![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneYesterday we had to go to Ikea and buy An Entire Kitchen (just the cabinets for it, not the appliances or the countertops), and we also had to buy the plumbing fixtures for both bathrooms (minus toilets which our plumber said he can source for us), so before we even got to Ikea, we went to the home store.
Now, I've read several articles online about using and putting together Ikea kitchens including advice about picking and transporting the parts yourself, so we were pretty confident two adults could do it (also our house is small and there were only 8 cabinets). We were in Ikea for more than 6 hours though,
~11:30 Arrive at Ikea from the home store, starving. Find the Ikea restaurant completely packed with the line almost as long as it ever is, because, as the cashier told us, it's a rainy Saturday in fall. We have no choice but to wait in line for lunch.
12:00 Arrive in the kitchen department. We had printouts of an earlier version of the kitchen drawing we'd made, but we had penciled in changes we wanted to make to it. Sit down at a computer and draw it like we want, after asking a few questions from an employee. Make a printout of the item list.
Walk through the downstairs to the warehouse only to discover the item list does not include shelf numbers or places. Go back upstairs to ask the employees for shelf places. They're all busy, even though when we first arrived there were 3 employees at loose ends in the department and we didn't need their help yet. Try to find how to get them on the computer and fail. End up asking again and are told they are in the computer, but an employee has to get them with their employee login. Have to take a queue number.
15:20 Wax's mom and brother arrive to shop for a bed, and call her to come say hi to them and then send her away again. I'm still waiting for assistance from an employee to print out the list of shelf places for me. I give up and start wandering around the department trying to write down the shelf spaces based on showroom tags, while keeping one eye on the queue. Wax's mom and brother call her and require her to go where they are to... talk... and then come back again. Eventually she comes back and an employee prints us the list.
With the list in hand, we return to the warehouse and get a big cart. Unfortunately, the list is not sorted by the item's location in the warehouse, but by its intended location in the finished kitchen plan, with each cabinet unit grouped together. The list is over a page long and has to be visually scanned for the shelf and aisle numbers. This is somewhat taxing, and Wax's mom and brother keep calling and interrupting to ask her when we're leaving, if we're done yet, if we have enough money, if we REALLY have enough money, and if we really REALLY have enough money with us (we did). We fill the regular shopping cart and the big warehouse cart so full of cabinet pieces that I have to go back for a second warehouse cart and then we have to spend about half an hour redistributing the boxes so that the barcodes can be read.
18:55 Home.
...And then last night and this morning, after checking the receipt against the shopping list against the unpacked contents of the van, we discovered that we forgot one item from the list, bought the wrong size of one other item from the list, and the list itself contained the wrong size of a third item which was why we couldn't find the right one in the warehouse (but they did have it somewhere else). We ordered the stuff we missed to be picked up this afternoon and returned the wrong-size door in the same trip.
So! Now all we have to do is put the cabinets together, buy the paint for the cabinet doors, paint the doors, rip out the remaining baseboards, patch the holes in the 50s linoleum floor with cork, lay down construction felt, lay the new linoleum floor, buy a range hood and have it delivered, wait for the builders to fix the two walls where the cabinets go and then hang the cabinets on them for us and install the hood, and then put the doors on the cabinets! And then two walls of the kitchen will be done, except for buying a new stove. (The other two walls need to be re-papered before they are painted.)
- 2 faucets, one with a hand-held shower attachment
- 2 bathroom sinks and the cabinets for them to sit on
- A shower
- A shower temperature mixer thingy... I have no idea what this is called in English: I don't think we really use them in the US, or maybe they're part of the shower or inside the wall? The US isn't big on adjustable-height showers and exposed plumbing parts...
Now, I've read several articles online about using and putting together Ikea kitchens including advice about picking and transporting the parts yourself, so we were pretty confident two adults could do it (also our house is small and there were only 8 cabinets). We were in Ikea for more than 6 hours though,
~11:30 Arrive at Ikea from the home store, starving. Find the Ikea restaurant completely packed with the line almost as long as it ever is, because, as the cashier told us, it's a rainy Saturday in fall. We have no choice but to wait in line for lunch.
12:00 Arrive in the kitchen department. We had printouts of an earlier version of the kitchen drawing we'd made, but we had penciled in changes we wanted to make to it. Sit down at a computer and draw it like we want, after asking a few questions from an employee. Make a printout of the item list.
Walk through the downstairs to the warehouse only to discover the item list does not include shelf numbers or places. Go back upstairs to ask the employees for shelf places. They're all busy, even though when we first arrived there were 3 employees at loose ends in the department and we didn't need their help yet. Try to find how to get them on the computer and fail. End up asking again and are told they are in the computer, but an employee has to get them with their employee login. Have to take a queue number.
15:20 Wax's mom and brother arrive to shop for a bed, and call her to come say hi to them and then send her away again. I'm still waiting for assistance from an employee to print out the list of shelf places for me. I give up and start wandering around the department trying to write down the shelf spaces based on showroom tags, while keeping one eye on the queue. Wax's mom and brother call her and require her to go where they are to... talk... and then come back again. Eventually she comes back and an employee prints us the list.
With the list in hand, we return to the warehouse and get a big cart. Unfortunately, the list is not sorted by the item's location in the warehouse, but by its intended location in the finished kitchen plan, with each cabinet unit grouped together. The list is over a page long and has to be visually scanned for the shelf and aisle numbers. This is somewhat taxing, and Wax's mom and brother keep calling and interrupting to ask her when we're leaving, if we're done yet, if we have enough money, if we REALLY have enough money, and if we really REALLY have enough money with us (we did). We fill the regular shopping cart and the big warehouse cart so full of cabinet pieces that I have to go back for a second warehouse cart and then we have to spend about half an hour redistributing the boxes so that the barcodes can be read.
18:55 Home.
...And then last night and this morning, after checking the receipt against the shopping list against the unpacked contents of the van, we discovered that we forgot one item from the list, bought the wrong size of one other item from the list, and the list itself contained the wrong size of a third item which was why we couldn't find the right one in the warehouse (but they did have it somewhere else). We ordered the stuff we missed to be picked up this afternoon and returned the wrong-size door in the same trip.
So! Now all we have to do is put the cabinets together, buy the paint for the cabinet doors, paint the doors, rip out the remaining baseboards, patch the holes in the 50s linoleum floor with cork, lay down construction felt, lay the new linoleum floor, buy a range hood and have it delivered, wait for the builders to fix the two walls where the cabinets go and then hang the cabinets on them for us and install the hood, and then put the doors on the cabinets! And then two walls of the kitchen will be done, except for buying a new stove. (The other two walls need to be re-papered before they are painted.)
