The Big Day Has Arrived

No, it's not the last day of school.  No, it's not back to work.  No, it's not the start of a vacation.  It's Ikea delivery day!  Woo Hoo!

It's time for the Ikea story to be told.  (Have you been waiting with baited breath since I first mentioned it here ?)  

When we were planning to have our first floor living area painted, one of the things that my husband latched onto was making what was once a sun parlor (back in my grandparents day) and had become a music room (when he moved in with me and the room became filled with yellow Tower Record bags) into a more usable space.  The room was basically a holding space.  It held a piano that was out of tune and no one played.  It held crates of records.  It held cds and boxed sets.  It was truly a music room, but one that was not really usable.  There was a lamp and a chair, but it wasn't a room that we used.  I wanted to be able to use it.  My husband wanted to be able to use it.  It was time for a change.

 My husband bravely gave away the piano.  It was a hard decision since it had been in his family for a long time, but it wasn't getting any use and it was terribly out of tune.  We (but mostly he) culled through the records and cds and put a pile away to be donated.  He carefully moved most of the items out of the room and down to the basement for storage while the painting was being done.  But the question remained, how could we rework the room so that we could still store our music collection, but so that we could use it as a sitting room as well.  

 After 25+ years it was clear that the crates would have to go.  Hubby did some extensive research and came up with an Ikea answer:  Kallax.  (Apparently EVERYBODY uses this storage unit/series).  Measurements were taken.  The room was plotted out.  How many units?    How would it be oriented?  There was a lot of discussion.

 Then the time came to place the order.  This was back in late April/early May BEFORE the painting began.  Our "local" (which aren't very local) Ikea stores were closed.  Which was fine because there was no way we'd be able to get everything we needed into the SUV.  So my husband tried to place an order.  Emphasis on TRIED.

 The first time he tried, they did not recognize our zip code.  Much of the east coast have zip codes that start with "0".  Ikea was not accepting "0" as a valid option.   As the research master in the house, hubby found that many people were having this issue and that Ikea was not really answering any customer service questions.  (Apparently, customer service is something Ikea needs to work on.)

My husband is persistent and day after day, week after week, he kept trying...

Eventually, he got through.  Our zip code was recognized.  Our prayers were answered!  Not quite...

While the zip code was recognized, Ikea said that shipping was not available in our area.  They recommended we pick it up at an Ikea location.  Their recommendation?  CALIFORNIA!  Nothing against California, and I would love to visit, but picking up storage units in California for our New Jersey home didn't seem to be practical.

Hubby didn't give up.  Day after day, he tried.  The suggested store changed from one in California to one in Illinois.  And then to Florida.  Then back to California.  (Strangely, Connecticut was never suggested, although it did appear as a drop down option.)

Finally, on May 18th was able to place an order.  Not a complete order, the unit that he wanted to use in the living room as an entertainment unit was "not available," but most of it was with a delivery date of June 18th.  Later in the day, he tried again, putting the items that he had removed from the cart into another order and...Voila!  Another order was placed (and another shipping fee added) with a set delivery date of June 18th. 

So now here we are.  It is June 18th.  We are waiting for a truck to pull up in front of our house sometime between noon and four with multiple boxes.  Boxes when added all together will weigh about 300 pounds.  I have no idea how long it will take to put this all together (and I'm going to try to stay out of the way while my husband does this...it's NOT going to be pretty).  But I am sure that it will take less time to put together than it did to order it and/or get it here.  And then finally I will have a finished sun parlor/music room.  Finally, I will have the opportunity to really clean the house.  (Should I be celebrating that?)  Finally, our downstairs will be complete.

Of course there's always the upstairs....



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