If you've never been to Ikea, you should go...

Ikea was once a name that I had heard occasionally when my Swedish sister was living with us while I was in high school....then I went to Sweden, it was everywhere. I thought, "hey, cool, Ikea is in every nook and cranny in every house here in the land o tall people" - but after coming back to the States, it had left my mind.

Then, kitchen cabinets became a topic of discussion during a Rehab's R Us meeting. "What shall we do that's cost effective?" Once again (thank you Bush family) Ikea came back into my life.

When you drive to Ikea, you'll see the sign from a mile away. The glorious gold and blue color sign will draw you in and say "please, buy a lot of things from me to furnish your house." You walk into to a warehouse type of store with kid friendly activities (yes there's a play room/kid center) and food....delicious, cheap, Swedish food. It's truly a maze, so you must allot at least 1 to 5 hours while visiting to get through the maze and you may feel too overwhelmed to purchase anything at first. I didn't purchase one item my first time.

But as we got further along in our project, I realized that I had to undertake the daunting task of designing a kitchen using the Ikea software. Then Adam (and his assistant Kaye or Randy, depends on the day) would have to take on the even more daunting task of laying out the electrical plan, the plumbing plan, the gas hook up and the assembling of every single cabinet.

We've made it through thus far....cabinets are almost in place with a few setbacks (hey, I'm not a professional kitchen designer, okay)...and we're moving along. Pictures are being held hostage right now by a digital camera and will arrive shortly!

You definitely need one of these things after you design your kitchen!