Fahrvergnügen!!!

In honor of the 36th annual Marine Corps Marathon taking place precisely in my backyard (if highrise apartment buildings had backyards...), I present to you the first-ever installment of of "Things That Will Take Me More Than 4 Hours To Complete!"

Tory and I started our Halloween Weekend off with a very very long list of things-to-do, mostly related to returning our crib to a state of safe, sanitary living.  After cleaning everything from the sink basin to the baseboards, we ventured out to our über favorite store of cheap and space efficient furniture, Ikea!  I mean, who could think of a better way to spend a SNOWY October evening, right?!  Ja! 

In our tiny space we have 2 particular areas that are a constant source of stress and clutter: our "coat closet" and the hidden corner of our living area.  I am convinced that the disaster taking place in our coat closet simply can not be fixed and as long as the door is shut I do not find it hard to ignore the need for a hard hat when opening it up.  But the corner full of stacks of paper, filing systems, electric cords, a basket full of mail needing shredding, dietary supplements, resistance bands, and THREE BACKPACKS (all Tory's!!!), absolutely had to be fixed before I lost my mind.  Who needs three backpacks?

Of course, I had the perfect solution!  We have another weird 39 inch wall in our living room that was covered with two dust-ridden silk plants and a floor lamp.  Prime real estate for a nice do-it-your self bookshelf from Sweden or Denmark or wherever.  So off we went to the land of Danish Disasters in the wet slush falling from the sky (in October).

Shoulda probably turned the lamp off.

We picked our Fine Finnish Furniture and headed home in the sleet (IN OCTOBER!!!) to get to work.  Now, most of our living room furniture is from Ikea.  With 729 square feet, you need something small.  You also hope that one day you will have another thousand feet or so, so you really don't want to spend a lot on the wee coffee tables and tv stands.  Ikea meets both of these needs!  Tory did all of the assembling of our coffee table, tv stand, end tables, and desk, so I really did not know what was involved in building a piece of junk high quality merchandise from Ikea.  Unfortunately, I do now.

First, we opened the boxes and took out exactly 29,643 pieces of wood, bolts, nuts, screws, nails, and glass required to put this thing together.  Apparently, this consequently spawned a tornardo in our apartment at the very same time:

wine required!

Where in the fahrvergnügen do we start?

The next step was to excile Louie to puppy jail, all of those tiny chewable pieces spelled N-E-I-N for her assistance with this project.

Lucky you, Lucille!

And then we got to work.  I have to give Tory credit.  After watching me strip 90% of the screws I was driving or screwing or whatever, he patiently gave me a quick lesson in handling a screwdriver 101.  Screws are still basically the bain of my existence but at least now I am an educated, trained screwer (chuckle).  Tory even dummed-down the carpentry lingo for me, labeling the various pieces "rollie thing" and "the squiggly."  This helped tremendously, being that Ikea instructions HAVE NO WORDS.   I guess this is to cut down the cost of translating the directions into every conceivable language in the world, but still... these "diagrams" aka blueprints were just not sufficient for my simple mind. 

We built these sides, complete with rollie things, wheely things, and hinges with squigglies!

Also- did you know that Ikea packages their furniture in as many teeny-tiny pieces as possible?  I am pretty sure that some of those components could have come pre-assembled, I'm just sayin....

Anyway, after over 4 hours of screwdriving, hammering, hingeing, and allen-wrenching, we had ourselve's a bookshelf!  I wasted no time in cleaning out the "hidden corner" and sorting my findings into various piles which found homes in one of the 4 drawers that we built.  Then I went to town re-organizing the over-crowded built-ins that double as bookshelves and a linen closet in our bedroom.  The end result made me jump for joy!!

Our Creation!

This tidy little hidden corner brings me so much joy!

That bookshelf looks so much better on that awkward wall than the silk plants and the hidden corner is so neat and organized now!  When I walk through the front door and see THIS when I walk in, I don't give a flying fahrvergnügen about the 4+ hours and 29,643 pieces it took us to get there!

Comfy, cozy, home sweet home!