I'm a Master Furniture Builder!

When is being single not a whole lot of fun? When your car has been making a funny noise for a while. (I must take it to the shop on Monday.) When you need furniture built. Wait a minute. Not so much when you have Ikea! Don't laugh at me! Looking at their German and American websites the prices are almost spot on at what they are in the store.

I'm from the US Gulf Coast, and I had never heard of Ikea before I moved to Germany. For those of you like me it is a huge warehouse/box store with inexpensive, easy to put together furniture and some accessories. Who doesn't want to live here?

Or here?

A couple days ago I bought a bin organizer and a shelf with a removable changing table.

Cute carpet too, huh? Both only took a little while to assemble and were very easy too. The toy bin is a lot more study, well built than the shelf. It's made out of press wood and the flat pieces on the outside is only held on with baby wooden dowels/rods about an inch long. I don't expect it to last more than one or two moves - about 5 years.

I think one of the best things about Ikea is Small Land. Sometimes its really nice to just be alone. They take kids 3 and up for an hour and a half. I have confidence that my kids are fine there but they are 4 and 8. All you need is your Ausweis or Passport. Driver's licenses are not accepted.

In this area there is one store in Mannheim-Scharhof (right off the A6) and one in Waldorf (a few kms south of Heidelberg on the A5). A word of warning: I would never, ever leave my kids in the Small Land at the Waldorf location. If you need details let me know.

If you go:

Frankenthaler Str 123, 68307 Mannheim (Scharhof)

Hans-Holbein-Str. 2, Walldorf, 69190

Sells furniture,accessories, a Swedish food area, and a cafeteria style restaurant