Under Construction

We had a little family outing to IKEA tonight, all four of us. It was DH's first trip to this "new" IKEA, which has been open here in Tampa for just over a year now. I can't believe I hadn't dragged him there before now. Neither can he. But he actually enjoyed it. Or he's a very good actor. LOL! My sons (who are still aged 6 and 9 sometimes) wore their Heelies and zoomed all over the place, so they enjoyed it too.

First, we stopped in the restaurant for dinner. I'm always impressed by the combination of the goodness and cheapness of the food. I know it's a cafeteria, but it feels more than that. It was 2-for-1 Buffalo chicken wraps tonight so DS#2 chowed down on both. Plus fries. LOL! DH and I had the chicken fingers, and DS#1 had the pasta, meatballs and marinara plus almond cake for dessert. I split chocolate cake with DS#2. Yes, he still had room for cake after those wraps!

After dinner, we began our my mission for new shelving for the sewing room. I already knew I wanted Expedit shelving. I know everyone and their dog has these shelves, but there's a reason. They hold a lot of crap, look nice and don't cost a lot. Search "IKEA Expedit" on Flickr for some great combinations.

Until I saw the shelves in person again, I wasn't sure exactly how many I really wanted. I ended up with two of the 4x4 and one of the 4x2 (cube-y things, not measurements). I had checked the website before leaving and the 4x4's were priced at the "new lower price" of $99 each. Except they were marked $129 in the store. A quick conference with a manager and we learned that the new catalog had just come out yesterday and the prices were raised overnight, although still not on the website when I checked upon our return or even now that it's technically two days later. But they still honored the $99 price for me, which was great. I heart IKEA.

We also picked up a $7.99 floor lamp for DS#2's room, some 99¢ lint rollers and a bunch of foodstuff from the Bistro section. Yum! Cinnamon buns for breakfast and lox for lunch!

Total spent: $298. I heart IKEA.

So of course this means my sewing room is a HUGE disaster right now. DS#1 has built two of the units so far; one is moved into the sewing room and the other is in the hallway outside of it. The third is on the floor in my bedroom. I don't like clutter so I'll be very motivated to get this swapping done as soon as possible.

I also think I might have to have to spend as much as the cost of one shelf (or more) on some bins to put in the cubbies. But that seems kind of silly to me so before I drop the cash, I'm going to try to work out "refashioning" all the cardboard these shelves were packed in into some DIY fabric-covered bins. Box cutter, ruler, packing tape, spray adhesive, fabric — it shouldn't be too difficult. I'll ask DH to pick up the spray adhesive at Home Depot tomorrow when he's getting a quart of paint mixed to cover the holes I'll need to patch when we he moves the mirror and some pictures. A check of the leftover paint we had and we discovered it was dried out. Florida heat kills paint in the garage.