That was an experience!
We left home around 6am, a bit later than I hoped (as always). We stopped for breakfast around 8 at a small place we've stopped at before. Would have been fine except they had the radio tuned to the Neal Diamond station - after about the fifth song I was feeling like the aliens in "Mars Attacks".
If we had not already placed our order, I would have got up and left. I listen to "oldies" a lot, and have no problem with the occasional Neal Diamond song, but this was too much. DH and I started making up different words to the songs just so I didn't start climbing the walls. DH mentioned it could have been worse, could have been Beatles - his least favorite group. We were getting rather silly about the whole thing
The young waitress brought our food and asked if we needed anything. I said they needed to put a warning on the door that nothing but Neal Diamond was being played. She said it was driving her nuts, and they had played it all day yesterday too. I told her to tell the manager the customers were complaining about the music and asked if he could change the station. She left with a smile on her face.
We started eating and soon heard the radio station being changed - it settled to a new song - and sure enough - BEATLES!!! DH and I burst out laughing. They tuned in an oldies station and we heard a variety of music for the rest of our meal.
BTW - at 8am on a Friday, there were only a few patrons in the restaurant, and at 50, we were the youngest of them.
Then we hopped back into the truck and headed down the road.
Got to Ikea Twin Cities around 11am. We both grew up and lived in the TC area until in our 40's, so we know this area well. Still have lots of relatives living there too, but we didn't tell any of them we would be in town so we had all the time we wanted to shop.
It was not at all what DH was expecting. I had talked to several people before hand so hand an idea what it would be like, but he did not. At least we found a display with the Domsjo sink right away - DH kept finding things he liked, ideas for this or that . . . at about 1pm we stopped to get something to eat - DH kept saying "You should not have brought me here" meaning - this could get expensive. Good thing we had the truck - it's got an 8' bed and topper.
I'd been going back and forth about countertops, but we decided to go ahead and by the wood (beach) as we liked the way that looked with the sink on some of the diplays. I think we saw five different displays with this sink. Also found a wardrobe that would be perfect for my dressing room (old house - no closets) and I could customize it like a wanted. DH had plans to build me one - for years now and we both admitted it might never happen. So I used the design center and got all the pieces figure out.
We must have walked back and forth several times (and that's quite a walk) and finally ended up downstairs picking our peices. Realized we didn't have pulls, and found out they were back upstairs - so we took another hike and finally had it all figured out.
Paid for it all, had to wait for the sink and counters to be pulled (they aren't in the self serve section). And then had the fun of getting it all in the back of the truck. Had to do some trimming of cardboard as the counters just fit (we will cut them down a bit) but the cardboard packing made them several inches longer. DH mumbled about "should have brought the 16' stock trailer" but that is kind of hard to manuvere in heavy traffic.
We got it all in and left around 4pm. Off to look at Home Depot, Menards and Lowes for a new faucet. I purchased on this spring the other sink, and though I love it, DH decided he was not going to drill holes in the new sink no matter what. I'm sure he could have done it, but since he didn't want to, I got to pick out a new faucet. The sink has one predrilled hole.
After looking at Menards and HD in Apple valley and not finding anything, we stopped for supper adn then got on the interstate heading south. Stopped at the Lowes in Owattana and found a ORB faucet that I really liked. DH suggested stainless, but now that I have a white sink, the only stainless in the whole kitchen is the small band around the induction cooktop. Now I have a faucet that matches all the exposed hardware in the kitchen too.
We pulled in the driveway just after midnight - parked the truck in the shop, let the cats out and went to bed. DH is still sleeping, but we've got a lot to unload and I have no idea when we'll have time to start working on installation. DH got called Wednesday and will be back to work Monday - this project is about 2.5 hours from home and should last 2-3 weeks.
But it feels good to have made a decision about a few things. This whole countertop thing was making my head want to explode! (que Neal Diamond song here).
Cathy
phoggie
Christine Clemens
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