One lousy cm!

Today in the house of lurve we hit coupledom central. We went shopping for wardrobes. And we didn't just go in one shop, we went in several. Throw in a trip to the local evil DIY shop and we are talking one serious day of eek-worthy coupledom-ness. Let me take you back to the beginning...

...as we all well know Dizz has a lot of clothes. And so does Wavey. Combine these two rather large amounts of clothes and we're talking a serious storage problem. There were 2 wardrobes in the house when I moved in but they're not that great and the storage they offer is not really enough for our new requirements. We were aware that wardrobe shopping would have to take place. We made a half hearted attempt last weekend, but let's face it, anyone who goes into town at 4.30 in the afternoon, then stops for a coffee and a cake and still expects shops to be open is not being entirely realistic. So today we set off with a vengeance...at 11am, get us being up early and everything!

The first shop we went in was promising. The guy in there was helpful to the point of being friendly, not pushy at all, and left us to mooch round by ourselves. We liked one that was available, got the necessary measurements and information and went our merry way to the second shop. I'd only been in the second place once before and hadn't realised quite how Ingleby Dingleby it really was, ugh, shudder, it was awful. Packed to the gills with nasty furniture that does not please my eye and cost many many more pennies than we had planned to spend. We hastily exited and hit the evil DIY shop.

Not a great fan at the best of times, Saturday afternoons sees the evil DIY shop full of happy couples (see, coupledom!) looking at plants and bathrooms. Mind you, not all couples are happy in there. You can usually guarantee whilst walking round that you'll hear raised sharp voices and see huffing men pout their pet lip and women with pursed lips and, to put it bluntly, faces like smacked arses. Luckily Wavey and I do not get involved in this kind of behaviour as we head in there like we're on some kind of mission. We know exactly what we want and we head there. We're not sidetracked by oooh pretty pillows and blinds, it's loft boards we want and loft boards we'll get...oh and the paint for the bedroom whilst we're there, thus killing two birds with one stone.

Mission accomplished, time for lunch. Where we inevitably end up talking about wardrobes. We've considered Ikea, but let's face it, neither of us are fans. He's a bloke for one and therefore hates shopping, and I hate the way that Ikea dictate which direction you have to walk and their obsessive love of Billy bookcases or whatever poncey name they have going on now. Yack yack yack. So we make a decision, we'll go and get the ones we've seen, they're perfect for what we want, they're sturdy, they're nice to look at, they have tonnes of hanging and shelf space...

...and they only have one. And we need two. Oh! The guy in the shop must have seen my sadness - how much space have you got, maybe the three door will fit in. Of course we'd measured it but not properly. Doh! Back to the car and back home armed with a measurement of 138cm and his card to call him back we park the car and head up the stairs. I decide not to take my coat off as I'm sure we're going back out to buy the buggers, and I've got my fingers crossed all the way up the stairs which we all know works. Out comes the measuring tape - 137cm! Noooooooo! By one lousy cm our alcoves are not big enough.

Do you know what this means people? We have to go to frigging Ikea and follow their crappy dictation in order to make it to the wardrobe section where you have to buy every single fitting and fixture seperately cos they can't possibly make it easy for you and just have it all in a wee bag! Grrrrr!

Unless we can be saved! By finding an alternative store nearby which will have a similar style to what we saw, have 2 available, and fit in with our measurements. Fingers crossed eh...?