World Marketplace Shopping
My cutting board came with instructions in 18 languages. I’m almost surprised that English was at the top. It cost me $10, 75% less than similar ones I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. And by appearances, it is one of the better and more attractive cutting boards I have owned. The instructions it came with are clear, concise and useful. All hail the Swedes!
My new kitchen table is just about exactly the size I needed, 47″x30″. It’s stylish in it’s simple lines and real wood construction. It’s rather small but it’s a small eat-in kitchen. I’ve been shopping around and I nearly bought a set at Macy’s that wasn’t quite the right size for $750. I found some that were close to right at “Furniture 2000” near my office. But no.
I’d like to find something that totally grabs me but I’m getting tired of shopping, and tired of eating dinner on the edge of my bed. I’m not sure the table I got is exactly what I want, but the Swedes took 85% off the price and sold me a quality eat-in-kitchen table and chair set for $100.
Purchases like this are blowing my budget for shopping for my apartment. I had set aside $6000 (great thanks to my folks) to furnish the place and so far my expenses, top down have been:
$900 bed (that I might get rid of, it’s giving me a back ache)
$400 tableware for 4 (they make me happy :-)
$120 office desk off craigslist (It’s the right size, I can’t think of what more expensive things would replace it)
$100 table and chair set (see above)
$90 overpriced but fabulous santoku kitchen knife (satisfying my kitchen nesting instinct)
.. umm..
$18 cookie sheet
$15 shower hanging thing
You can see where I’m going with this…
My budget is being blown in the other direction. I can’t think of what to spend this money on. Though I still have 2 rugs, a desk chair, some kind of comfy chair and wall art to buy. Four grand for all that stuff? I’m going to have to get like… real art or something. Now I’m seriously thinking about that Sharper Image massage chair too.
Oh and I need a bike (motorized?) but that comes out of the transportation budget and not the housing budget. Maybe Housing will float a bond ;-)
I’m getting a lot of my stuff out of storage tomorrow. We’ll see what that spurns.
Shelving. I need a good bit of shelving for all the stuff I already have!
Update on the $100 Jokkmokk table and chair set. There is a problem. Some of the predrilled holes in the chairs were predrilled wrong :-(
As you are looking at the back of the chair, the top right drill hole comes too close to the surface of the front of the chair. When you screw it in, it bursts the wood open, driving red-hot wood schrapnel into the backs of unsuspecting guests. Ok, maybe it’s not red-hot. All 4 chairs have burst bits. Hopefully I can get a parts replacement b/c I don’t want to lug the whole thing back to the store.
Might I suggest high quality bookshelves, solid wood (no outgasing!) with moveable shelves. If you need a hobby, you could take an art course, and paint something beautiful. If you have the wall space–nice Burning Man photographs, well matted and framed.
I was so close to getting 2 sets from Pier One two days ago. They are solid stained wood (I hear you on the off-gassing), with a light, easy look. “Benton Shelves“. I like that you can see the wall through them, it lets the room be a little larger. But they (and their sister store were out of stock! Grr.
I may go to Room and Board tomorrow and pick something out. I was really amazed with their selection. They ain’t cheap, but they’re really good. It’s funny that I may switch from $170 in shelving to $1,100 and I’m not stressing over it. As long as I’m within the budget, I’m good.
I’ve got a lot of art. As I unpack, I’m putting all the art in a pile. I feel like I don’t want to consider it until the end of the house-building exercise because that’s what’s going to “finish” the place. And I’m getting there soon!
Yeah, doing my own art could make me happy… make the place “my own”.
Thanks
Lee, I have that Ikea set of table and chairs and i was wondering if you did get replacement parts and were i can get them if your did. I have the same problem you did and i live 4 hours away from the nearest IKEA.
Thanks A Lot
Keenan
I went back to Ikea and they helped me out. I went up to to the service counter and showed them. It took a while as they hauled a new one off the shelves, opened it up and gave me pieces of the previously unopened box. I was pretty embarrased when I realized that I had put the screws in incorrectly.
You can try calling them but I’ve always gotten the impression that the chain is very store-based. Their online and mail-order presence is pretty thin. Good luck!
I recall that there are 2 lengths of screws. It’s important to identify and know which screws to use where. This is in the instructions but is (for me) easy to miss. That’s what the problem was.