Ikea

We are becoming Ikea people.

We long held out, not so much in the deliberate sense, like I held out for years from reading the Harry Potter series; we just didn't go. Friends would ask us: "Have you been to Ikea yet?" and we would say, "No, we haven't gotten out there yet. One of these days..." Of course, in those new-baby-without-a-car-to-take-him-places days, we didn't go anywhere we didn't have to go. It was a narrow cycle of grocery stores, doctor's appointments and the occasional visit to dear friends. Ikea seemed a long ways off, and what money did we have to spend there, anyway?

Well, we have been there now, and it is, I must say, pretty sweet. The prices are excellent (although there are certainly some prices I could not begin to sneeze at) and the quality seems pretty good (coming as it is from dirty Swedes). My wife and I agree that much of the Ikea "look" is not our "look"; we hanker more for classicism rather than contemporary Euro styling in our home. So I don't think we will be setting up any big Ikea items in our pad anytime soon. But for useful everyday things, the verdict is simple: we love Ikea!