Buying Our Kitchen: Part I -or- That Time I Spent Ten Hours at Ikea

This is totally a wide-angle lens.  See that oven in the corner?  The refrigerator prevents the door from fully opening. 

We bought the house knowing we needed a new kitchen.  Nothing works.  The layout is terrible.  It is so small, we use the top of the washing machine as our food preparation station.  There are so many things wrong with that sentence.

So, we (Ethan) did our (his) research and learned that Ikea is really the best bang for your buck.  The appliances are made by Whirlpool, there is a crazy long guarantee on everything, and you can design everything yourself for a custom look without custom prices.  Plus, Ikea was having a 20% off sale, which meant (a) we could save 20% or (b) we could upgrade and get the fancy dishwasher that looks like a cabinet!  And a cobalt blue Viking range!  We chose option (b) obviously.

Found on lilyfieldlife.com

Anyway, Ethan spent hours measuring the kitchen, taking note of weird wall soffits, and choosing which actual pieces we would need where.  Then he and I chose the style and colors.  We option for traditional style fronts in gray with white quartz counter tops, and a huge double-sided farmhouse sink.  The sink is my favorite thing ever and I can't wait for it to be mine.

We called Ikea to schedule an appointment to come in.  We learned they don't take appointments, but the College Park store takes names fifteen minutes before opening.  So we got up early the next Sunday armed with our plans and detailed order list, ready to take on Ikea.

Via Houzz.com

We showed up fifteen minutes early and were first in line.  The fifteen minutes gave us just enough time to totally second guess the design choice we made weeks ago.  Gray traditional cabinets with white quartz counter tops were out, and sleek, modern, white cabinets with a gray quartz counter top was in.  But the farmhouse sink remained.

Anyway, since Ethan had already chosen our pieces and uploaded everything into the Ikea Kitchen Building Tool, we thought this would be a super fast shopping experience.  We would just swap gray for white, press pay, and be on our way!

Something happened.  I've replayed the day over and over, and still can't explain it.  Somehow, prepared as we were, we managed to spend like six hours getting the items our of the design tool into our shopping cart.  Then shit got real!

The built in microwave (you know, the ONLY one Ikea is currently selling) was out of stock at every store on the East Coast and discontinued so stock would never be replenished.  Not having that microwave meant the cabinets built to hold the microwave were worthless.  This would throw off the ENTIRE KITCHEN DESIGN.  We had already spent so much time on THIS kitchen, how could we ever change it?!?  WHY did Ikea let us incorporate the discontinued microwave into our design and not warn us until checkout?!?!?!?  WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS??????

Luckily, a store manager overheard us and told us about a super secret built in microwave.  You couldn't search for it, but he could add it to our cart because he had the super secret code.  And, I actually liked it better and it was cheaper.  Crisis averted!

Other items were unavailable as well, but shouldn't be a big deal because the stock will get replenished, and we can just add to our order later.  At least that is what I heard in my state of Ikea fatigue.