IKEA-fying the flat

Wooo hooo! Internet access! Well, just for a little bit anyway. I am sitting at our (newly constructed) dining table. I would never have thought that Mills and I would ever be building home furniture, but there you go. And we both survived (although we have the injuries to prove it).

A few lessons I learnt from setting up our home: don't sit under the computer stand when piecing the computer stand together. When computer stand collapses, it lands on you. Do try to move furniture and other obstructions out of narrow walkways before trying to lift heavy objects because when hand gets trapped between heavy object and obstruction, it hurts. Don't try to move a lamp that has been on for several hours - certainly not if you intend to actually touch the light bulbs. When hanging curtains, leaning too far off the bed results in smacking your forehead on the nearby wall. Don't do that. These are just a few suggestions. Use them, don't use them.

So, our furniture arrived on Friday. 61 boxes of it - which I unwrapped with the delight of a four-year-old at Christmas. I made full use of my hands, feets and even sometimes my teeth. There was much joy at finding some of the items tucked away in the packages (like my hairdryer, my boots, my pink fluffy tiara); but there were also some very random finds: a number of tupperware lids (minus the tupperwares themselves), a few empty ice cream tubs (can never have too many of those), and the Gauteng Yellow Pages.

After unpacking, we made the obligatory trip to IKEA to get some cupboards and other livable-space stuff. We borrowed a station wagon from work. This added another interesting aspect to our bickering, because while Mills was trying to change gears by the door handle on his left hand side, I was trying to navigate on foreign roads without a road map. The highlight of the trip was turning into a road and both of us completely forgetting which side we should be on... so we just drove down the middle to be safe.

We managed to buy 19 items from IKEA - which was also interesting: trying to get a dining room table, a number of chairs, a few cupboards, several chests of drawers and two rugs around a parking lot. Especially with me getting the giggles at every corner.

Then the fun part started:

"Okay, now you need to line up that leg with this one..."
"Uuummphf... it's too tight. I just can't line up with the hole."
"Maybe if I change my angle. You come around this side..."
"Ooomphf... okay, that's better. I'll have to give it a bang. Just hold still..."

And, of course, a number of "Wanna screw?" jokes from me while Mills was actually doing the work. Most of it has now been constructed. Most of it - because after about a cupboard and a half, I lost interest and got bored. In other news, the washing machine is now fully functional, and we have a tumble dryer, so no more Laundroflat!

So Mills and I survived our weekend. I'm actually quite impressed and proud at just how handy my boyfriend has been... and it looks like most of the furniture will actually stay standing (provided I had nothing to do with its construction). We were a smooth operating team. When I wasn't giggling.

Although I won't be signing us up for The Amazing Race just yet.