Eye ki HA

[avevale_intelligencer]

...as the army of fanatically gung-ho interior designers chant at their pep rallies. Or they would if Russell T Davies had written them.

Jan had an eye check-up today in Bristol, and for a wonder it only took half the day, including the forty-odd minutes between my dropping her off at the BEH and finding a place to park. So as we were going home I said "fancy a trip to IKEA?"

And we done it. We are no longer IKEA virgins. As with any loss of virginity, the actual experience was somewhat modified by the fact of its being the first time; it was a little bit rushed, a little bit uncomfortable and an awful lot to take in, and then there were meatballs. Or perhaps I'm getting confused...

Anyway, my golly don't they have some furniture. Some of it's even nice, in a stripped down functional sort of way (Jan noted a distinct shortage of aged oak linenfold panelling) and some of it is temptingly cheap in a maybe-in-a-few-months sort of way. And it's the first place we've ever actually seen and touched a genuine double sink. We'd thought they were extinct.

Anyway, I had to be up at eight this morning, having gone to bed at four, um, this morning, so I'm now a tad wiped. I may crash at any mo

Comments

[wolfette]

I love a vist to Ikea from time to time. I tend to come away with lots of small "incidentals" - canvas drawer organisers, kitchen stuff, and interesting foodstuffs from the Marketplace. They're the only place in the UK I can get salty liquorice (not quite as strong as the Dutch "double salted").

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

And they do those lovely pre-seasoned frozen salmon filets. Mmm. (Oh, and bags of frozen meatballs!)

Great place for candles, fairy lights, a hammock for the garden ...

[wolfette]

and "lingonberry juice" :-)

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

mmmm

[jahura.livejournal.com]

Double sinks extinct? Say it isn't so! Why, here in the Wilds of Suburbia they still come standard with optional trap filter! We must be further into the back woods than we figured.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Extinct? The new one we just fitted in the kitchen must be a figment of my imagination, then.

[jahura.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the one I have, the one I grew up with, and the hundreds of double and even some triple sinks I've cleaned over a period of a few years. If your new double sink is a figment, I'm lost in dementia.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I said we *thought* they were extinct, after many hours spent trailing round B & Q and the now-defunct Focus and various other "why not rip out your kitchen this weekend" type of emporia and finding none in stock or in the catalogues and the staff completely bemused by the concept of anything over a sink and a half.

That they are readily available in America, or even over here if you Know Where To Go, is now clear.

[jahura.livejournal.com]

Good morning to you, too! I just had to play on that statement. Please don't take it as dour sarcasm. It's something totally out of my experience. Out here where I live, fifty years ago this whole area within a 40 mile radius was either ranch land, vineyard, or citrus groves with a few houses plunked down for the owners and their help.

Fifty years ago.

That means that when I walk into a house there's a 99.5% chance I was around before it was. There are a couple of houses around here with single sinks, and those are considered historical landmarks by the local governments. Track it back another fifty years, and the state has designated and funds those as historical landmarks, complete with signs pointing the way from the freeways - which also weren't here. Jump your TARDIS back another hundred years, and this area is literally wilds with a pit stop or two between missions that were a couple of days' travel from one to the next.

So when you talk about a single sink in your kitchen, my reaction is ohmigod how old is your house and my heart skips a beat with the possibilities. I love, love, love old houses, and the idea that you may live somewhere where the houses could be centuries old just throttles me.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Sadly, our house was built in the fifties or sixties. There are older ones around here though. And Lacock, just a few miles up the road, is so old they use it to film Jane Austen books...

[jahura.livejournal.com]

Not sad at all. Each house is like stepping into a time warp for me. The house I am typing from was built in 1967 and has a double sink (considered 'state of the art' at that time). The house behind the wall I can see out the window right this minute was built in 1981. That house has a triple sink which was then starting to come into vogue (and also considered 'state of the art'). Also, if you're talking about double sinks for bathrooms, I can tell you that bathroom was either renovated recently or built after 1975.
When I used to clean houses, since the work itself didn't take a whole lot of brain work, it left me open to note details like that and dwell on them. Fun stuff.

It kind of juxtaposes your recent meditations on progress and the danger of it if only perceived in a single direction. For all the newness and shininess some of these dwellings still retain even now, you can't travel a block without at least seeing one For Sale sign in the front because the bank took possession of that house. That's clearly progress gone wrong and a reminder to consider what other options we may have.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

I love IKEA, though it is too damn tempting. We have some very good furniture from there. You have to b careful what you buy - we also had one or two really shitty pieces - but once you know you've got to really rough up a piece of furniture in the showroom to get its measure, you're generally ok.

And I love the meatballs.

[eoforyth.livejournal.com]

the army of fanatically gung-ho interior designers chant

A bit like this, you mean?

http://youtu.be/5D_dhJ77wy8

[howeird]

That was very educational. Thank you.

[valydiarosada.livejournal.com]

Lol!

We have a number of bookcases from IKEA.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

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[pbristow.livejournal.com]

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