greetings from bob villa!

hi, bob villa jr here. hehe. after patiently waiting for 2 months to make sure i had researched all viable alternatives (craigslist mainly- no one had the all white version), i realized it was time to bite the bullet and purchase the ikea mikael computer workstation for a sewing desk. trust me, this desk acquisition process wasn't easy. 1) i'm allergic to spending over $100, 2) ikea college park was sold out of them (which i didn't realize until after i was there already!), 3) i have a bunny, 4) i have a bunny, 5) i have a bunny. let me explain...

after finding out that college park had sold out of the mikael (the desk is newly discontinued!), i had to hurry home to get prepped for my fc ceviche soccer game, which we lost. however, while getting ready for the game, i quickly checked the ikea website and found that they have a "store availability" search option and i learned that the ikea in woodbridge, va had 6 left. just 6. ahh! in my usual tunnel vision shopping mode, i resolved to rush to ikea woodbridge after my soccer game. they had 4 left by the time i arrived. whew. tantrum averted. by the time i got home, it was too late to get started, so i had to patiently wait for the morning like waiting for santa claus. i wake up and dive in. bunny wakes up, and makes it known that the boxes are tasty. so, i essentially have to lay out the 30 pieces on my bed to avoid bunkins.

as i'm emptying the 2 boxes of parts, panic strikes: one of the pieces has a HUGE hole gouged in it. i almost cried. i call dad immediately and he asserts that he can fix anything. still, a hole with the same area as a quarter?having already waited patiently for 2 months, i decide i can wait no longer. i build anyway, assuming dad can patch the hole. here's the desk part finished:

for the side drawer, ikea supplied a satin nickel drawer pull. cute, but doesn't match any of my bedroom decor.so, i installed 2 leftover knobs from my dresser refinishing projects to match the bronze oil rubbed metal accents of all my furniture. i realize knobs don't equal a drawer pull. but as you can see on the right side of the picture below, i've already used knobs to replace drawer pulls, so why not?at about this stage, when it was time to construct the hutch, bunks started licking the hutch pieces. since there was already a gouge, the last thing i wanted was teeth marks, so i banished him to his time out spot: under the bed!! yes, that's poo he has hoarded under the bed. he never lets me touch them. (after this whole project, i locked him out of the room and took a vacuum to his collection. hehe)it turned out the piece with the hole in it was the top surface of the hutch, and thus it pointed to the ceiling and was high up. i could live with that (although dad will still be patching it). and here is the desk completed!! naturally, ikea left out 4 pegs to hold up a second shelf! i called customer service and the guy said "just come visit the store!" um, no thanks. twice in one day is plenty. so, they're going to mail me the pegs!!i also purchased a chair and a lamp for the desk!! the lamp, naturally, is satin nickel (UGH), but i couldn't have 3 of the same lamps in my bedroom. oh well. again, i can deal.