions real well, and everything we do, every day is framed around creating a positive emotional event–from the initial visit to the ownership experience.

I hope that throughout this site we are able to answer these questions. Our customer comments page will give you an idea of how our customer think we’ve been doing, and our why buy page will answer your questions about durability and comfort.

It’s hard to believe that there has been a frost already here in Indiana. On my drive to work I see the corn and beans ready for harvest and that reminds me, it’s time to snuggle in and get cozy. What better time to refresh your fabrics on your Home Reserve furniture.  We have a totally new package for our fabric swatches.

Casey, Jen and I have worked hard on this and we are excited to share it with you.  Alright…so Casey and Jen did most of the work…but I feel a big part of it as I send them out every day. It’s an elegant fold-able box that keeps your swatches neat and it’s even tied with a silver bow.

We hope that when you get yours, you will know how very special we think all of our customers (family) are. So get your swatches today, snuggle in with a cup of hot chocolate and plan your new look. If you don’t have our furniture yet, this is a great way to see the colors and feel the textures.

We hadn’t expected that church youths groups would actually form one of our buying demographics. But it’s been great. They’ve been getting Home Reserve sofas and loveseats and sectionals for their activity and gaming rooms. The youth pastors are great to work with, and we even threw in Pizza Hut coupons one time for the “put together the furniture” party they were having. They were getting the altima pet care fabrics so hey…it didn’t matter if some of the tomato sauce got on the furniture!