Because I'm a genius!!!

So the bedroom I moved into in my Mom's house has been home to a lot of people along the way...I think all of Dan's kids lived in here at one point or another- I know Danielle and her son were the last inhabitants before myself and Moonshine (and eventually Joel). It's a fine sized bedroom (when you just need it to be a bedroom- not your EVERYTHING room)- and when I moved in it came furnished with a bed and a bedside table. It has a big closet too. But it didn't have a dresser or any shelves or anything- so there was no place for me to put my books, my stacks of papers, etc. Unfortunately, the co-sleeper has become my "throw it in there" area, which obviously won't work for very long.

So after looking around for some furniture in these parts and only finding either very cheap stuff (good price, but made of pressboard), or very expensive stuff (nice stuff, but way out of our price range). So I decided to look online at everyone's favorite Swedish store IKEA. I immediately found a dresser and a bedside table that were simple, cute and cheap. :)

So yesterday Mom and I drove to Chicago, to the nearest IKEA, to pick up said pieces. (We had looked into ordering online, but found that the cost of deliver was WAY more than the cost of the furniture itself!)

The funny thing was that as soon as I mentioned that I was going to buy IKEA furniture, everyone started questioning WHO was going to put it together for me! Apparently, people don't know that I am a genius!!! :) The truth is that I'm just good at building stuff. In fact, way back in high school, when I had to take the job placement kind of proficiency test (everyone had to take it, whether or not you already knew what you wanted to go into in college) my highest results came in two areas- first in working with people (teacher, social worker, etc) and second- this one was kind of surprising, but it was carpentry. I don't even think they offered a category of job- it just straight up said, "Carpentry."

So, needless to say, putting together IKEA furniture, scary directions and all, just didn't scare me. :)

I put together the bedside table already last night as soon as we got home- Dan helped me because he got out the power drill, and while I'm not scared of a screwdriver, I wasn't interested in using the power drill. So, he did the screwing while I did the putting together. I messed up once- attached one piece upside down so the holes that we needed long after we originally attached the piece, were face down instead of face up. Oops. So we had to take one piece off, turn the other piece around, and then proceed correctly.

So today came the job of putting the dresser together... Dan had other things to do, so he brought me regular screwdrivers, and I went to work.

Here is the picture of all the stuff laid out in the beginning...

Because I was working alone, I didn't have anyone to document my progress... but right at the end, as I was just literally putting the last pieces onto the drawers, Dan came up, with the drill, and helped me do the last 12 screws. I didn't NEED his help, and didn't even ask for it- but of course, getting through those last couple of steps more quickly was nice. :)

At the end, I struck a victorious pose with my new dresser- which will also double as changing table for Moonshine once s/he arrives.

The funny thing was that my mom kept looking at the bag of screws and saying, "There are just so many screws!!" But to me it's like- well, I obviously need them all for something...I'll just use them one at a time til they're gone! And when you follow the directions (which really are easy) you just get through them all. In the end, Mom was saying to Dan, "We need to go buy the shelves we've been meaning to buy while she's still here..." :)