Er, I got some fasteners?
Jun. 28th, 2005 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7So, we went on this great big expedition to Canada.
Had to detour. We were about to go over the bridge and realized we needed gas. NOT buying gas in Canada. Nosirree. Not for three dollars a litre or whatever it is. Fuhgeddaboutit.
So, we, uh, detoured to see the scenic Niagara Gorge and the Power Authority complex there, which is nifty. We also were lost.
Finally we got to Canada, five minutes too early for the Beer Store. Eh, we'd hit it on the way home. Onward, and this time we found Ikea on the first try, unlike last time.
We wandered around a while. Ikea was full of cool things. We lay on couches and beds. We browsed. We annoyed the employees. We hung out. It was fun. Eventually we got serious about the couches.
There were, in the end, three contenders.
1) Ektorp. A skooshy slipcovered round-edged normal couch-looking couch that felt small but was actually rather big. It wasn't our favorite.
2) Ekeskog. The most comfortable couch ever. But, quite large; Dave could lie down on it and his feet didn't touch the end. Two people could sleep on this thing side by side with the rear cushions removed.
3) A red leather couch on big sale. MAN this thing was comfortable. It was also smaller than any of the others, but didn't feel that way. It was sublimely comfortable. But... Red leather.
We agonized over it, discussed it, pondered it, and finally left to wander the rest of the store. Ikea is always full of fun things to ponder and play with and visit. I decided that the whole concept of children is a weird one because they are small and small humans is a very creepy concept. Dave decided that life would be better with more stainless steel surfaces. We saw a really awesome thing that was an entire kitchen squashed into a 42" by 60" space-- fridge, stove, sink-- for like $1000. It was neato. We played on the rolly chairs and lay in the beds and rolled around in the pillows and reassembled the book-cases (and Dave almost stole one of random spacefiller display books because it was an instruction manual for an obscure, short-lived, ancient operating system that interested him-- but he didn't).
Finally, we came back to the couch section. Dave looked at me. I looked at him. "Which one did you think?" we asked each other. I answered first, and to my astonishment came out in favor of Ekeskog, the big giant really comfortable one. We went and sat on each of them. Dave stood between them and pondered a while. I lay on the big one and almost fell asleep. Finally he came out in favor of the really comfy one as well. Red leather requires more chutzpah (and commitment to a somewhat-scarlet design aesthetic) than either of us commanded, and Ekeskog was really really really comfortable.
So we went and asked the employee there about it, and told her what options we liked. She went through, and then said, "did you need delivery or will it fit in your vehicle?"
Ikea's marketing department is always going on about how the furniture flatpacks, so we asked, "what size box does it come in?" It's worth asking. Several of the couches we'd looked up online had given the dimensions of their boxes.
She shook her head. "Doesn't come in a box, it's just the size it is."
"Ah." We looked at it. Looked at her. "How far away will you deliver?"
Not very, was the answer.
"You could rent a Uhaul," she said.
I know Uhauls. It's gonna ding you like a couple hundred dollars. Really.
...
So, in short, after determining that Ekeskog was entirely everything we wanted in a couch, it proved impossible to actually buy it.
I know, many of you commented and said "Tie it to the car roof!" So, for you, I went and measured Dave's subcompact car.
The couch is 92 1/2" long. That comes out to 7 3/4 feet.
Dave's car roof is 4' 8".
I don't think US Customs would let us across the border like that even if we made it the 100 miles down the QEW with it. That's three feet of couch with nothing to tie to. I've tied a few things onto cars in my day, and you need to have a reasonable proportion of the item secured for the thing to be stable.
So, again, we went to a place with money, and tried to give it to them, and couldn't. I am trying to be a good American and buy stuff, but no dice.
We were really depressed, but then we went to Customer Service and asked them if they had any idea how we could replace the screws etc. that are missing from the last time we moved Dave's bed (May 2004), and the lady there went and found them and gave them to us for free. So, after an entire calendar year of sleeping on a box spring on the floor--- Dave will have a bed again.
So, bright sides.
Then we went to the Beer Store and bought a 24 pack of Dave's Island Stingers, which dave's mom loves immoderately. On the way out, the handle on the case gave way abruptly, causing me to drop the case almost onto my foot. My toes escaped intact, but two bottles broke. I went in and, utterly defeated, asked the woman behind the counter for a dry box to put the remaining bottles into. She came out with two new sixpacks, took the damaged ones back, and sent us on our way with a dry box and 24 intact Island Stingers. So that wasn't so bad in the end.
In the meantime, I'm just going to take the old couch out of the living room and put it on the porch anyway. Fuck it. Either we get a new couch before the weather turns again, or we move the couch back in. Either way, we hardly use the damn living room anyway.
Uhh... Am reading the Ekeskog brochure at the moment and it says, in the last paragraph, "EKESKOG is supplied unassembled to make it easier for you to get it through the doors at home."
Hm.
Ikea will ship anywhere in the Continental US, but for a hefty, hefty fee. Also, to buy it from Ikea US, the price is more than a third more than it was in the store in Canada. It's a shame; the couch was just barely within our budget, and we can't afford it if there are such high charges to get it here. But we don't know anyone with a car big enough.
Bollocks. Am going to go take nap on basement floor.
Had to detour. We were about to go over the bridge and realized we needed gas. NOT buying gas in Canada. Nosirree. Not for three dollars a litre or whatever it is. Fuhgeddaboutit.
So, we, uh, detoured to see the scenic Niagara Gorge and the Power Authority complex there, which is nifty. We also were lost.
Finally we got to Canada, five minutes too early for the Beer Store. Eh, we'd hit it on the way home. Onward, and this time we found Ikea on the first try, unlike last time.
We wandered around a while. Ikea was full of cool things. We lay on couches and beds. We browsed. We annoyed the employees. We hung out. It was fun. Eventually we got serious about the couches.
There were, in the end, three contenders.
1) Ektorp. A skooshy slipcovered round-edged normal couch-looking couch that felt small but was actually rather big. It wasn't our favorite.
2) Ekeskog. The most comfortable couch ever. But, quite large; Dave could lie down on it and his feet didn't touch the end. Two people could sleep on this thing side by side with the rear cushions removed.
3) A red leather couch on big sale. MAN this thing was comfortable. It was also smaller than any of the others, but didn't feel that way. It was sublimely comfortable. But... Red leather.
We agonized over it, discussed it, pondered it, and finally left to wander the rest of the store. Ikea is always full of fun things to ponder and play with and visit. I decided that the whole concept of children is a weird one because they are small and small humans is a very creepy concept. Dave decided that life would be better with more stainless steel surfaces. We saw a really awesome thing that was an entire kitchen squashed into a 42" by 60" space-- fridge, stove, sink-- for like $1000. It was neato. We played on the rolly chairs and lay in the beds and rolled around in the pillows and reassembled the book-cases (and Dave almost stole one of random spacefiller display books because it was an instruction manual for an obscure, short-lived, ancient operating system that interested him-- but he didn't).
Finally, we came back to the couch section. Dave looked at me. I looked at him. "Which one did you think?" we asked each other. I answered first, and to my astonishment came out in favor of Ekeskog, the big giant really comfortable one. We went and sat on each of them. Dave stood between them and pondered a while. I lay on the big one and almost fell asleep. Finally he came out in favor of the really comfy one as well. Red leather requires more chutzpah (and commitment to a somewhat-scarlet design aesthetic) than either of us commanded, and Ekeskog was really really really comfortable.
So we went and asked the employee there about it, and told her what options we liked. She went through, and then said, "did you need delivery or will it fit in your vehicle?"
Ikea's marketing department is always going on about how the furniture flatpacks, so we asked, "what size box does it come in?" It's worth asking. Several of the couches we'd looked up online had given the dimensions of their boxes.
She shook her head. "Doesn't come in a box, it's just the size it is."
"Ah." We looked at it. Looked at her. "How far away will you deliver?"
Not very, was the answer.
"You could rent a Uhaul," she said.
I know Uhauls. It's gonna ding you like a couple hundred dollars. Really.
...
So, in short, after determining that Ekeskog was entirely everything we wanted in a couch, it proved impossible to actually buy it.
I know, many of you commented and said "Tie it to the car roof!" So, for you, I went and measured Dave's subcompact car.
The couch is 92 1/2" long. That comes out to 7 3/4 feet.
Dave's car roof is 4' 8".
I don't think US Customs would let us across the border like that even if we made it the 100 miles down the QEW with it. That's three feet of couch with nothing to tie to. I've tied a few things onto cars in my day, and you need to have a reasonable proportion of the item secured for the thing to be stable.
So, again, we went to a place with money, and tried to give it to them, and couldn't. I am trying to be a good American and buy stuff, but no dice.
We were really depressed, but then we went to Customer Service and asked them if they had any idea how we could replace the screws etc. that are missing from the last time we moved Dave's bed (May 2004), and the lady there went and found them and gave them to us for free. So, after an entire calendar year of sleeping on a box spring on the floor--- Dave will have a bed again.
So, bright sides.
Then we went to the Beer Store and bought a 24 pack of Dave's Island Stingers, which dave's mom loves immoderately. On the way out, the handle on the case gave way abruptly, causing me to drop the case almost onto my foot. My toes escaped intact, but two bottles broke. I went in and, utterly defeated, asked the woman behind the counter for a dry box to put the remaining bottles into. She came out with two new sixpacks, took the damaged ones back, and sent us on our way with a dry box and 24 intact Island Stingers. So that wasn't so bad in the end.
In the meantime, I'm just going to take the old couch out of the living room and put it on the porch anyway. Fuck it. Either we get a new couch before the weather turns again, or we move the couch back in. Either way, we hardly use the damn living room anyway.
Uhh... Am reading the Ekeskog brochure at the moment and it says, in the last paragraph, "EKESKOG is supplied unassembled to make it easier for you to get it through the doors at home."
Hm.
Ikea will ship anywhere in the Continental US, but for a hefty, hefty fee. Also, to buy it from Ikea US, the price is more than a third more than it was in the store in Canada. It's a shame; the couch was just barely within our budget, and we can't afford it if there are such high charges to get it here. But we don't know anyone with a car big enough.
Bollocks. Am going to go take nap on basement floor.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 09:03 pm (UTC)Good news is that is WAS comfortable and spacious.
Bad news is that is got grimy and wrinkled after 1 week. It was a bitch to take care of and after we washed the slip covers, they were too thick to take the highest heat from the iron so stayed wrinkled.
What about Ebay? Maybe you can get a good deal on a new sofa plus delivery on there?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 11:15 pm (UTC)Yeah, in CANADA. The nation can sleep soundly now!
Nono.
Date: 2005-06-29 01:45 am (UTC)[Or, for the more combative: sending Bridget's no-good Canadian tip money back to the pinko bastards from whence it came.]
- Z