The All-Day Affair

So today was cabinet day. I awoke full of hope, with visions of much progress being made in the kitchen dancing in my head. All we had to do was pick up our cabinets at IKEA, bring them home and start putting them together. I even went so far as to think we might actually get one or two hung up today. Ha, ha. That was a good one.

We headed up to IKEA about 11 a.m. While we'd already done our layout in their 3D program, we still needed to review it with one of their kitchen experts to make sure it was going to work and that we had everything we needed. After that, all we had to do was buy the cabinets and be on our merry way. Easy enough, right?

Wrong. We waited close to 45 minutes before we could get anyone to help us because only two people were working in the kitchen design center. Then it was another 30 minutes of finalizing our plans. The guy we were working with said he'd get it all into the system while we were having lunch.

Lunch probably took about 45 minutes (meals are not quick when you've got a 10 month old trying to feed himself), then another 15 minutes for Rick to go pick up the paperwork. We were finally ready to head downstairs to pay and pick up our stuff. It probably only took about 5 minutes to check out, but then we needed to make sure we could rent one of their vans to haul all the stuff home. That was about another 15 minutes.

After that, we checked on our order and were told it would be about 40 minutes more. Not a minute sooner, so it turned out. Seven carts full of cabinets, shelves, feet, plinths, hinges, handles and everything else needed were waiting to be packed up. It took two empolyees another 20 minutes to load up the van.

It was 30 minutes home in traffic, 20 minutes to unload the car, then back out to IKEA to turn in the van after stopping for gas. By the time we got back home, it was 5:40 and Jim, our contractor/friend who is helping us, had already left for his anniversary date night. So not the first cabinet was put together. *sigh* But at least the kitchen is full of boxes.

I don't know if you're all familiar with IKEA or not, but the reason their cabinets are so inexpensive (what we bought today cost over 50% less than what Home Depot was going to charge us) is they come flat and you have to assemble them yourself at home. I always figured this would take us a lot longer than anticipated. I just didn't think we'd be behind before we even got started. God help us tomorrow.