Short version:
For sale: IKEA Expedit Shelf, new and assembled and in Huntsville, Alabama. After getting home I realized this is not the shelf I intended to purchase. It has 4 x 4 cubes and I wanted the one with 5 x 5 cubes. I'd like the $129 I paid for it. Assembly and shipping from Atlanta to Huntsville are free to the purchaser.
Width: 58 5/8 "
Depth: 15 3/8 "
Height: 58 5/8 "
Max load/shelf: 29 lb
Long version:
For sale: IKEA Expedit Shelf, new and assembled and in Huntsville. After getting home I realized this is not the shelf I intended to purchase. It has 4 x 4 cubes and I wanted the one with 5 x 5 cubes. I'd like the $129 I paid for it. Assembly and shipping from Atlanta are free to the purchaser.
This trip to IKEA was a fiasco all the way around. Our original plan was to go to my parents' house near Gadsden, AL, (about 2 hours from Atlanta) on Wednesday of last week and then Greta, Cora & I would go to IKEA on Thursday in my dad's truck and return to Huntsville with our new shelves (the 5 x 5 Expedit and another one). Well, the girls got sick Wednesday night, so we had to wait until Saturday to go to Atlanta. This past weekend at IKEA was "kids eat free" weekend, plus it was a Saturday. There were SO MANY people there you could hardly move!!! We had a snack downstairs at the snack counter, but their frozen yogurt machine was down, so it wasn't the one we had planned on. I checked the girls into the play area and went to do the shopping. It took me forever to get through the crowd of people and it was so HOT in the store! I had help from two different IKEA employees in the warehouse area to get the two shelves loaded onto my flatbed cart (which was horribly heavy!). I had created and printed my shopping list on IKEA's web site and taken it with me, so I just showed it to the guys and they helped load the boxes. The second guy told me that the Expedit shelf I wanted was actually on the main aisle (instead of the side aisle that was listed on my shopping list) since it was so popular, so I followed him there. It was only two boxes, but I *thought* I remembered my mom saying it was 3 boxes since my parents bought the same shelf recently. I questioned him on it and he assured me that I had the correct shelf. OK, so off we went to check-out after I parked the cart and retrieved the girls. We were (I was) so worn out that we just wanted to get on the road back to Huntsville (about 3 hours), so we skipped the meatball dinner at the restaurant upstairs. After checking out I couldn't find anyone to help me unload the shelves onto the truck. Our cashier called twice, but the one guy who showed up said, "I'll be back in a minute" and never came back. I asked another employee who was corralling the carts and was told to go ahead down the elevator to the parking deck and that there would be IKEA employees there to help me. NOT!!!! I ended up asking a stranger to help me and it turned out that he was from Florence, AL!
So, we were rolling on I-75/85 north and I noticed the looming dark clouds. I called Dad to ask if he by chance had a tarp in his truck. He didn't, which surprised me - this is the man who WAXED the top of our clothes dryer when he had it to repair! So, we located the nearest Wal-Mart, dashed inside asking where tarps were the entire way back to the hardware department, grabbed a tarp, paid for it and I started putting it over the shelves in the truck bed. Well, suffice it to say that the bottom fell out in short order. I was soaked through to my underwear and since I didn't want to drive home soaking wet on a cloth seat, I locked the girls in the truck (telling them not to let anyone else in except me, but mind you there was nobody else around since it was pouring rain) and went back inside to get some new clothes to wear home. The Wal-Mart employees in the ladies' clothing section were quite helpful and were putting up the warning signs for a wet floor where I had dripped into their department. I bought new undies, a new dress, and a towel, dried off, checked out, and made it back to the truck (in light rain). My sandals that were already on their last legs were completely soaked, so I wore them across the parking lot and took them off to ride home.
Since we hadn't eaten dinner yet and were near a Varsity location (YUM!), we went through the drive-thru and got dinner, including a milkshake to share. We got stuck in three traffic jams on I-75 north. Once we exited I-75 headed west to Alabama, I figured we were in the clear, right??? Well, along US-411 nearing Rome, GA, we had a milkshake explosion onto the floor of Dad's truck, so I had to pull off (thankfully it wasn't raining) and clean it up as best I could. Dad didn't have any napkins in his truck(!), but did have a towel under the front seat and I had some melted ice water from a drink earlier, so it cleaned up pretty well. In the clear, right? Uh, no. The tarp was flapping pretty badly by the time we got to the state line, so I pulled off at the last gas station in Georgia and a nice Harley rider helped me resecure the tarp. Clear now? Well, we had to stop to get gas in Ft. Payne, AL, but otherwise the rest of the ride was uneventful, thankfully. We arrived in Huntsville at about 8:30 p.m., let the girls show Daddy what we'd gotten after we unloaded the truck bed checking for possible water damage (thankfully there was none!), and sent them to bed. I was not far behind them after the day I'd had.
Sunday morning while I was cleaning up the kitchen after a nice breakfast (my parents kept Franklin & Carlton overnight, so that helped) and Hans started putting the Expedit shelf together. I glanced in a time or two, but didn't notice anything was amiss until I set up the FIVE cloth drawers I had purchased and found that there were only FOUR cubbies per row! OH, was I upset with this last thing that went wrong with our IKEA trip. I emailed IKEA with the basics of what happened, noting that their employee led me astray, and this is what I heard back: "Unfortunately, as our IKEA Atlanta would be unable to offer a pick up delivery service to your area, we can only recommend bringing the item back into the IKEA Atlanta location and speaking with a Manager." Um, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
SO, the bottom line is that this is indeed a wonderful shelf and we would keep it if we had room in the house to keep both it and a 5 x 5 Expedit shelf, but we do not have enough space. It is fully assembled and obviously has already been "shipped" from Atlanta to Huntsville (shipping cost if purchased online from IKEA for this $199 shelf is $348!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). I'd like to find someone who needs such a shelf for their kids' toys or books and stuff. The 4 x 4 was only $129, so that's what I'd like to ask for it. Please email me at barbara (at) babydipper (dot) com if you or anyone you know is interested in this shelf. Thanks!!
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