Saturday, October 30, 2010

I Should've Walked Away

Today, I really wanted a truck. Or some brains. Something.

So, this morning I decided to venture down to IKEA to look at their as is section. I was hoping to find some wood to do a project (seeing as how I'm feeling super crafty lately) to decorate my living/dining area. I didn't find any. I should have left it at that and walked right out of the store. But, it was raining, so I decided to browse just a little longer.

I stumbled upon this great shoe holder or cute sideboard for my dining area.

I looked it over, pulled out the drawers, walked away, came back, and then called for a second opinion. I know, I know. I'm a big girl, but I just like to talk it out. See, I don't need it, and have a hard time making large purchases (I just have to say here that yes, I needed a new computer) and justifying them. Why? Because it's just stuff. I don't need stuff. After talking to my mom and deciding that 1-I love decorating, 2-I spend a fair amount of time at my home, 3-It's okay to find some joy in life and this furniture may bring me a bit of joy, and spending probably upwards of an hour looking it over, I decided to buy it. It was a great deal! 50% off! Plus, I figured my time saved putting one together was more than enough reason to buy it already assembled. Done and done!

Pushing the cart out the door, it was pouring. A complete downpour. Cloudy with a more than a chance of meatballs downpour. I got wet just looking at the rain.

I backed my car into a loading zone space and began rearranging my seats to fit this in. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't fit. I didn't anticipate this. I've moved dozens of times and have always found a way. Mind you, it wouldn't fit by about 1/4" or less. A minuscule amount! After three strangers trying to help and looking at me like I was crazy, I knew I needed to do something different. Oh, and did I mention I also bought this STEAL for .99 cents! Woot! So, I had to fit that in the car somehow, too. My plan was to slide the sideboard in the back, then the door up through the back and over the sideboard. My math brain and spacial planning skills totally failed me today.

After four or five attempts to get this in the car from every direction, I decided it was time to just take it apart. Mind you, it has been pouring buckets this whole time. And people are looking at me with that sad you'll-never-get-that-in-your-car look. I had more than one person tell me that, and several tell me that I should get a truck. Anyway, so I went into IKEA and borrowed a screwdriver. I then followed my own water trail back out of the store in an attempt to disassemble the piece (which I was ticked about anyway because it wasn't that simple). I thought I would take the top off and that elusive 1/4" would find its way back to me and *poof!* It would fit.

Not so.

I couldn't get the thing apart! In all fairness, I think it's glued. :l

I walked my soaking wet self back into the store, returned the screwdriver, and asked if they had some rope. Don't ask me why I didn't think of this before. I just didn't.

I put the door in the car through the trunk as planned. Then, I threw some cardboard on the top of my car, rolled down the windows, and got about 30 feet of twine from the box on the wall. Yep, they have boxes on the wall with twine. Right there in my eyesight this whole time. Really, I think I would have thought of this sooner had it not been pouring, or if I had a roof rack, or a truck, or a man.

I took out the drawers and put them in the car and then lifted this on to my roof. I figure I've been in the 15 minute loading zone for oh, close to an hour now. In the rain. Soaking wet. Seriously, it's a good thing I had on a belt, but those flip flops this morning weren't a good choice.

It only took me about ten minutes to tie the whole thing down and get it super secure. Perfect! Then, I went to get in my car to roll the windows up . . . I'd tied my door shut. Total rookie mistake. I couldn't even get in through the window because it was only part way down. I may have looked super defeated and glanced around with the I-hope-nobody-else-is-watching-this look. Fortunately, I only had to undo the rope about three steps to fix this problem. Success!

After a total of about 2 or so hours at IKEA, I pulled out of the parking lot praying that I could make it home without furniture flying off my roof. I drove from 123rd to 33rd on surface streets, just in case. I had visions of how easy the twine was to cut at IKEA, and in my brain, I thought "What if the windows are cutting the twine right now?! Finally, as it started to pour even more, I just decided to get on the freeway and get home.

I got home, got everything up to my condo, and I'm excited to see how everything turns out. Yay! So, Ha! to all those people who told me I couldn't do it. The only casualties of the day include my soaking wet car seats, my soaking wet self, and a little bit of my pride.

1 comment:

Meg said...

Thanks for having this experience before I did! Now I won't have to go through it...hopefully...