A New Cube / Music's No Longer Round

Because we're so groovy, I bought a lava lamp from Amazon this week.  Unfortunately, in order to have sufficient space in the living room I needed to buy another IKEA Eket cube.  Back during COVID, we put together a bedroom full of furniture.  We didn't need the cube I'd bought for the dresser.  So it's been near the living room TV sitting directly on the carpeted floor.

So, after getting groceries this morning, we stopped at the Coquitlam IKEA as we drove past.  I couldn't find the inside shortcut through the display maze to get to the warehouse/checkout area.  Eventually, we picked up one. At home, I only needed a hammer to pound the pieces together as the dowels were already in place.  The last time, it took me much longer than it should have to put one together!  

Today, it took less than five minutes.  After I got it assembled, I realized that it was a size larger than the original one.  It took a while to figure out which way to make 'em work.  I guess they're fine back-to-back with the empty sides for junk perpendicular to the wall.  It probably looks better now from the couch.

Something weird?  I opened Spotify on my phone and transferred the sound to the TV and home theatre system. Rather than what'd been playing in the car, I typed in Al Green and selected his Greatest Hits album.  What an usual way to listen to music in 2025!  The songs were all by Mr. Green.  One after another, they played in a predictable order.  It felt like an odd (and a little boring) way to listen to music.

Putting Off a Furniture Purchase

We haven't been breaking into peoples' homes to snap photos of their belongings.  We quit doing that a long time ago!  No, we got pleasantly dizzy running around the maze of showrooms at the IKEA in Coquitlam.

We were pretty much assured that we had decided on our new leather couch after visiting earlier in this summer.  We'd downloaded the specs of the loveseats and insured it was exactly what we wanted.  We were going to execute the purchase today.

Yet once we sat in the display model again today, it just didn't seem right for us.  I like the color and the design.  However, Jay mentioned that the back did not rise enough from the back of the cushions.  We often sit with our heads against our current loveseat back when watching TV. We sat for a while and changed our minds about this piece of furniture.  It didn't seem possible to truly relax in their pricy VISKAFORS. So, although it was 90% of what I was looking for, we didn't fork over a credit card today.  

I guess we can leisurely search for something better when we return home next spring.

Yikes, IKEA?

We drive by the Coquitlam IKEA every time that we do weekly grocery shopping.  It had been quite a while since we walked inside the massive building.  In fact, I'm guessing that we may have been masked and used hand sanitizer when going inside it the last time.

This morning we had some very heavy rain.  Although Jay generally laughs at crowds who gather at, what he calls, the IKEA worshipping center, he reluctantly agreed to go walk through the megastore's maze.  I think it was a two kilometer hike!  We found it a rather interesting way to spend an hour and a quarter on a morning too wet to do anything outside.  There were so many families as well as so many opportunities to eat inside!  Oh, and there were millions of ideas for home improvements.

We ended up spending a bit of time in one particular section of the IKEA.  The current sofa in our apartment would now be old enough to vote in most places.  We got the old, green loveseat from a Sears Canada back where there was a Sears Canada.  They went through bankruptcy and liquidation in 2018 here.

Back in 2006, it seemed important to have its 'hide-a-bed' feature for guests.  Although my sister used it for that purpose just last month, I can count on one hand the number of others who've slept on it.  It is an old-school, fold-up mattress on springs.  So, I think we can safely forego trying to replace it with another with that feature.

The only thing we left with, this morning, was two packages of paper napkins that Jay grabbed as we walked near the check out.

A Hike at an IKEA?

 

It promised to be rainy most of the day and at only about 11°C it was not nice enough for any outdoor exercise. Heading to a mall didn't sound interesting. However, last year, during severe COVID-19 restrictions, we did a lot of furniture assembly. We had always sort of ignored the Coquitlam IKEA but found putting together a MALM bed, dresser, and bedside tables sort of satisfying last year. That was when we calculated that heading through their showroom maze of displays makes for a hike that is a good kilometer and a half. 

So, we drove to take a look today and a little walk. We didn't find anything worthy of purchase but did get a few ideas for our eventual bathroom reno. Most all the display rooms look great but mainly because nobody actually lives in them. For example, we got a kick out of this kitchen below. The space looks pleasingly arranged. However, doorless cupboards would hardly work in real life. The only people who could have a kitchen that looks like this are those who always and only eat in restaurants.

 

IKEA's Five-Sided Puzzle Cube

We decided to take a look in the Coquitlam IKEA this morning. Jay got a cooking pot and I picked up an Eket cube. It looked so simple that I tried to assemble it without resorting to the company's cryptic instructions. 

After far too much time and a little sweating, I thumbed through the instruction booklet to figure out how we might put it together.

 

The next one would take about two and a half minutes. 

Another Trip to IKEA / A Fresh Dragon's Egg

We visited the Coquitlam IKEA again this morning.  I wanted to pick up a new light for my bedside table.  I saw their 10" glass globe lights online.  I even bought an additional wi-fi light bulb a week ago in anticipation of getting a white FADO globe.  I think it'll look good when I say, "Hey Google, turn on my bedside lamp and change the colour to purple."  All four of our living room lights and the three in the bedroom are connected to my Google Home account through the Smart Life app.  I enjoy being the boss of my lights.

I'm replacing a halogen desk light which dates back to the era I had a dedicated computer desk.  It has found a new home in the closet next to my 3-D printer.  The printer's LED and the closet ceiling light offer as much light as I need.  But I think I'll put both the desk light and the printer on a smart switch so I can shout in order to turn them on and off too.

Being such a nerd takes a lot of effort.  For example, I changed the spool of filament in my printer to a transparent one.  I printed this dragon's egg container in three pieces.  This version has a flat bottom so it'll stand upright.

Hum.  What can I store in there?

Sunny Day Activities

What did we do on the hottest day of the summer so far? 

Well, we verified a few choices for a bathroom tub reno, and ordered two closet doors at Lowe's in Queensborough.  We also waited for the MALM bed from IKEA.  I'm glad the guys had a dolly as the seven boxes made for a massive and heavy delivery.

We spent the majority of the afternoon figuring out how to assemble the bed. Again, we'd be experts at doing another after all the painful trial and error. However, it is a skill we're unlikely to ever put to use in the future. 

After sleeping with the memory-foam mattress directly on the floor for two nights, it's going to seem easier getting down out of bed tomorrow morning.  I think I like the look of Leirsund slatted bed base.  I hope I like the feel of it.

We still haven't assembled the MALM bed's four, under-bed drawers. We'll unbox those tomorrow.  Yay, more places to hid junk that'd be better if thrown away.

Returning Normalcy and Some Changes

The afternoon in Westminster Pier Park seemed almost normal.  We've been back in Canada for three and a half months and things have been unusual because of the restrictions relating to COVID-19.  Things are getting better.  I like this little taste business as usual.

In the morning, we put together our new bedside tables and sorted through some stuff.  Luckily, our condo runs special junk-days four times a year and the upcoming one is Saturday.  We can bring large objects and old furniture to the parkade and our condo board hires a removal company.  We will have a lot of worthless junk to get rid of.

Another IKEA

During this trip, there wasn't a need to flip down the backseats. The future bedside tables fit nicely in the back of Kimchi.  

However, rather than loading these at the Coquitlam IKEA, we had to travel to Richmond, BC.  That made the trip more than half an hour longer in total.  The closer IKEA did not have these in white-stained oak veneer to match our recent 6-drawer dresser purchase.

 

The bed will come next week.  It comes in seven, different packages.  The longest for the MALM (w/ 4 drawers) is over 83 inches and there's no way it'll fit.  For an additional CA$59, we will let them deliver directly to the house.  

Our old Ranger, which we had crushed last year for the BC electric vehicle rebate, would've been able to carry a bed!  It could've carried beds for all the apartments on this floor.

Putting a MALM 6-Drawer Dresser Together

One particular bed at IKEA looked neat last week.  We liked the drawers and will probably get one.  We thought we could put together some matching bedside tables first.  Today, the Coquitlam IKEA didn't have any stock.  So, instead, we got a big, 6-drawer dresser to practice out assembly skills.  Getting the three boxes into Kimchi and then assembled took the better part of the day!  

The MALM instruction book was daunting even with all those somewhat-useless drawings.  Now we could whip one together quickly and accurately, but we have a skill which we will never use again.

 

What's Under the Bed?

Today, we were back in a queue waiting to enter IKEA. I figured if we planned to arrive at around 10:20, then most of the people would already be inside.  The line looked enormous when we drove up. However, that's partly because people in BC are really good at social-distancing.  Actually,  the retail space is so massive that it can hold lots of folks. Most of our 20-minute wait was to allow batches of buyers the necessary time to get up the initial escalator and into the display rooms. 

We went to buy a floor lamp which goes with a table lamp we recently bought there.  In our 35 years together, I am pretty sure we ever had two matching lamps 

It's hard to get through an IKEA without stopping to see something or another. Today, I paused momentarily to appreciate the bedframes with built-in drawers. Of course, plastic storage bins would work under our existing box springs, but honest-to-goodness drawers just seem so much more logical and useful.  Perhaps a MALM with four storage boxes in white stained oak, please?

   

 

Meet MOSJÖ

At a few minutes past ten o'clock this morning, I took a picture with my phone and immediately posted it on Facebook. It said, "We have to stay close to home. So, we queue up at IKEA rather than at immigration." Although the line was long, it didn't take a long time to get inside. 

Once inside, rather than taking any shortcuts, we did the whole 3-kilometer walk through the showrooms. So many people looking at so much merchandise! Eventually, we got coughed out into the warehouse with all the rows and bins. We got the unit and had to find two sets of little legs in a completely different place.

 

We came home and put the TV stand together.  It was easy job with strong and sturdy results!  After today's nap, it took much longer to stuff all the wires and equipment into the unit.  The TV is on now top and a movie from Prime Video is playing right now!

 

Much Scarier than a Home Depot

This morning we went to the huge IKEA in Coquitlam. It is almost across the street from the Canadian Superstore, the location where we buy our groceries. I think we last visited the year it opened.  That was 2002.

Is Jay running to find a way out?

Shopping for home furnishings surely isn't a frequent diversion for us.

Today, we found the queues were fairly short and we got inside after waiting for about five minutes.

I went to see if the TV stand (or bench as IKEA calls them) had shelves large enough for our receiver and center speaker.  I knew from online sleuthing that the overall dimensions were perfect, but I was too unsure to buy without physical confirmation.  It seems as though I should have checked the equipment rather than the existing unit because I wasn't absolutely sure, even in the middle of IKEA's showroom maze.  I put off the purchase.

The enormity of the place is a bit overwhelming.  Even though we had a few more things to check, Jay panicked and clearly was looking to find an exit.  We slithered towards the door picking up only a table lamp.

We are about twenty years late in getting rid of this ugly, old lamp in our living room.

Everybody Wants New Furniture!

We got our new TV two months ago, but still don't have a suitable TV stand. Presently, it is sitting on the corner stand for a tube TV from the 1990s which was shipped from Dubai when we moved here. The tube died and two, previous wide screens have been on the same cabinet which houses the receiver and other equipment.  That worked all right, but this 55" stand is now larger than the base.

I have had an IKEA MOSJÖ TV bench in my online basket for weeks and weeks. The local IKEA was shut and the curbside pickup is swamped and wouldn't let me schedule a time.

The Coquitlam megastore finally opened again this week after a long COVID-19 shuttering. I thought we could go today and pick up the cheap stand and I would be able to put it together today.  Ha!  It seems like most of the traffic in this part of the Lower Mainland was headed to the same location. I suppose people who have been stuck at home for months decided to get rid of the tired old furniture they've been seeing. 

  

We turned off, drove through the crowded under-building parking, saw the enormous queue of people corralled into a snaking line, and left without slowing down. Our normal supermarket is almost across the street. We went to the Great Canadian Superstore just to see the outside, pop-up gardening section. It was set up in a section of the parking area.

We also went in and I managed to but just a couple of items, I'd forgotten to get yesterday.

Free is a Good Price

There seems to be many new residents in our building. We can't figure out who's missing though. Today, our strata had one of its little traditions.

It was one of the days where anyone can bring down larger junk generally not allowed in the garbage. A removal company comes to our parkade, then sorts and correctly disposes of the goods. For example, paint ordinarily should not be put into the garbage but getting rid of it today is allowed. Many people wait to get rid of old computer equipment or even appliances. We have this event four times a year.


It is always fun to see what has been thrown away. Sometimes it turns into a sort of free swap-meet. I brought down old speaker stands which were holding odds and ends in the bedroom. We brought up an end-table to replace our old, hamster shelf in the living room. We cannot own hamsters now that we plan on being here for just seven months a year. The table is heavy and real furniture when compared to the stuff sold at IKEA. It doesn't perfectly match the colours of our existing wood, but can't be beat for the price.

Stand By

I cannot seem to find a TV stand I like. Back when the old tube died, we threw it away but kept its base unit. Then,we just set the LCD on it. There's really not enough room for the HTS and satellite receivers, and Playstation 3 in it. I'd definitely like something as wide as the 42" screen with plenty of room for other equipment and all the wires underneath. I want something enclosed to cover up all the cables.

At the IKEA, over the weekend, I didn't like anything. In fact I got a major case of claustrophobia meandering around inside the megastore. We went to two furniture stores and still found nothing suitable. I thought maybe those put-it-together fiberboard products sold at Walmart might be right. Today, I went and found nothing.

The carpet was installed a week ago. I threw the stuff back together temporarily. I missed the big sound from DTS or DD. The HDMI cables allowed the speakers in the TV but they aren't adequate. I put the computer sort of behind the screen as it has become my media server for Internet streaming. I don't want to buy a stand until I really find what I want. I am just running out of places to find that special piece of furniture though.