Daddy Chan and the Great Ikea Workout

During my army days, I was physically at my peak... 50 sit-ups in 60 seconds, effortless 12 chinups, shuttle run in less than 9 seconds, 2.4K in under 9 minutes (at one point), and though my standing board jump sucked, it was good enough for me to get a Gold and a healthy injection of funds from the incentives..=P

But since ORD, my usual daily fitness routine includes frantic clicking the mouse and lightning accuracy with my keyboard strokes, and a WHOLE FULL CRUNCH (½ when I get out of bed in the morning, ½ when I get in bed at night). But today... Just for Renzo... I did more physical activities in a day than I did in ages. All in the form of fitting together the famous DIY furniture from IKEA.

As you readers would have known by now, we have gotten quite a bit of clothes and baby items for Renzo already, and it was time we got a proper storage area for him. And me being the Ikea loyal customer, unhesitantly agreed to Feli's idea of getting it from them. This simple shopping trip down to Ikea Tampines burnt a whopping $593 damage to our stash (inclusive of delivery), but at least they promised to get it delivered to us on Monday...

So came Monday, another usual day at work for me, but the day after work... mehhh... was nothing short of usual. I was greeted by the 2 flat packs in Renzo's room upon my return around 6:30PM, and almost immediately I got to work (hardworking eh? =P)

1 of the pack was for a chest of 3 drawers and the other was for a wardrobe... Seemingly the simpler task of the 2, I started off with the drawers. After opening the package, I began to realise that it was not as simple as I thought it would be. But nothing that Daddy Chan can't handle...=P


The fun thing about putting together a piece of Ikea furniture is that it kinda brings back my childhood memories, those good old days when I looked at a blueprint of a LEGO castle
and then following the colourful pictorial instructions step by step until the architecture is materialised before me. yeahh... Ikea furniture ain't too different, only the manual is printed on dull recycled paper with greyscale ink and the resultant masterpiece serves a much different purpose (surprisingly not much difference in price....=P ).


Completion of the drawers just brought the handyman blood in me running and I was ready to start on the second project... the nonsensically heavy wardrobe. Either I was too drained or flat pack furniture seemed to weigh
more, but either way, it took a great deal of effort to open this pack and lay the items across the room.. and man.. when laid out, the pieces covered more than 50% of my floor area... Haha.. and Feli was impressed how I laid out the little screws and wooden pieces before I began my work... It was my way of making sure that I do have the required number of each piece for the joints and also, for my convenience when I need to look for a particular piece later during my construction. As I explained it to her... in the back of my head, I imagined my cluttered table at my office, and I can't help but break into a silent laugh... =P

(Winson at work at HOME vs. Winson at work at OFFICE)

So after hours of screwing around... literally... I finally got it standing and moved it into position along with the drawers... Whee~... finally Renzo has his own furniture~! Feli wasted no time in packing all Renzo's babyware into the little blue furniture that has so many rounded edges that I seriously do think it'll be bringing smiles to Feli and me for a long time to come... ^_^