IKEA

Wow!  What can I say!  Heard about it a lot, but had never actually been to one until yesterday!  I love their catalog, love their website, but had never been there in person.  Yesterday, after checking out of our hotel, we were within 2 miles of the IKEA here in WA, so I convinced Jason to let me go.  I was expecting a store.  Not an all day experience!  :)  I wasn't sure which exit it was off of the freeway, so I was worried we'd miss it.  Shouldn't have worried!  We could see the IKEA sign from a mile away!  Pulling up, I noticed the big blue building....oh, that must be the store.  I was wrong.  That was the first of 4 indoor parking lots!  Found a parking spot and took the pedestrian walkway inside.  There are some carts sitting around, but all the signs were telling us that there would be carts inside when we needed them.  (We should have grabbed a cart right away just to hold kids, jackets, purse, etc)  So, in we go...but not into a store...into a showroom!  No, not a showroom, a thousand showrooms!  Before we go any further, I want to tell you that the IKEA look is not really my "look".  The Swedish based store is a little more modern looking than I prefer.  So, as we looked, I found things that I liked by themselves, but not necessarily the whole room effect that we were seeing in the showrooms.  Anyway, on we go...we bypassed the child check center.  Would have been fun for the boys, but we would have had to wait in line.  Instead, they were totally entertained by playing house in every room we went through!  Finally we get through the showrooms and are invited to dine in their restaurant!  We passed on that, grabbed a cart, and headed into the marketplace area.  I had a few things in mind that I was looking for for the new house...a desk for the guest room, a desk/table for the upstairs, a desk for Jason's office, shelving/storage options for the front hall, etc.  Nothing totally jumped out at me, but it may have been because by this point we were on the 1.5 hour mark, and according to the map, we were only half-way through the experience.  We decided to speed things up a bit.  We zipped through home decor, rugs, and I'm not sure what else.  My eyes were going a mile a minute trying to take it all in.  (Remember, for the past 4.5 years I have lived in a small town, and have forgotten what the whole "big city" "big crowds" thing is all about!  :))  Finally we enter the warehouse full of boxes.  This is where you pick up the items that you noted on your shopping list as you were going through the showrooms.  And then, up ahead we saw the check-out.  Quickly I grabbed some candles and a scrub brush so I wouldn't leave IKEA empty handed!  We walked out with our couple of dollars worth of merchandise and were immediately side-tracked.  An IKEA garage sale?  3 days only?  Items that have been damaged in shipping and have never been opened?  75% off?  Let's check it out!  And there we found what we had been looking for!  A deal!  or 7!  :)  Boxes and boxes of merchandise.  All the boxes look the same!  One tiny little picture on the end of each box depicting what is inside.  We scoured the boxes trying to find something that we thought we needed.  Checking out the damage, "That's just a little dink."  "I can fix that no problem"  "This scratch is on the bottom where no one will ever see it."  And then we started stacking the boxes onto a cart!  Most items have 2 boxes.  Stack, stack, stack.  I think we need another cart!  Stack, stack, stack.  Go back in the store to that little computer by the checkout where you can look up an item number and see what this looks like!  Stack, stack.  And then we were done!  And we did leave a few boxes for the next customer!  :)  What we got....7 different items, each one $25, in 12 different boxes.  A desk for upstairs, a desk for the guest room, a desk for the office, a cabinet for the garage, a shelving system for the hallway, with another shelving system to stack on top, and one more shelving system.....not sure where it's going yet. :)  So we did buy!  But came out less than $200 lighter.  And a thousand pounds heavier!  Now to fit it in the van.  We had taken the seats out before we left, and everything fit very nicely inside!  Good thing we brought the van, the Pathfinder would never have been able to handle the load!  I've been to IKEA.  I enjoyed it!  I got good deals!  I probably won't be back for a LONG time!  Unless they have another 3 day garage sale.....

When we got home we assembled the first of our items.  A desk for upstairs off the kitchen.  It was fun, and the whole family "helped".  The damage that made this $200 desk sell for only $25?  A small dent on the back railing. Tiny.  No one will ever notice.  Except you, because you will bend down and look for it when you come over, because I'm telling you about it!