Adventures in Shelving: Part 4 of Several

So, reality set in as we approached the end of July, with the Philosopher's birthday eating a number of days and a variety of other tasks that were not shelf related. And there were ongoing questions about whether Ivar shelves would ever be in stock again and did we really want to go the making them from plywood or something else? There was the Great Debate of July 2022 of whether we do actually need a table saw and where exactly would we put that? Also just how much quarter round stock would we buy? (HomeDepot, always thoughtful, sent me a coupon that we stared at until it expired in the midst of all this.)

I rang again on August 11th and now they'd updated to 400 shelves arriving to my local store on 8/22. Griped on Twitter and got a even less precise amount and date from their social media tweeps. (I know, they're trying, but getting the 273rd ask of "have you signed up for alerts" when nothing actually *arrives* to alert me about.... )

And then, on August 17 I was doing my usual "let's see what IKEA says today" and there was a notification I hadn't seen before: Delivery was a yellow dot rather than a red dot, with the notation of "currently limited to large orders."

Off to the phone lines once more. Because, reader, as you will recall, I have already paid once for delivery and somewhere in all this, they'd offered to waive the second delivery fee whenever the 25 shelves came in.  It wasn't my best of phone calls, the first two rounds the system hung up on me even though I was following the usual prompts. But eventually I got routed to someone who could see my case number and we went through all of the usual information that's needed. Why yes, yes I do know you need my name, address, phone, AND email address. Also the item number and my case number.  

To the delightful woman who just kept poking around when I was repeating "no, it says we can do this, can we keep looking?" :  Thank You. I know I refused to get off the phone and your patience was much appreciated. For indeed 25 shelves does count as a large order and yes, she did have the note for the waived delivery fee and yes, she could get that sorted and send me an invoice. And then also fix the invoice when the system was being weird. 

So at 7:50 p.m. on 8/17, nearly two months after I placed the first order, there was finally an order placed again.  Annnnd wouldn't you know that they got them back in stock at my local store at 9 a.m. this morning (8/18).  If I hadn't had meetings....

Saturday dawn bright and early with emails and text messages all confirming that shelves were coming. Shelves would arrive today. The local delivery company (not the same one as before -- maybe they don't want to come back a third time?) said between 2-6. I did everything I could to invoke them coming earlier: I ran an errand that took me out of the house; I prepared a messy lunch. I forgot, however, the time honored tradition -- showering. Shortly after the Philosopher hopped in for a shower the notification that the driver was 15 minutes away arrived. (Should have done that at 9 a.m.!) 

The driver arrived and I counted the shelves multiple times. We were going to make sure that everything was here.  We counted at the truck, we counted after he brought things up the stairs, we counted one more time on the back porch while he took a photo of the delivery. (Yes, of course I tip; No, we didn't have him bring things into the house. Personal preference.) 

And now, now I have shelves!!

Are we done? Oh of course not. Part of getting these shelves also mean that we were going to need to finish them. I don't particularly like the honey shade of pine that has aged for a while and without some finishing, the shelves were going to look more industrial than I want. 

So now we have to test sanding, staining, and a super fancy finish oil that the Philosopher bought. 

More soon....