Furni-thoughts

One of the great things about ready-to-assemble furniture is the pricing. When a customer ( say me, as I am the most important consumer living, and the only one who has access to my wallet ) bears the chore of delivery and assembly, it’s possible to save serious bank on new furniture. Since I hate spending money, this arrangement usually works out well. Sometimes though, the math can break down tragically. Not all costs are obvious at the cash register.

For instance, let’s say one can’t stand fully upright for several days due to muscle strain  from toiling nine hours over heavy slabs of wood, metal or rubberized parts. Well that’s an additional costs, and though not explicitly included in the price, really exists and part of the deal the consumer makes with the purveyor of ready to assemble furniture at establishments like, oh say, IKEA. A decent looking piece of furniture in exchange for sweat and ducats–hopefully far less ducats than those extorted at Mr. Big Name Department store.

When the modest sticker price far exceeds the amount of effort required during assembly, everyone wins. Consumer ( again think me ) gets quality stuff at bargain prices, producer get sale, and when it happens often enough, weasel at Big Name Department Store gets terminated. Hear my shekels roaring.

So began the tale of this past weekend, when the moment seemed right to overhaul the bedroom. Breaking down the canopy bed frame and chucking the nightstands to the curb not only marked the end of an era and; the open space made room for new stuff. It also revealed cat size dust bunnies wedged in unspeakable places, but that’s another entry.

As promised by language neutral documentation, the frame and matching bed shelf assembly went together exactly as the universal pictographs alleged. Every part depicted was present and in fine condition. Last, the resulting platform bed and bed shelf looked really good. But wait, there’s more!

Point unmentioned: nearly seven hundred pieces impelled by its construction, and nine hours of assembly time. Also missing in the product description, the fact I can not grip a pencil for more than three seconds without crying.

Really a meager price to pay for part of a  new bedroom set. After, there’s some dressers that need replacing.

One thought on “Furni-thoughts

  • January 18, 2010 at 11:09 am
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    Dude. Totally. When I was looking at bedroom sets for myself, I went to like 4 places and finally settled on that Bedroom Expo place on 22. I actually lucked out since they had free delivery and assembly and had the set that I liked the best.

    The only downside of the whole transaction was that I have no clue how the bed was put together. When I moved, luckily, I hired movers and they were able to take it apart, move it and re-assemble the whole thing.

    Personally, I think it’s worth $100 to have someone put together your stuff. Unless it’s from Ikea… in that case, their furniture is very light-weight, easy to assemble and comes with all of the required tools (normally).

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