I have always believed that couples who can assemble furniture together stay together. Let me explain.

This weekend Rene and I decided to revamp our kitchen.  We wanted to create more space to prepare food (we have zero counter space) and store our stuff in a way that makes the most sense.   We also wanted to add a dining table, something we’ve needed ever since we moved to this place.  The thing is, our space is pretty small and we needed something that could expand/contract depending on our needs.  You know, just in case we wanted to use the space to have a dance party with Chuy and Sadie on Thursday nights.  (It could happen.)

After several trips to Ikea and several negotiations, we decided to get the Norgren table, which looks like this fully expanded:

We got it because of the storage units in the middle, and you can change the look of the table depending on what you’re doing.  Since I’m the only one sitting on the table right now it looks like this:

And when we want it flush against the wall for more space, it can look like this:

The best part?  It’s made out of real wood and not composite material, which makes up most Ikea pieces.  It was also really easy to assemble; we assembled the whole thing in 20 minutes, and did not bicker throughout the entire process.  Not one smart-ass remark from either one of us!

Assembling furniture is not usually an easy task for us.  I remember assembling a wardrobe a few years ago (again, from Ikea), and I remember having to take a break because we started to get snippy with each other.   We have different ways of figuring out how things work: I generally like to follow the instructions to the letter while Rene tries to figure it out independently, meaning skipping some steps and coming back to certain steps.  In his defense, he knows exactly what he is doing and can see how the pieces fit together.  I cannot, and rely on the instructions to tell me.  We would get pissed at each other because these differing approaches screw up the division of labor, where we find ourselves doing the same thing, or disagree about how something fits together.  Now I’m more relaxed about the whole process and defer to Rene, who surprised me today by letting me take the lead.  How we have grown these past few years!

Most of all, I’m really excited about our new table.  Now we can eat at the table instead of the couch, holding our plates on our laps and fighting off two dogs begging for food.  We can also use the same table when we need a space to work, instead of our old desk that could only accommodate one laptop.  Hurray for the extra space, extra storage, and extra dose of sanity the table brings.