Saturday, August 15, 2009

Jessie and Deb go to IKEA





Subtitled: FIELD TRIP!!



There it is, IKEA in suburban Schaumburg, Illinois. For the few readers who might not know, IKEA is a Swedish company, started right after WWII by a guy who tried to put a chair into his car and couldn't because of the legs. Don't believe me? Check out this blog post. It's one of Jessie's favorite stores. I'm okay with it. I find some of their furniture to be cheap in construction, but there is no doubt that it is transportable. Plus, as you can see from where we had to walk to get to the store, and no, I didn't make Jess drive to the far reaches of the parking lot just so I could get a photo; this is where we parked. IKEA is popular. The easily transportable concept means that college students or others who have to rely on public transportation can come to IKEA and get a table and chairs and carry it home on the bus.

Jessie was looking at all kinds of things. She needed a chest of drawers. She needed a new computer desk. She wants a slim table for her front hallway on which to drop mail, keys, her purse, the contents of her pockets when she gets home. We hadn't spent time together in ages so I just wanted to go along to chat. But I would like a new chair for my home office...

I got to meet Momo, her new kitten. It's been 12 years since I played with a kitten. They have a lot of energy. Betsy would not be amused. I won't get Betsy a kitten. It was hot, too. It got up to 93 last Sunday. My Jeep has air conditioning, really, it does. See the photo below. But Jess was not amused by my AC and said, "We are NOT taking your car" so we went in her car.

IKEA is three floors of schtuff (the technical term). You take escalators to the top floor and work your way down. We looked at dressers. We looked at computer desks. We looked at tables. She needed place mats. Oh look! Spoons! For some reason, I'm losing my teaspoons. I bought a package of 6 teaspoons for $4.95. They aren't the greatest and I'll be putting teaspoons on my Christmas list, but they are okay. (Not iced tea spoons with the long handles, regular teaspoons and I'd like a package of 6 or 8 please and thank you.)

We wandered about and Jessie got a thingee (again, technical term) that tilts your lap top up to help keep it cool. And then we found the office chairs. I almost got the one
I'm sitting in here. This one was leather and had arms. It was $50. Actually, it was that fake leather. Then I sat in this one.


It was a hard choice. The left one does not have arms. But the chair I currently use does not have arms. The armless chair was $79.99. The fake leather is $30 cheaper. The fake leather came in white and black. The armless comes only in black. The armless has a taller back and that back fabric is mesh so it will breathe. The leather will be sticky in the summer. The armless chair's seat is covered in fabric which can be removed to wash. If I wanted arms, I could get arms for another $20. Both were very comfortable and could be raised to the height I need to keep my feet more or less flat on the floor, which is where your office chair should be for good posture. It was hard to choose because I don't have a lot of money, but I went with the armless chair.

After making that very important decision, we headed to the cafe to have lunch. Yes, IKEA has a cafe serving a limited amount of food. I got a turkey and swiss cheese flatbread wrap and chocolate cake. Jessie got their "mashed potatoes to die for" and chocolate cake.
Jessie decided to buy a small circular table to go on the patio to her apartment. After eating, it was time to get our purchases. You go down to the first floor and wander about this massive warehouse looking for the aisle number and bin number where your item is stored. We found my chair and found her table and went to check out. They have self-service check outs which do make things faster although, if you're paying by credit card, it was a bit confusing.

Now comes the really hard part, getting it to the car. There is a loading dock area but it's always full with cars waiting. My chair wasn't that heavy so I picked it up and we walked to the car. RAWR! I can carry this.
Now we have to get it in the car. But that's the beauty, if you will, of IKEA furniture. It's supposed to fit in pretty much any conveyance you can bring to their store. Now, granted, if you're coming by bus and there are busses that have IKEA on their route, you can't take home a table top the size Jessie wants for her new desk. You could very easily carry this chair on the bus with you.

See? It fit. My chair side ways with Jessie's new table on top. We were airing out the car, as much as you can when it's 93 with a very hot wind blowing from the south. We hopped in the car and drove back to Jessie's apartment. I had to leave right away as I had promised Carole I'd be home to play Dungeons and Dragons with her and the group. I did wind up being 15 minutes late because I had to get gas.

Currently, the chair sits, still in its box, in my kitchen. I will assemble it this weekend. Yes, that is a blog post.

This is the long post I promised, complete with photos. It was a fun time. Now where did I put the screwdriver?

Beverage: Blackberry tea

Deb

1 comment:

  1. Yay for Ikea!!! I love my new table on my patio and Momo absolutly LOVES LOVES LOVES the little toys we got him. He has them all over the place!

    Oh and thanks for putting that hot sweaty picture of me on there! :-) Man, was it hot that day.

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