Ironic that my latest posting would again parallel my latest trip to Ikea…

So when we learned that Ikea was having a 15% off sale on everything for the whole weekend, we realized that we needed to speed up our kitchen cabinet purchase considerably. We confirmed that Consumer Reports specifically said that Ikea’s low-end cabinets were actually higher quality than all of the brands carried by Home Depot or Lowes. I also noted that the concrete countertops how-to book I’m working from specifically uses our preferred cabinet style in one of their portfolio kitchens.

We picked up a Flexcar for the 3rd time–this time a Honda Element (the strange box-looking thing), and headed north to the College Park store. The trip was slightly more effective than last time, but not great. Once we were there, we headed up to Kitchens. We made decent time, picking out cabinets, styles, doors, pulls, etc. Along with saving 15% on the whole order, we found out from the cabinet specialist that sales tax was waived on orders delivered to D.C. That savings almost completely offset the cost of delivery for the cabinets. This was a good thing, because the delivery is apparently going to be over 700 pounds.

Anyway, after about 4 hours at Ikea, we headed back to the condo. Long story short–this weekend, we were able to tear out the wall between kitchen and dining room, unload our storage cart (delivered on Sunday morning), replace some light switches and electrical sockets, clean the bathroom a bit more, and a few other things of that nature. Next up–bring in the specialists! We hope to get a contractor do quickly finish some of the work like walls and floors.

I also wanted to mention that the Honda Element, while still strange-looking from the outside, has an inside that might win you over. The single most amazing thing is the rear seat mounting. You can take them both out in less than 15 seconds. Alternatively, you can pull two cords, flip one switch, and then fold each seat flush against the side walls of the vehicle. You get one, continuous cargo bay with a scratch resistant floor. The seats come with grommets to secure them firmly out of the way. If you get the chance you should fiddle with the Element the next time you need to move something, tow something, or go camping/biking/hiking. I can definitely believe that it would be an excellent camping vehicle. I think that one of the accessories is even a little curtain thingum that lets you completely close off the back of the vehicle for sleeping, changing, or whatever. Really the only thing I saw missing was armor plating and a gun turret mounted directly in front of the enormous rear seat skylight.

Check out pictures of our weekend activities at: Renovation Album

Categories: General, Kitchen, Remodeling
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So… the other day we decided to hit the nearest Ikea so that we could figure out a baseline number for our kitchen renovation budget. In case you’re not aware, the place we recently purchased (closing next week) came as a great deal in large part because the kitchen and any remaining fixtures are over 50 years old. There is no counter surface at all, the stove is actually considered a “vintage” antique (if it worked), and the sink is an old-school farm-style piece that is freestanding with its own cabinet.

ANYWAY–the trip kind of backfired because we chose to take the Metro Green line out to College Park, Maryland. The problem was that, along with the usual weekend Metro oddities (they save money by cutting back trains and/or doing maintenance in the middle of the day on weekend days), there were tens of thousands of extra passengers heading north on the Green line.

Being in the midst of my first term of my first year of law school, I was oblivious to the fact that there was to be a major anti-war protest on the national mall that day. Apparently the end of the Green line was at least one of the designated staging points where all the busses would meet protesters to carry them back to their home states.

When we got home about 6 hours later, I was again amazed by the underwhelming coverage from the local or national press. I know that this is not the first time it’s happened, and I know that I covered this in PoliSci courses about post-Vietnam War criticism of journalists, but it struck me as odd that I couldn’t find even one shot of a crowd scene. I should reiterated that I *am* in my first term of law school, so I *may* have missed the coverage. Alternatively, it may just be because we have a 9″ or 13″ TV screen at the moment and use a really bad antenna, but still…..

Anyway, I found some pictures just today. I thought I’d share them with you.
The Washington Post coverage.

Some other pics can be found at this rather colorful and poorly maintained site:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/protestphotos.html.
Judging by the site’s name, “WhatReallyHappened.com,” I’d say they’re probably even more willing that I to run headlong into the arms of conspiracy theorists.

Categories: General, Kitchen, Remodeling
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