Sunday, January 30, 2011

Oh, when will I learn?

Today after we had all the fun we could find at Legoland (and we had a lot), we headed to IKEA. Once you've wandered through IKEA and imagined the home you could have if you a) actually owned a home b) had an unlimited budget c) didn't mind spending the next two years assembling furniture or paying someone to assemble it for you or d) had a way to get said potential merchandise from the store to your house, you head down to the first level for checkout. Before you get to the checkout section, you are blessed with seeing the 'get it now' section for discontinued items (offered at a decent discount) and the scratch and dent section, offered at a fabulous discount. Plus, it's already assembled.

And when I say you, I mean me.

R and I were browsing both discounted sections because we are kinda sorta looking for a dresser. Right now, we each have a small chest of drawers, but I'd really like to have one larger dresser - especially if the drawers could refrain from falling apart periodically. A-hem.

While we didn't find the dresser of our dreams, we did see stuff we liked. Alas, we had no way to get it home today and we had no desire to make a five hour trip each way for a dresser we liked but didn't love another day. Guess what we did find? This really cool cabinet made to fit under a stand alone or pedestal sink. Already assembled, small enough to fit in the trunk, it was perfect for extra hand towels and toilet paper storage for our downstairs bathroom.  Plus, it was marked way down, but in excellent condition.  So we bought it.

Once we got home, we brought it in and I realized the error I made. While our downstairs bathroom has a pedestal sink the cabinet was made to fit around a sink without the pedestal stand. And, as luck would have it, it's about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch too tall to fit under the sink even if we removed the stand, which we totally wouldn't do because this is military housing and we so do not need this sort of headache.

Crap. No returns, refunds, or exchanges since it was a scratch and dent.

So what other uses can we find for this cabinet with a nice U shaped cut out on top? I guess we could put a potted plant of some sort down into it so it looks like it's sprouting greenery ::eye roll::. Maybe put in a closet for storage or in the laundry room under that counter. I guess I could try to sell it at a yard sale.

Sigh.

How could I have missed the obviously obvious? There's a big bar across the bottom of the back side of the cabinet. Hello! Pedestal sinks go all the way to the floor, Brooke. DUH! Even if we removed the bar, the cabinet is still too tall and we'd have to saw some material out of the shelves, which would then be rendered mostly useless - so what's the point?!?

I can't believe I missed the obvious issues with this one! I must have been high on IKEA's Swedish meatballs.

When will I ever learn?

1 comment:

JLK said...

Ikea is Awesome. Like 99% of the stuff in my house is from Ikea, and I re-did the entire kitchen in our old condo with Ikea cabinetry and the whole bit.

i think I know the sink cabinet you're talking about. Here's a thought - screw a piece of plywood on top to cover the hole and then tile the top of it. Then you can use it anywhere as extra counterspace or a table or whatever.