Trip To IKEA

We have been contemplating going to IKEA all last week and decided to make today “IKEA Day”.

We have been looking at for a wall unit/entertainment center for the living room. The wall that we are planning on using has 111” of space available. We figured that the modular units that IKEA sells would be a good place to start.

Here is a picture of what we currently have:

As you can see, the wall currently looks like shit. That is about to change.

So, as you know, we went to IKEA today and we found three units that we both liked. Scratch that, we actually found two that we liked and one that we kinda of sorta liked but not enough to post a picture here on my blog.

Do you think you can tell which unit we bought? To help you make your choice, remember that our hardwood floors are dark and the walls are a beige color.

This unit is totally modular so you can make it fit your lifestyle. We like the way that it is suspended off of the floor.

 

 

We like this one also. The glass fronts on the cabinets are nice (too bad the lighting is not included).

So have you made a choice? Not to worry, I have more to this story.

Since IKEA is always packed on the weekend, our plan was to leave the house at 9am and drive to Centennial (if you have been paying attention, that is were IKEA is located) and get there by 10am. As always, our departure plans failed and we got out of the house around10am.

We should open our own airline.

We walked around a lot and looked at a bunch of wall units as well as other stuff. We decided not to get a cart since we would have no problem filling it up. You know that when I say “we”, I really mean Michelle. She is not watching my write this so I am safe for the moment. If for some reason this entry is rewritten, you can bet your bottom dollar that it wasn’t me.

Three hours later and we have the perfect wall unit picked out. We went with the layout that was on display since it was what we liked, had the price and parts list and the total cost.

With the price sheet in hand, we went to the sales kiosk to inquire on shipping and assembly. We have been unboxing all fricken week and could use a break. I am sure that we could have got the boxes in the car but you can’t purchase an assembly plan unless the items are delivered. Seems hokey to me but that is the way it it.

Our zip code is located in zone two so the delivery charge is $99. Zone one would have been $59.

The assembly quote came out to $159 so if your paying attention, the total so far is $258 and we haven’t even purchased the entertainment center.

The sales guy said that just need to take the price sheet to the checkout downstairs so they can ring it up then cruise over to the delivery department to setup a delivery/assembly date. Seems simple enough.

We waited in the check out line for about twenty minutes. There was two people ahead of us but one guy had three shopping carts full and was making separate purchases for each one. Insert “grrrrrrr” here. Grrrrrr

Finally, it was our turn. Did I mention that it was the express line? Fifteen items. Our list had twenty five items on it but technically, it was only seventeen pieces but some had multiple pieces. And to be even more technical, we only had one piece of paper so it seemed safe to say that we only had one item.

We gave the sheet of paper to the cashier and he gave us a “what the fuck do you want me to do with this piece of paper” look. We explained to him what the sales guy told us and then allowed him to retort. Seems that we either need to pick out the items or pay $40 to have somebody pick them for us. So, off to another service desk and another twenty minute wait.

The guy at the service desk was really nice. We gave him out sob story and he helped us pickup the items. Actually he picked them out, I just pushed the cart. Typically, that is a $40 charge.

Once again we found ourselves in the check out line (and another twenty minute wait) and when it was our turn, the cashier charged us more than what the price list stated. She made us feel that it was our fault. We had everything on the cart with the bar codes facing up and in the forward position so it would make her job easier (and decrease the wait time for the people behind us). Seems that she charged us twice for an item. Bitch. We paid out money and was told where we should go to schedule delivery and assembly. We were not told that we would be in line for another 45 minutes or so.

We were getting really hungry at this point. It was around 2-ish pm at this point.

I can’t understand why we the line was so slow. How hard is it to take down an address? You give them your address and they tell you the day that it will be delivered. With only two people in front of us, we couldn’t figure out why it was taking so long. Five or ten minutes…tops. That is how long it should take.

Hooray, our turn finally came.

We told the guy that we wanted the items delivered and assembled and installed. We already knew what the charges would be so we should be done in a couple of minutes.

Now the bad news…assembly is not available in our zip code (huh?) however, delivery is available. We gave the guy our address and $99 and he gave us the delivery date of next Tuesday (August 19th) between the hours of 9am and 9pm (once again, huh?). We will get a call the night before with a four hour window and another call the day of with a 30 minute ETA.

Bam…done in seven minutes.

So, which unit did we buy? This one:

$590 as displayed plus $99 delivery

The color is black/brown and is made out of solid wood (pine) with brushed nickel knobs and tempered glass. The unit measures 95 inches so it fits within our measurement budget of 111 inches.

We got on the road at 3pm and went to “On the Border” for lunch. On the Border is a Mexican joint ran by Americans so you can guess the quality of the food here. We have been here before so we knew what to expect.

With full bellies, we went home. Michelle took a nap and I put up another set of blinds.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading my rambling.