Renovations 2.0

So, you thought it was over. You thought the renovations were done, but that was just the Bathroom, Hall and Living Room. Now comes the Bedroom.

 A little pondering with Rants. 

Mouldy windows. (Before.)

Mouldy windows. (After.) Ta-da. 

We waited a couple of months, as we needed that time for the trauma of the last renovations to heal and be put behind us. This time we set apart three whole days to do the one room. Sounds good, right? One day to box up and move everything out. We also got rid of four pieces of furniture on gumtree, to make room for new exciting stuff. One day to paint everything. And one day for the Ikea delivery and hopefully the subsequent assembly of the furniture. Eh-Er (Hopefully that came across as the sound made in Family Fortunes when they got an answer wrong and that big cross came on the screen. That's what I was going for.)

Bye Malm, you did us a solid and now you're going to another home. 

The first two days actually went to plan, with minimal hatred of the world or each other. Mainly just tiredness and sore arms from all the carting around and painting. Just when you think, this is going well...........Then came Sunday. Ikea were set to deliver between 8.30am and 12.30am. Not a bad slot really and we'd still have ages to put stuff together. But then Ikea failed to deliver, in fact, they actually lost our order in the warehouse somewhere. Yay! And when did they tell us this? Early, so we could do something about it? No. A was on hold for 25 minutes with them after the delivery time. They never called us. Even more of a slap in the face.

 When the bedroom comes to live in the living room. 

So guess where we went? To Ikea, to get the freakin' stuff ourselves. Of course they didn't have exactly everything we wanted, so we had to compromise a few things and make changes. They also have the least helpful staff, who know nothing and can't tell you anything. But at least they are cheap. So we got all the stuff and a very nice man with a van to pick us up and take us home. But this was now 5.30pm, half the day gone.

That evening we only got the corner wardrobe assembled, as it was a lot of work. And we couldn't get the door to sit straight or close properly. Honestly Ikea, in all these years you can't make it so a door just fits straight. What's that about?

Bloody corner wardrobe. 

But then Monday arrived and further disaster hit. In our haste in Ikea, we had actually picked up the smaller wardrobes. Ooops. And we started assembling them before we cottoned on. Disaster. I assembled the drawers but then I had to go to work. And poor A had to go back to Ikea to replace the wardrobes, and return some of the hinges and runners we'd bought the day before, because nowhere does it say the drawer packs come with runners. Some things are separate, others aren't. Make up your mind Ikea.

When I got home from work, one wardrobe was already assembled and I helped with the second one. We managed to get the drawers and wire baskets in, leaving Tuesday for the doors - great more doors - and the final shelving unit.

It's finally coming together.

Okay, so now you're thinking, well that's not too bad, you're only two days behind right? Er, wrong. What about all the boxes filling the living room? What about unpacking all the clothes? What about the fact that my partner's parents are coming to stay with us for two nights starting tomorrow? Oh fuck. Pretty lucky we're both self-employed and relatively part time, otherwise this saga could have gone on far longer.

So when I came home from a full day of teaching on Wednesday, I still had twenty or so boxes and a whole myriad of other crap to sort out, move around and hopefully discard some of. Needless to say, the boxes were hidden or placed out of the way wherever we could find space for them, and it's Friday and they still need unpacking. Urgh.

Top tips:

• Finish one thing and take it to fruition before starting another project. (I still haven't unpacked all the boxes from the Living room renovation. Eek.)
• If using Ikea, add at least another two days to your schedule, expect to be fucked around, and make a contingency plan. 
• Pick up the right things when you go to Ikea, and always check the boxes, not just for the code numbers, which seem to be different from online to in store, but the actual dimensions. 
• Don't have people staying that week, though in a way that could stop you dawdling. Deadlines can be useful, but not always in DIY projects. 
• Thinning out and streamlining your furniture can have a knock on effect on your clothes and shit. Meaning: you're going to have to cull like crazy. 
• You are always going to forget something, so just prepare yourself for the inevitable. For us it was the door handles. Doh!

Ha ha. Can you believe we still have the kitchen to do and a mega book shelving project in the living room. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Happy renovations to anyone else out there improving their homes or simply testing their sanity. How's that working out for you?

Rants

P.S Consider your recycling possibilities, as you will be left with a whole mess of cardboard and packaging to discard of. Our recycling collectors are ridiculous. They won't take anything that's not in the recycling bin - and we only have one for the entire building - even if it's clearly cardboard beside the bin that needs recycling. So we unfortunately had to half fill the recycling bin minutes after it had been emptied, with a whole week until it would be emptied again. If you have a car, then great, you can pop to your local recycling hub, but A ended up taking a cab with a load of cardboard.

Our wrong sized wardrobes found a new home and we were compensated with a full refund from Ikea - for the lost order - and additional cash and voucher compensation, which we will be using to buy door handles. Ha ha.

Rants out.