The Ikea test

We passed the test.

We shopped for furniture at Ikea, got them home and assembled them with our relationship intact.  And we have not one, not two, but six pieces of Ikea furniture in our home.  And some of the furniture were not small, mind you.  The latest addition to the home is the wardrobe he bought for me to house my clothes and a chaise lounge for us to share while watching movies.

The Ikea experience for me here is totally different from back home.  My family and I have been fans of Ikea ever since they first opened in Katong, near to where Parkway Parade is now.  We love their simple yet cosy design.  Although we do get frustrated over some badly constructed pieces which made their assembly difficult, generally we do like to buy their furniture since the prices are relatively low and if you don't move them too much and if once in a while you tighten the screws, they do last.

I used to hate putting together the pieces with my father.  He would get frustrated when the pieces do not fit and would grumble as we worked.  It would get to the point where I'd rather do it myself and most of the time I would send him away and work on it alone or with my siblings.  In the end, what we'd do is to decide what we want, get them delivered and assembled for us.  We have to pay extra but, easy peasy.  No sweat, no swearing.

Here, it's totally different.  First of all, before we do anything, we have to agree on the furniture.  Luckily, Pete and I have no problems choosing something we both could agree on.  I thought that was the hardest part, actually.  Then I thought we only had to choose the pieces we want, we pay for them and then wait at home.  But no.  Here, hardly anyone have their furniture delivered.  They don't believe in it.  What they do is to rent small trailers and get them hitched to the back of their cars.  They load everything there, drive and then carry their furniture into their homes.

When his mum bought her car, we could finally get a trailer and so we went to Ikea this afternoon.  Back home, Saturdays at Ikea means long queues at the restaurant and long queues at the cashier counters.  But it was not crowded at all here.  We could shop and eat in peace.  The hard work would come later.

We bought a chaise lounge (Kivik) and a two-door wardrobe (Brimnes).  We also bought 4 pieces of wood 3.3m in length for our vegetable beds in the garden.  Once we got to the driveway near our apartment, Pete and I had to carry the heavy pieces to the main door about 100m away, open the door, get into the lift and into our home.  And boy were they heavy.  Although we have a trolley to help us, the weight of the wood meant that we still had to use a lot of strength to move them.  As we took trip after trip to get everything up, I could feel my legs getting a good work out.  I'm lucky we're in Sweden where it's nice and cool even in summer.  Even with all the effort, I didn't break a sweat.

And luckily for me, I married a strapping Viking.  He did most of the work, even carrying the planks which are too long for the elevator up the stairs.  They were very heavy.  Getting the planks inside was my job and I could only carry one plank at a time.  He also had to move the old dining table and sofa bed to his mum's while I stayed to try put something together.

I managed to push our furniture around to make space to assemble the lounge.  I took a deep breath and then started ripping the box apart.  I was ready to tackle what I thought was going to be a messy operation, but I got a pleasant surprise.  It turned out I only had to hammer the legs to the bottom and put the cushions on.  Anti-climax.

The wardrobe, though, was the complete opposite.  First of all, it came in two heavy boxes.  I had to wait for him to get home before I could start.  I had trouble even opening the boxes.  The manual that came with it was 28 pages long and there were 29 steps altogether.  We've built our dining table and metal workstation together with no problems.  But this wardrobe looks like a massive job.  As I looked at the hinges, screws and nails, I wondered, "Would we be able to do it?"

Thankfully we were.  We worked very well together, even though we took 1hr 36mins from start to finish.  We know because we timed ourselves.  Needless for me to say, Pete has put together enough Ikea furniture to be able to make sense of the directions.  I only needed to follow his instructions. Throughout, we joked and teased each other and most importantly, we used each other's strength to put the ten pieces of wood into a working wardrobe.

"Is this a test to see if I'm fit to live in Sweden?" I teased him.  "No, it's a test to see if you're fit to be with me," he teased back.

I don't think we passed the test.  We aced it.

my wedding dress was the first to go into the new wardrobe