So . . . Where does one go to furnish a new NYC studio apartment on the cheap? Well, Ikea, of course. And it's sounds like SUCH a good idea at the time. I mean, you can get chic, modern furniture for 1/2 the price of West Elm/ Crate & Barrel / basically anywhere else. And Ikea is only 25 minutes away and your husband has a Zipcar account and is coming to visit conveniently right after pay day. And not only that—he's available to assemble all the pieces of furniture. Ideal! AND, and here's the most fabulous part—not only have you been waiting patiently to have anything to sit on (see, you have had no bed and no couch up until this point), which you will have after the trip to Ikea, but also this Ikea is close to a Buffalo Wild Wings that is you and your husband's secret shame of a favorite place to eat. And guess what? Because you've planned out your morning so perfectly that you arrive right when Ikea opens, you will have time to go to BWWs after shopping and be able to drop off the furniture to the apartment and the Zipcar on time. No muss, no fuss.
Yeah, the reality is not so much like that. The real story is that despite your best efforts to communicate the sheer quantity of stuff that you will be buying and the sheer length of time that it will take to traverse the levels of the maze that is Ikea (on a Saturday no less), your husband will underestimate on both accounts. Granted, this is not necessarily completely his fault. I did do a bit of "celebrating" the night before we were going to Ikea because the NY bar results came out so we didn't wake up nearly in enough time. We ended up getting to Ikea much later than planned. The actually shopping part although tiring was actually quite fun. I mean, shopping for an entire apartment is like a girl's dream—"I'll have 2 of those, and that couch, oh and those lamps....". Paying was not so much fun (and neither was finding a coupon for $25 off today, 2 weeks AFTER the shopping trip!).
Then it came time to load the car. Yeah... everything fit (including things on my lap) except for the chaise lounge. While this was disappointing, it wasn't the end of the world because we could put together my loveseat and I would FINALLY have somewhere to sit in my apartment that wasn't hard or squeaked when I sat down. Of course, at this point we had blown several hours and there was no way that we were going to make BWWs and get the furniture to my apt. and get the car back in time. Thank goodness for living in a doorman building with guys that like me and help me load stuff into my apartment when E is returning the car because traffic was bad and we were almost totally delinquent in returning the car.
THEN came the bad news. My apartment would not accept the chaise lounge, which I could get delivered that evening because it was 1.5 hours after the time they normally accept furniture. Really?! I actually had a little cry-fest out of frustration about the whole thing. All I wanted was a freakin' couch. And because Ikea is dumb and the saleslady didn't tell us we needed to buy a cover separately—I had a cover to the chaise but no chaise because I live in a doorman building and had a couch but no cover because Ikea is dumb and we're dumb for not knowing that you need it to assemble the couch. So. Long story short--no stinkin' couch. Not to mention we ate lunch at 5pm.
That being said the customer service people at Ikea were great. The deliveryman took pity on me and didn't charge me to deliver it again on Monday. And fortunately, I live close enough to home that I was able to meet him and be back in the office within 20 minutes on Monday when he came back to deliver some time between the hours of 9am and 5pm.
Erik unfortunately spent the whole rest of the weekend assembling the furniture. Several pieces were broken so I had to go back to Ikea on Sunday after Erik left. The highlight of that trip was this:
On the weekends, Ikea has a free ferry from downtown Manhattan to the Ikea in Brooklyn. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and such a great view of the city. So, all's well that ends well. There was definitely a period where I absolutely hated Ikea down to my very core. But now that I have all my furniture—and I assembled 2 couches all by myself!—life is much better. And, for those who are worried, I also now have a mattress. All I need now is a rug and a nightstand and life will be almost perfect. :) I'll post pictures of the new place once I get stuff on the walls.
P.S. Erik gets major husband bonus points for not complaining about assembling furniture ALL weekend and really not doing anything fun. His quote: "I just really want to get this all done for you because I know you've been sad without furniture". <3 He's a keeper.
The lack of updates is most disconcerting.
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