The BEKVÄM Conundrum

I am beginning to understand why my boyfriend hates Ikea.  Just a couple weeks ago, after moving to our new apartment, we decided we had to make the epic trek to stock up on cheap home goods.  I was all for this, as I had never seen anything wrong with Ikea before, apart from its sometimes awkwardly too Scandinavian looking lamps and the fact that every college student in Europe owns the same hideous wall "art".

Yes, this is a lamp and yes, it is hideous.

In my mind however, the basics for an apartment, such as shelves, window blinds and candle holders, were where it was perfectly acceptable to save a couple bucks and buy from the Empire of Cheap Shit (aka Ikea).  That is, until today.  One of the things we purchased on our most recent excursion was a step-stool for me to use in the kitchen.  The ceilings of our altbau apartment are very high, and the previous owner took advantage of that and put in very tall cupboards.  I am short, and thus can only reach about half of our kitchen storage space.  A little step-stool was a perfect solution!  We found one at Ikea (for only 12€) but I didn't get around to putting it together until today.  And now I understand why my boyfriend hates Ikea.

It started out like any other project, with me ripping open the box and sort of glancing at the directions before jumping into it.  I even thought, "Hey! How nice of them, they included a little screwdriver thing, so I don't have to get off my butt to grab one of ours!"  I sort of wish they hadn't bothered.

About 15 minutes into using the teeny tiny screwdriver that kept slipping out of my hand, I realized I had attached the wrong piece.  Shit.  So I had to spend more time unscrewing it, reading the directions, and screwing the correct piece in place.  After another 25 minutes I had one side all screwed in, even though it sort of looked about ready to fall apart.

Things went along smoothly from there until I hit one very resistant screw.  It didn't want to go in, no matter how many times I unscrewed it and tried again, so I just moved on, deciding to come back to it later.  The project progressed, with sweating, swearing and struggling on my part, but it was starting to look like a functional item of furniture.

Well over an hour after starting, the stool seemed to be coming together and all that was left to do was give the screws their finals turns in order to secure them.  Then I remembered the finicky one.  It still didn't want to go in, and after taking it out, thinking I'd screw it back in anew, I realize I'd made a huge mistake.  I couldn't find the hole that the screw was supposed to be going in to, and subsequently ended up spending another 10 minutes just attempting to get it back into the wood at all.  I finally jammed it in place and stepped back to view my finished work.

Ta-Da! (Notice said screw on the bottom right)

In conclusion to my story of harrowing adversity and exuberant (pretty much) triumph, my boyfriend was right.  Even though I hate to admit it, he usually he.  I'd rather spend 10€ more to buy something not from Ikea.  At least that way I won't have to put the thing together myself and just end up with the same shit quality thing that everyone else has.