So, as you may have heard, we’ve been working on some home projects.
It’s not been going as planned. Here’s why.
Weekend #1
Took almost everything out of my daughter’s room. Feel sorry for my other daughter whose room was housing the first child’s stuff.
Weekend #2 & 3:
We painted the trim white. We then painted the walls misty lavender, all according to plan. I was pretty excited at this point, thinking things were going pretty well.
Weekend #4
Snag 1: We had to paint the ceiling to get it to not look awful against the walls.
Weekend #5
Snag 2: The closet organizer we ordered arrived two weeks late. *deep breath* That’s okay, we were already a week behind because of the ceiling. Yes, both kids’ rooms are a complete mess, so bad that the 3 year-old is complaining about how messy her room is, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Weekend #6
Snag 3: That light turned out to be a train. We thought we were putting the closet organizer together this weekend. The directions were terrible, and I mean terrible, and this is from people who’ve whizzed through putting together IKEA furniture for 15 years. My husband has put together everything from basic bookshelves to a trundle daybed with drawers. He’s so good at it, friends ask for his help. He enjoys doing it. It’s like Legos for adults for him.
But the directions on this were so bad he had to consult YouTube. Repeatedly. The directions were so bad he swore the manufacturers of the organizer had never once put together furniture before going into business selling it. For example, none of the parts were labeled, either with part numbers or a corresponding A, B C. We had to figure out what they were used for by counting them. There was a single diagram. It was bad.
Then, we discovered there were more parts than there should have been, but many of them were the right parts. We had 4 drawers for a 3 drawer organizer. But one of the drawers was missing all of the hardware in the box and the drawer front. That just so happened to be the first box we opened.
We had four more floating shelves than we should have had.
We had four LESS fixed shelves than we should had. Meaning, the entire unit couldn’t be assembled.
After lots of pictures to the manufacturer, they agreed to send us the missing four shelves.
So, another week without a closet organizer, and all of the older daughter’s stuff in the younger daughter’s room.
Weekend #7
We got the proper shelves!
Snag 4 – Except, we don’t have enough screws. The directions said 28 screws. We counted. We had 29. All good, right? Except, there are 9 fixed shelves and each needs 4 screws. So there should have been 36 screws. We went to Home Depot, Menards, and Ace. A very helpful associate at Home Depot spent almost an hour trying to find something that would work, but the screws are custom for this project, and without the right size and shape screw head, the fixed shelves won’t snap into place. So, I’ve requested the extra screws.
We got the shelves we could into place and started moving some stuff back into the oldest child’s room while we wait for the screws,
I’m never buying self-assembled stuff from anyone but Ikea again. They know how to do self-assembled furniture.
How about you? Ever have a home project not go as planned? Ever buy self-assembled furniture missing half the pieces? Any other stories that might make me feel better?