Can someone explain why when you go on vacation your work just piles up on your desk and no fairies come and do it for you? It’s Thursday, four days since I’ve returned from vacation and I can’t remember what vacation felt like.
Obama in ’08! I just felt the need to say that.
The last few weeks I have been impressed with IKEA, the home furnishings store. What a concept. From nuts to bolts, from furniture to sales concepts, they are an amazing company with amazing products. Let me start from the beginning.
When Wilma hit and our pool enclosure was wrecked for the second time and we decided no more enclosure and the money we recouped from insurance for it we would use on remodeling our kitchen, floor to ceiling. Now, I know more about kitchens than I actually do in my present job as I am NKBA certified and in California I ran the cabinet departments for all stores of the company I worked for. So of course, being on the retail purchasing end was quite a shock when for just plain inexpensive cabinets, without bells or whistles, without countertops or plumbing was over 4,000 dollars and when designed the way Becky wanted it in the same cheap line was almost 8,000 dollars. Of course dream cabinets were almost 13,000 bucks and I was about to have a heart attack. Then Becky remembered IKEA and I was shocked at how low their prices were. With all the bells and whistles and with a stylish door we were back to the affordable range. There was one major catch. You have to assemble them yourself. Of course, regardless of price, most important is the cabinets can withstand the abuse of the Der Clan and we made the two hour drive to check them out. Not only is the quality good, it’s as good as most you find at Lowes and Home Depot and better than some. I was impressed, but daunted at the task of assembly especially when you realize that every little piece comes in it’s own package and you have to first gather all the packages before you can start. Well, needless to say someone at IKEA has more than half a brain and everything goes together flawlessly. Whoever designed the specialty screws and fasteners is a genius and I am in awe of how someone thought of this assembly line process that keeps the costs down. To me, it rivals Ford and the assembly line construction of Model T’s. No cabinets were racked and out of square and everything was quite sturdy. Assembly while tedius, but easily done with simple easy to understand directions. Oh, and the kicker, even though IKEA is a European company, the cabinets are made in America. Once the backsplash is tiled I’ll have pictures and that leads to the QOD:
What simple item fascinates you the way it was built and designed?
