adventures in building...

so today . . . i built a dresser and two nightstands. from IKEA (i used caps to spell IKEA, because apparently that is the only spelling they recognize. when i was looking for dressers, i googled ikea and got the response "did you mean IKEA?" so, i guess it isn't the same if it isn't in caps...)

we needed new dressers. the dressers we had were the ones we bought when we were first married, which was a long time ago. we originally just bought the chest of drawers, because that was what we needed and it was all we could afford. but i finally talked rollie into getting the big dresser with the mirror that matched. my rationale was that if we didn't get both dressers while they were available, we were going to end up with mismatched furniture, because eventually we would need a second dresser. so we figured out how to pay for it and brought it home. i loved the look of those dressers, but over time, my love waned... they were made of wood "products" and plastic, and although they still looked good, they just didn't say "grown-up" furniture to me...

when we moved into our new house, i decided we didn't need any dressers at all! we had this "huge" walk-in closet and i was sure we would be able to get all our clothes and shoes and stuff into the closet! i was wrong. in case you didn't know it, walk-in closets look much, much bigger when they are empty than when you start filling them up with your stuff...

so i went on a search for "the perfect dresser." you know where this story goes... i went to furniture stores. i searched online. i went back to furniture stores and took pictures. i watched for sales. the problem was, i only wanted ONE dresser, and all the furniture stores wanted to sell me a whole bedroom set! plus, i didn't really know what i wanted... and while i love to shop online, when it comes to furniture, i want to see it and touch it and open and shut the drawers, so the online thing wasn't really working for me.

and then we got a sale flyer in the mail from IKEA, and i saw a dresser that i really liked. so one friday after school (while rollie was sick,) i went to IKEA. alone.

if you have never been to IKEA, my advice to you is don't go alone, and don't be fooled into thinking it will be a quick trip. because IKEA stores are like a rat's maze for furniture shoppers! i'm serious!! they don't have rows and aisles which allow you to choose where you are going to go--you just have to follow the path. there are no short cuts. you go around and around and around. and don't even try to go backwards unless you want to feel like a salmon swimming upstream... i did not take my own advice. i went alone, because i was looking for one specific thing--the dresser i had seen in the ad--so i knew it would be a quick trip.

it wasn't. and the worst thing was, that while i was trying to find the dresser and then figure out how to get out, i saw so many cute and wonderful things... which i am sure is the reason for the maze-like layout to their stores. those IKEA people... they are evil geniuses...

anyway, i found the dresser i had seen in the ad, but once i found it, i also found all the matching companion pieces. and boy, were there matching companion pieces!! open bookcases, bookcases with glass doors, double wide bookcases, tv stands, 3 drawer dressers, 5 drawer dressers, 8 drawer dressers, nightstands, wardrobes, desk units... it was mind boggling. and there i was, alone, with my tiny car...

which was ok, because there was no way i could make a decision surrounded by all those choices! so i battled the friday afternoon traffic on the 405 (another HUGE mistake,) and headed home.

i spent the next few weeks mulling and measuring and checking online and printing out specs and looking at colors and checking the checkbook, until i finally made a decision. of course, i was spurred on by rollie's exasperated (yet patient) voice saying, "JUST PICK A DRESSER!!!" (he spoke in caps, because his socks and underwear had been folded on a high shelf in the closet for the last seven months and the stacks kept threatening to fall over. there are just some things that need to be in a drawer...)

the dresser and two nightstands were delivered this weekend. furniture from IKEA comes in large flat boxes. unassembled. that's probably one way they keep their prices down, but if you are not good at following picture directions, do NOT buy anything from IKEA! there are no words AT ALL in their instruction booklets, and even the pictures have minimal detail. let's just say that getting the correct piece of hardware into the correct hole and having all the holes line up properly is about as easy as juggling on a unicycle--it can be done, but not by just anyone...

fortunately, i am quite good at following picture directions. and i LOVE to build things from a kit. i decided to start with a nightstand. i figured it was smaller and would be quick to put together while familiarizing me with how the directions worked. i was very careful. i had to be, because one time, about 20 years ago, rollie put a small video cabinet together (by himself,) and he put the bottom piece on it upside down. did it make a difference in the functionality of the cabinet? no, but it was wrong, and it tweaked my ocd tendencies, and so now i build the furniture. (there have been times when i wondered if he did it that way just so that he would never have to build another piece of furniture, but i don't think so. he was just putting all the nice, wood grained pieces on the outside where they would show. the problem was, you can't see the outside of the bottom piece--it's on the floor! that's the problem with picture directions--sometimes they leave out little details like which side should be up!) since i have teased him about this error mercilessly over the last 20 years, i can't afford to make a mistake...

i got both nightstands put together without incident. and then i started on the big dresser. it was more complicated than the nightstands, and i had some trouble with the hardware. rollie was letting me use his power screwdriver, but i found there was a bit of a learning curve to using it without stripping the screws. rollie's knowledge of tools and how to use them helped me solve some assembly difficulties, but since we don't build well together, he pretty much stayed out of my way.

and then it was time to put the top on. i had the whole framework together and everything was lining up nicely. i lined up the holes in the front and got them secured. i lined up the first two holes in the back and got them secured. and then i ran into trouble...

... because those last two holes were not lining up with the holes in the top. i tried everything i could think of, but it just wasn't working! finally i called to rollie for help. he came in and managed to muscle the pieces close enough that we got one more giant screw into place. but that last one was just not working. after several attempts, we decided to leave it until later...

i spent the next several hours assembling the eight drawers. after the frustration of dealing with the top piece, the drawers were a lot of fun to put together. everything lined up just right!

and while everything feels nice and sturdy, i may be living on borrowed time, because i finally decided the top of the dresser was plenty secure with just seven screws in place. but don't tell rollie. i will never hear the end of it...

:)