Caleb Adventures in IKEA
We have been "needing" a trip to Ikea for a long time, and with the bricks & mortar closed this week, we piled into our trusty/rusty two-door Civic, looking forward to the drive home, cramped into seats pushed all the way forward by long and flat cardboard boxes. I have been dreaming of Swedish meatballs and vinyl arrows on the floor for weeks. After hearing about the Flat pack Assembly Services that IKEA has partnered with, we were even more desperate to get every piece of furniture we could possibly buy. Thankfully, we managed to abstain! We were almost going to go on a Sunday afternoon, but figured it would be less busy on a Monday mid-morning. Let me tell you, as we were leaving we overheard an Ikea employee talking to another co-worker, pushing a long row of shopping carts back into the building, "This isn't even close, it's going to be a stampede." And he was not kidding. It was nuts even as we were just leaving. I think it's those meatballs. While we shopped for some shop things and some home things, Caleb, of course, had the best time of all. 
We had a list of a few things we needed to get for the shop, and also a kitchen cabinet for the apartment. When we moved into our apartment, there was literally nothing for a living situation: no stove, no fridge, no bathtub. We put in the essentials while the costs of renovation were giving Jon grey hairs, but I think we both agreed it was time for some cabinetry, mainly because Caleb grabs everything like he's had never had any discipline in his life. After it all, it was lunch time. I graciously offered to find a table while Jon lined up for our meatballs, and he came back to us like he had just been attacked by wolves. But it was totally worth it. Best of all, as we were leaving we bumped into a few of our favourite customers! And they thought they could get away from us...we are like the mafia! Or high fructose corn syrup! Everywhere! Just kidding. But we did seriously bump into two pen nuts and the dad of one of the pen nuts. I was almost going to take a picture of them, but I'm pretty sure they were there to admire the Swedish design and not to be ambushed by their local pen clerks. In any case, it was an adventure. We returned home for a long nap, one of us pooped from running around and getting into everything, and another from chasing someone running around and getting into everything. I was just taking pictures.
***
Now, at this very moment, I'm watching my manly man assemble our new kitchen cabinet, while listening to such salty commentary as: "How come I need all these other tools - this is Ikea, I'm supposed to be able to put it all together with an allen key." "There's like 56 steps in this one, it's going to take forever." "Ugh, I can't find this piece, I think they forgot to include it." "This piece is left-over, I think they must have included extras." "Liz, I need your help. Don't put that on the blog."
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Comments
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JJ ColourArt said:
Yes, I just found out about the pick-up locations. They are due to open at various times. Info from their web site:
Our new Pick-Up and Order Points will be located at the following locations in London, ON, St. Catharines, ON, Whitby, ON, Windsor, ON and Quebec City, QC.
London – 3198 Wonderland Rd S N6L 1A1
St. Catharines – Fairview Mall, 285 Geneva Street L2N 2G1
Whitby – 1650 Victoria Street E L1N 9L4
Windsor – 4115 Walker Road N8W 3T6
Kitchener – 130 Gateway Dr N2P 2J4
Quebec City – 3111 Avenue Watt G1X 3W2
Our Quebec City and London locations are now open.In turn, we expect the St. Catharines, Whitby, Windsor, and Kitchener locations to open by spring 2016.
Anonymous said:
HAHA – he is a little monkey, that’s for sure!
Good eye! This is the North York IKEA :)
Paul said:
IKEA monkey 2.0
Is that the North York IKEA?
Anonymous said:
HAHA! Thank you. One day I’m going to post a collection of photos of Caleb crying :)
ceewilson said:
It’s like attack of the cute. IKEA didn’t stand s chance.
Anonymous said:
Haha! Thanks so much – he’s free to be your tour guide for the price of some meatballs :)
Anonymous said:
It was great running into you, too! We did our walk-through of the store earlier in the morning, and then had lunch before bumping into you- it was busy even for us then, but it was definitely starting to get packed around when we were leaving!
Our pictures are a bit deceptive, we had to wait for just the right times when victims were cleared of Caleb’s path! :)
Anonymous said:
That’s a great tip! I will be sure to pass it along to him :)
Anonymous said:
I didn’t realize they were opening up other pick-up locations! That makes a lot of sense, because it was really bananas in there. We were lucky that we already knew exactly what we wanted, and didn’t have to do too much “browsing.”
And, thanks so much for always reading along with us :)
Anonymous said:
Thanks so much! Both for reading and taking the trouble to comment. I’m lucky that Caleb is his own adventurer, I’m just along to capture the photos, and try to make sure he doesn’t break anything expensive :)
Anonymous said:
Thanks so much for reading! I’m so glad you are enjoying the blog. I’m pretty lucky that I get to share pictures of some of the fun stuff we do.
We do have some super secret projects!! I can’t wait either :)
Jon is okay! He called in the big guns (me). HAHA!
Anonymous said:
Haha! Jon is a pretty good guy, and a pretty good sport for the blog! :)
But we’re married now, so even if he watches what he says, I’ll still know what he’s thinking ;)
Michael Simon said:
Loved the tour of IKEA that Caleb gave.
Mark said:
Great post – Lovely pictures. It was nice running into you all there yesterday. We were amazed to see those pics that made the store look almost empty! (It wasn’t – that was a hectic day at IKEA)
mickeyobe said:
Jon, From a former, but now retired, Ikea DIYer. Cut the small bent end off the Allen key. Insert the longer end into an electric drill. You can now save yourself many hours of hard labour and many, many nasty blisters. Mickey Oberman
On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 9:50 PM, Wonder Pens – Life Behind a Stationery
JJ ColourArt said:
We went to Ikea in the summer—haven’t been for 22 years or so. It was like parking at the airport as was the interior. I couldn’t believe it. They are fortunately opening up satellite pick-up locations in the Spring, so people won’t have to go into Toronto to pick things up.
I too find your blog posts a treat!
scott said:
I really enjoy your photography. You do such a good job of capturing the environment and the space around Caleb. It really tells a story.
Robert Lin said:
Love the pictures of Caleb and your stellar photography Liz! Seeing your blog pop up onto the notifications on my cell phone always makes me stop what I’m doing to read. Looking forward to what 2016 brings! Jon mentioned some super secret projects that’s lined up. I can’t wait! Hope Jon is okay with all the things from ikea that needs to be assembled.
Tim Parris said:
You know, if you keep writing down exactly what Jon says, he is going to start acting like a politician and watch what he says around you. At least, while you have a pen, or a digital recorder, or…
However, I really like knowing that Jon is a human being at times. So please let him know that we accept his flaws. He is a good guy.