Beams End

All the roof beams went in this week. And all the internal framework has been finished. It's a real structure now! It still feels ginormous even though is partially enclosed.

I went to Ikea today to buy our bench tops. I had priced wood bench tops and they were in the vicinity of $4800. Way out of budget. Luckily I found some at Ikea that will suit us and they were only $1700. The drawback is of course that you have to go to Ikea to get them. I thought I had it sorted, go on a weekday, only take one child, know what I need, make it quick.....

Well....the one child decided he wanted to go the creche at Ikea (looks like heaps of fun to be honest) - "Great!" I think naively. But after filling in the form, taking off the shoes, getting a sticker, a locker and a beeper he decides he doesn't want to go. After 10 minutes of coaxing I think "He doesn't want to go - that's OK" so we hand back the beeper, remove the sticker, replace the shoes and empty the locker. 2 minutes later "I want to go!" Too late...the wait is now 30 minutes.

So now I am dragging/carrying a screaming 3 year old around Ikea. IT IS HELL. People are staring, I do my best to ignore them and the screaming thing attached to my hip. One lady kindly tells me I'm doing a good job. If only that were true.

I try distraction which only works to a certain extent. I try tickling, food and bribery with limited success. Finally we arrive at the kitchen section. Luckily they have a play section there for kids and off he trundles to show the other little kid how to play memory on the touch screen.

"Great!" I think naively "He's settled, I'll just talk to this guy, order my stuff and go"

I get a ticket. The couple two ahead of me are in the initial stages of planning their kitchen. It takes an eternity and they need the one attendant's help every step of the way. I ask the attendant politely if there will be someone else coming to assist in this section soon. "No - not for a while" he answers. "Bugger" I think.

I look around at sinks, and decide to buy one. I select the 34 cabinet handles we need. 30 minutes passes. Luckily the child is still engaged in the play stuff.

Finally I get served I've been waiting about 40 minutes. My order takes about 4 minutes - tops.

We make our way slowly through Ikea to get out - why do they make you trek the entire length of the store to get where you want to go? Forgive me, but I don't really want Ikea to be a journey - I just want to get what I want and go. Nope - we have to check out the unaviodable children's section, select a toy (part of the earlier bribe), another 20 minutes passes before we get to the check out which is 4 deep.

We make it to the register. Spend a measly $2000 and walk through to organise delivery. Child notices the creche.....repeat the first 20 minutes of the trip.....

Here's the lesson....

I should have just bought the $4800 benchtops.

Looking back through the frame