I Just Want a Dresser

You know, one of those things I can put my clothes in, so you know, I can get them out of boxes.

They've only been there for a month.  A month!!

I know what you're thinking, how hard can it be to come by a dresser?  Well, I'll tell you.  Not hard.  Not hard at all...if you're willing to spend like $2,000.  But if you're like me and not physically able to part with that type of cash for 5-8 drawers, then finding a dresser becomes quite the undertaking. 

Quite.

I'll spare you the details but a journey that started with "no way Ikea" to "yeah just go with Ikea" in about 3 weeks. 

42 steps, a few minor injuries and a few days later, this is what emerged:

Oh and this:

Yes, there's 2.  I know, I know!  What was I thinking??  The funny thing about Ikea furniture is that after a long day/week/seemingly lifetime of searching, you seem to forget everything you disliked about it.  Self assembly?  Hmm...how hard can that be?  Unfinished wood?  Details!

And then you haul it home and up the stairs and lay it out on your living room floor and stare.  The ridiculously giant bag of screws, the wordless instructions (steps 1-42), random pieces of wood, unfinished, of course, some of it a little dinged up.  And then the smell.  Gosh that smell!  More on that later.  And you come to the sobering realization that you yourself have to assemble 14 drawers. 

And then you pass out.  And I couldn't tell you if it's from the sheer work ahead of you or that pine smell that got to you first. 

But not to be out done by some Swedish furniture, it somehow comes together (with the help of an electric sander), and it's done!  Yay! 

You think.

Until you smell it.  Again!  Why won't that smell go away??

And so here we are:

Baking soda to the rescue!  Hopefully!  14 boxes of baking soda can't be bad.

It was totally worth the people at Ralph's thinking I'm crazy.