Phil’s Diary - [Blog @ http://www.philsdiary.net/]
So this morning we start on the great furniture assembly project. Yesterday we bought… some floor standing shelves, a cubpoard and a set of draws for the study. Two bedside tables. A bathroom cabinet. And three shelves.
We start with the office shelves. The shelving itself is a doddle, you just pop a few metal pegs into the end pieces, and then rest the selves on those pegs. A few cross-braces make it all more rigid.
Then we get onto the more challenging draws and cupboard. They go together without too many problems. Though we seem to be suffering from Ikea doors. The doors to the cabinet are too short (width ways), and so there’s a slight gap in the middle. We’ve had a look and can’t see any way of asjusting them. Then we mount them in the selving unit, a bit more tricky, but we get there.
At this point we’re both a little warm, so we stop for some lunch (left over tuna mayo sandwiches).
Next up (on the non-stop DIY mission), is getting off to Homebase for some screws to mount the shelves, a spirit level and pipe/live wire detector.
With the bits we need we then ease into it putting together the bedside tables, which we get the hang of pretty quickly and blast through putting the second one together in no time.
Then we move into the bathroom cabinet. This assembles fine (but more “Ikea doors”, which aren’t quite long enough), but then we get to the first of the wall fixing jobs. This doesn’t go quite as well, but we get it attached eventually.
Then we move onto the shelf in the bedroom, a big two meter long job. Again I make a bit of a mess of the holes the first time round, but have the hang of it by the second. Abi I think spotted at least one of the mistakes I was making. That’s now mounted on the wall above the bed nicely. For either end of the shelf we bought two of these funky blue lights, and they really do look very cool indeed.
So with that done, and everything tidied, I fire up a BBQ, and we get cooking a few burgers and lamb skewer thingies. While doing eating we watch the start of a movie.
Then as Abi has a bath, I watch top-gear, and then we get a reasonably early night (just after 10), both of us very tired after all the work today.
We’ve plans to try and get a couple more wardrobes and another set of draws for the bedroom, but need either to get them delivered, or get a bigger transport vehicle.
I’ve also got two shelves left to put up in the study, and we’ve not even started in the living room or dining rooms. But the plan there (from my point of view), is to wait for the sofas to arrive (any day now), before buying any more furniture or fixtures I want to get the sofas and TV in place as they’ll stay. Really don’t want to put shelves up and then have to take them down again.
Next few days I’ll be trying to unpack and arrange a few of the boxes I’ve still got packed onto those new shelves and cupboards.
While it’s been a hectic few days I’m really grateful for the help Abi’s given me. It’s always useful having a second head thinking about a problem, another brain interpretting the instructions, and someone to help with the practical bits. Abi’s been a real star, and I’m really grateful for all her help over the weekend. Thankyou.
Posted by Phil on August 01, 2004 10:07 PM | Categories: Lazy weekend
Abi I think spotted at least one of the mistakes I was making. That’s now mounted on the wall above the bet nicely....
So now your mistake hangs above your bed ... or do I mis-interprete that? *grin*
...done, and everything tidied, I fire up a BBQ, ...
Yeah, what else can one do with the left-over IKEA bits ...
... or get a bigger transport vehicle.
How about roof-rails on your car. If anyone asks you can always say you're trying out a new spoiler ... *grin*
Posted by: sjon at August 3, 2004 8:41 AM