Ikea Kitchen Renos – Days 1

Tuesday morning the Ikea kitchen cabinets arrived. When I returned from having blood work done, a large cube van was in the drive and the two lads were doing their job and taking each box from the van and piling them in a neat, orderly and efficient pile at the far end of our garage. There were enough flat-Ikea boxes to make you wonder how Nat was going to accomplish all of this on his own. The guilt was setting in early.

With the end of the van finally in sight, we sat down and had our lunch contemplating (at least on my part) how this was going to begin. What to my surprise, but Nat already knew exactly how this was going to begin – by this afternoon. I had no idea that while I was getting our taxes ready, and finishing up other office stuff, Nat was in the garage and already had one cabinet assembled by 1:00 pm. Why did I not know this! He’s not one to sit on his laurels once a project is started. It’s now at the stage where he wants this whole project to be done! Trust me, there is no stopping him. I’m now feeling completely helpless as there is nothing he needs from me right now. So, by the time mid-afternoon rolled around he had a second cabinet assembled. In my heart I was secretly pleased that this process was going smoothly for him. It also helped that he had created a waist-high table from his saw-horses and a large piece of particle board. He can stand while assembling each cabinet and refrain from straining his knees and back.

By the end of the day, Nat was pleased with his progress, despite his continuing worry of how things would go in the future. His mind is always a couple of steps ahead of his body – if that makes any sense. Nat was already wondering about the new Ikea rail system. He noticed the rails were a bit different in design from his past experience. The concern soon set in as to how they worked, and so the research began on my part to ease his mind.

There’s always something on You Tube!! Sure enough, we found some wonderful man who put his whole Ikea Kitchen instal on You Tube, including a special portion about the new rail system. God bless this man wherever he may be. He’s saved me and Nat a lot of stress.

By the end of the day Nat was tired. Part of his stress had been relieved because the cabinets had arrived and he had managed to assemble a couple of them already. He fell asleep in his chair while we were watching Castle that I had taped the night before. I didn’t have the heart to wake him up so he could see how it ended. From our conversations, however, he’s starting to get a little bored with this show as the underlying plot is getting complicated and you have to remember what happened in so many prior episodes. I left him in peace until he woke up on his own about a half hour later.

Wednesday – Up and at ’em. By the time I was ready to do my morning routine – print Crossword (Nat), take pills, do exercises, Nat was ready to get going. As I turned the tread downstairs Nat was working away quietly on his own. By the time I came upstairs he had hit a little bit of a hitch.

As is with his routine, he just picks a box, looks inside and begins to assemble. This time he came across the base corner cabinet and needed a bit of help. At last – I could do something!! Alas, no! He just needed my wee flabby muscles to help him lift the cabinet from the work table to the floor. The corner unit contained more side panels than the usuals and was quite heavy once completed. He was trying to see how the legs would go on but it was finally decided that could wait until installation time. He was wise in that decision, trust me!

Me, myself and I was trying to get my camera all charged up for the blogging of our adventures into the renovation business, when it was discovered the camera’s battery was so dead, the light wouldn’t even go on for awhile. I decided to take pictures with Nat’s cell phone while the camera was getting charged but that turned out to be a big mistake, too.

I’m not proficient in the cell phone technology – have no idea why – but once the pictures were taken of the boxes and built-up cabinets, I couldn’t get the damn things off of the cell phone and into my Mac. Bloody hell!!!! I tried using the USB plug I had. I tried connecting via Bluetooth. I tried connecting via WiFi. Nothing seemed to be working. I even texted our email with one picture and still the damn thing didn’t go through. I know in my heart of hearts, this is so simple I’ll rip my heart out when I find what I did wrong. After about an hour of fiddling with this and fiddling with that and even trying to press those God-damned small letters on the phone, I gave up. Finally my camera had charged enough that I was able to use that and naturally, within seconds, my photos were on my desktop ready to be imported into my blog.

Seriously, if I don’t get my head out of the clouds, this journey may be a looonnnng one!!!!

And We’re Off …..