A Never Ending Project: IKEA or Bust

The new carpet smell was still lingering in the air of my bedroom when I returned from my second trip to Brazil. My parents had done a decent job of putting my room back together the way I had left it. I spent a little time going around and rearranging some things, but all in all things were in order for the most part. What I needed was furniture. I really wanted a new dresser and needed a bed frame. In my opinion, IKEA has some of the most stylish furniture at a reasonable price. As far as a bed was concerned, I had been looking on Craigslist since I really didn't want to shell out over $200 for a bed frame. However, a dresser was looking to be a possibility.

I found a free weekend a week after I got home. I needed two things, a person to drive down to Stoughton with and a truck to haul everything home in. Greg was my first thought for a companion, but he was busy that Saturday moving new furniture for his dad. My mom then mentioned to me that Shelley was looking to go to IKEA at some point, so I dialed her next. She wasn't available Saturday, but Sunday afternoon was an option. We planned on leaving after morning meeting. I thought that it would take a few hours to head down there, shop and get home.

After morning meeting we changed and then jumped in her truck for the drive to Stoughton. I became the sixth driver of her auto, which she made sure I was well aware of. It only took us 30 minutes to get there. Since I had been expecting closer to an hour, I was now thinking that I could be home before 4:00. The parking lot reminded me a lot like an amusement park. People had their carts lined up and they had smiles in their faces as they entered the gigantic building. Huge poles displaying yellow and blue flags towered around the perimeter. We entered the building and obtained a map to help us find our way around. We started on the second floor showroom following the multitudes before us. We found the items we were looking for, and frantically wrote down the locations of where to pick them up in the first floor marketplace. With the hoards of people that were at IKEA that Sunday afternoon, our progress was slowed in the lower level. After what seemed like an eternity, we finished getting the smaller items and made our way to the warehouse section to find the big pieces of furniture.

As my luck would have it, the dresser that I had planned to purchase to get was not in stock. Shelley found her bed, and we laboriously pushed the full carts across the concrete floor to the checkout counters. The lines were longer than you would find to get on Superman at Six Flaggs. Forty minutes passed before we pushed our carts out the door and loaded the boxes into her truck. After a lunch stop at Wendy's we made it back to my house, where I unloaded the boxes and carted them upstairs. The process of putting everything together took longer than I expected, but I managed to get most of it done. After I had hung my mirror, assembled my desk chair, put up my new clock, set up the storage boxes and hung the curtains I settled into bed.

I had been at IKEA for almost four hours. Add that to the hour and 20 minute round trip drive, and it had been a long and full afternoon. I was pretty tired, especially since it had taken me so long to put everything together. The only thing I had left to do was hang the lights, but I would need my dad's help for that one...