Sunday 27 May 2007

Ikea kitchens - The revenge of the cupboard.

The kitchen is now half up.
The build started yesterday morning and ended around 11pm.
I had gone to buy the stuff on Thursday afternoon - and I have to say, it's an absolute pleasure to visit the Swedish Emporium on a weekday afternoon. I came home with 128kg worth of boxes.

I had some help putting this kitchen together and thank God
(in this case S) for this.

We quickly realised that while we thought we had it all, a mandatory visit to Brico was in order. This seems to be an absolute Must when doing any kind of DIY and it's something that slows down the process considerably. For some reason after the spilt paint and white jean lady incident, I took us to another Brico.
With Jigsaw, silicon, drill heads and pipes for sink in hand, we make it back to the flat and get to it.

Now I always think these kind of jobs will be straightforward and relatively easy to handle.... And it NEVER turns out this way.

















I realise quickly that someone in the packing warehouse at Ikea must have had a spaz moment when they packed my drawer elements... 2 left handed pieces!!! So I bravely soldiered on figuring out why I have soo many pieces that don't seem to get used. It take a while to finally realise that the flat packs for drawers are basically the same for all Ikea elements and they sell you the specific bits for your cabinet in a different box. All very confusing if you ask me.

Then a while later, we realise that there are no legs holes for the cabinet we have just built, and with further inspection of the packaging and floor plan of kitchen, I have been given a wall cupboard and not a floor one. I am told by Ikea that I do not have to pull it apart and I can just bring it is as is.
Lovely, just what I wanted, an afternoon sitting at customer service. Another thing on the list of stuff to do for the next couple of weeks.

Jigsawing and flat pack building continues and before you know it, it's 7pm, the old sink is now on my balcony, it's putrid and it strikes me a new sink is in order. Wohoo for Ikea closing at 8pm on a Saturday.
That was the fastest trip to Ikea ever and we arrive home with new sink (lovely) and a mountain of plumbing stuff.

We struggle to finish all the jigsawing before 10pm but I'm sure there must have been a better way to introduce myself to the neighbours!

The way it stands today: the sink cabinet (what is left of it), the sink worktop (what is left of it) and the drawers next to the cooker are up, the worktops are cut to size and the kitchen looks so much better already. I'm starting to believe that this small and weird shaped space will actually look like a real kitchen soon.




































The metal structure on which the sink was on before is now happily squatting my new bedroom. There is Ikea furniture building stuff ALL over my sitting room and I'm sure I could make a tidy profit selling the sawdust that's all over my flat to Brico to mop up the occasional spilt paint.


















I'm fully aware of the magnitude of stuff still to be done (not just in the kitchen) and with the days flying past and shops being closed now until Tuesday, I'm slightly concerned.

It's hard work but it's good fun and there's a definite sense of achievement when you know you're doing it yourself.



Special P.S. to John who's running in the 20K today... Good luck mate, have a blast. I admire anyone who can run that far. :)

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