My son is a growing lad he's just 14 and is 5ft 10" so far... but his room is small at only 9ft x 9ft and he is still growing. In our former rambling farmhouse home his room was much larger and he could get up and move around a bit when prodded, to avoid bone calcification or rigamortis, following several hours a day sitting playing his guitars or the Internet!
In our new home, a much smaller 3 bed bungalow, we have four tall people vying for room and space. We are overflowing into greenhouses and garage and may have miscalculated our needs. It isn't ideal but hey that's life.
We do feel bad for our son though and I sat down to see what I could do for him to maximise his space. Out came ruler, pencil, tape measure and graph paper. I then measured his room, bed, desk, drawers etc and rearranged them in several drafts. Then I got out the various catalogues to see if I could put to best use any new mix of furniture. I found the ideal items and ran the idea various layout options past husband and son. Son seemed well pleased, husband seemed happy to pay up and agree if it maximised sons space.
So after work/school on friday night, daughter, son & I had a cuppa and snack and drove to Gateshead Ikea. Normally a 54 minute drive - for me that is, I do drive quite quickly! LOL- but there were traffic light stops and so it took 2 hours. made note. We roamed the now doubled sales floor area of Ikea, which was surprisingly quiet, obviously a good time to visit - made 2nd mental note. After sussing out everything we needed, we adjourned for a light supper and then trolled the warehouse aisles and collected the last in stock items we wanted- Mental note#3 phone next time to check stock holding. We had the must do ice cream on the way out and as the kids take ages to eat the bloody things, I stacked the car luckily my Citroen Berlingo forte has loads of space in it. It was by now gone 9pm. I was cream crackered and drove home through very heavy rain- a white knuckle ride. We got home for 10:15pm it had taken 5 hours door to door when it should've been only 3!
On Saturday morning, we all hovered around the boxes in the hall, my daughter had some errands to run in town and my husband( looked for a way out) went to visit his mother. We expected he wuold be out most of the afternoon. We were right! We finished the shelving unit and workspace thingy at 5:10pm, in walked husband at 5.30pm. Job done. 10 hours in total.
So is Ikea value for money? Ikea Units £155, petrol £15, meal £10, ice creams £1.20 + 10 hours work x 2? Mmmm...
It was lovely working with my son, I learnt that he is very thorough and faster than I at working through the illustrated instructions.
This morning I walked in to sons room with a cuppa and asked him why his room was covered with cat hairs and fur balls. He chortled from under the quilt .... at least now he can swing a cat if he wants to!!
