A closet from Ikea - and a road trip to find it

The Phantom Screen really does work, and I have wrested control of the remote. Here's what the screen looks like partway down. From the inside, there's no reflection...it's almost like it's not even there. The motor is quiet, smooth, and perfect. It will be very cool. Still not quite sure how to keep the cats from climbing it, though, and my guess is that it's not warrantied against cat-inflicted damage.















We were pleased to see all the bamboo flooring down, and the finish work of the tile around the fireplace. While it would have been nice to just have the wallboard around the doors, building code requires something else. The guys did a nice job - both tiling and flooring. We have cardboard down in a bunch of places, which isn't aesthetically pleasing, but will protect the floors until everything's done. We won't get back up there for a few days to see the hardwoods, which will go in starting today.

After some amount of hemming and hawing, we decided to go to Ikea for the walk-in closet "equipment." We'd been to Ikea previously and kicked the tires on the closet components; and then tried fairly unsuccessfully to configure it on-line. So, we left for the store on Sunday morning in the hopes of arriving before the crowds. We guessed about some back roads to get there...and without any sort of map in the car, it took more than an hour for what should have been a 25 minute drive. Of course, we were not going to ask for directions or buy a map; we simply drove around and hoped for the best.

There was one person who knew how to configure the stuff in the closet section of the store. I don't know if these guys get paid commission, but if they do, he's got a gold mine. Anyway, a few hundred pounds later, and not too many dollars more, we arrived at the new house with flatpack closet materials for Steve and his team to assemble. It's probably a bit lazy of us, but I'm not sure that I'd come up with the time/energy for assembly between now and when we move in.

The countertops are supposed to arrive tomorrow - from there, it's on to appliance installation, final electrical and plumbing, and some miscellaneous items, including touch up of various dings and dents that the wallboard has suffered over the last few weeks.

I called the guy at Humboldt Moving today to set up the move date. They did a good job a few years ago, and again last fall to move us to the temporary living, so I'm sure we'll be in good hands again. Pretty soon we can start repacking and shlepping up bits and pieces on our various travels up there.