I recently moved into a new apartment and ordered a bunch of furniture from IKEA to get started. Despite a few setbacks during the order, I eventually got everything and it took me about four evenings plus a weekend to put everything together and subsequently clean out and setup my apartment. Here’s a list of what I got, plus a few tips and my opinions on the furniture.

Living Room

• Sofa: EKTORP

  

  This is a great, comfortable and low-cost fabric sofa and I wholly recommend it. Of course, you’ll want to visit an IKEA to try it out yourself. The sofa itself should be used with a washable cover, and the covers come in many different colours. Different coloured-covers cost different prices, so this explains the price differences. I went with white because it was the cheapest - the sofa and cover end up costing only $500 CAD. Also, white looks decent and matches my apartment anyways.

  There are also lumbar cushions that go with this sofa, and I got two of them. Not necessary, but great for sitting purposes.

• TV Stand: STORMARK

  A grey-coloured TV stand that goes well with both CRT TVs and newer flat-panels, STORMARK isn’t too big and so it doesn’t take up a lot of space. With the glass shelves, it also looks sleek. The cable holes at the back allow for neater wiring, and also allow you to attach a power bar/surge protector onto the unit using cable ties. The only setback is that it’s a bit more work to assemble than it looks.

• Coffee Table: LACK

  This one was a no-brainer for someone on a budget. It’s $30 CAD, and just looks great, especially in the black-brown veneer. It contrasts well with the white EKTORP sofa and was fairly simple to put together. The bottom shelf is also nice for storing away stuff you need, but don’t really want to see all the time.

• Side Tables: LACK

  Got two of these in the same black-brown colour scheme to match with the coffee table. In addition to being cheap, ($20 CAD each), they are also dead simple to put together, even for me. Each one took only about five minutes to assemble. While decidedly minimalistic, these side tables get the job done.

Dining

• Dining Table: JOKKMOKK

  What can I say? It’s the cheapest four-chair dining table package, and it’s also lightweight. (Perhaps the two go hand-in-hand…) It was also straightforward, but tedious, to put together. By the time you’ve put together the fourth chair, you’re ready to just quit. However, JOKKMOKK was the only product I got that wasn’t completely disassembled - the table top already had the sides and leg supports attached, so you just needed to secure the legs, simplifying things.

• Folding Chairs: JEFF

  While not necessarily for dining-purposes only, I didn’t want to create another section just for these. JEFF is a cheap ($10 CAD) plastic and metal-framed folding chair that doesn’t take up much room when you’re not using it. I plan on using them for when guests are over or for seating outside on the balcony. I picked up two of these cheap and effective chairs.

Workspace

• Desks: FREDRIK work station, FREDRIK desk and drawer

  So maybe this was a bit overboard in terms of workspace, but I spend a lot of time at my computer, and so I like to have the room. I even eat a meal every now-and-then at my desk, a spillover from my university days. The FREDRIK work station and desk both offer ample room, and more importantly, are easy to assemble and take apart, should the need ever arise. They also look nice, but I guess that’s just my attraction to minimalism. The extra drawer was quite pricey - $30 CAD - especially considering that the work station itself was only $170. However, it’s quite handy, and so I wouldn’t want to be without it.

• Drawer unit: MIKAEL

  Got this in the same birch-effect colour to match the desks. It’s quite the upgrade from the low-cost plastic drawers that I had used for the past four years. While it was a bit of work to put together, it’s a quality unit that has ample storage space. The bottom can even be used for hanging file-folders, though this requires you to leave off the bottom. This diminishes the utility somewhat. However, the casters make these drawers very easy to move from place to place.

• Deskpad: PRÖJS

  Another cheap item from IKEA, the PRÖJS deskpad costs only $7 CAD but protects your desktop from scratches and other damage. It’s quite large (65 x 45 cm) and thick as well, and the back is made of a grippy texture so that it doesn’t slip or slide on your desk. It’s also translucent. I think I’ll pick up another one to cover the rest of my desktop space.

About the only bad thing with IKEA furniture is are the small tools (namely, Allen keys) that they provide are almost useless unless you only have to put together one piece of furniture. But, you can’t expect them to provide real tools at these prices. Thus, it’s beneficial to have proper tools on hand; trust me, it makes the job much easier.

Keeping things neat

Another benefit of the new furniture was that it gave me a chance to clean up cabling for my various devices. Since most of the furniture had open legs, it gave me a chance to try out something I’ve been wanting to for a while. I decided to use cable ties to affix surge protectors to the sides of table legs to free up floor space. This also went well with the FREDRIK desks, since they have a cable organizer that runs horizontally under the desk - it basically allows you to run cables neatly along it. Here’s a few pictures:

So far, it’s worked out great, and the advantage of using cable ties is that the fixture is non-permanent.

So, how have things went since then? It’s been a mix of good and not-so-good, but thankfully things are getting better now that I have most of my stuff setup. I actually moved into my new place about one week before starting work, knowing that it would take some time to get things setup. Getting unpacked and setup however, took more effort than expected. Having to basically buy everything I needed was a task itself, but not having a car and having to bus-it or take a taxi everywhere was hard.

Cleaning and setting up

In the end, it took me around three or four days to get the apartment fully cleaned, and most my stuff unpacked and setup. You may not know it, but I am a neat freak, and if I don’t know whether something is clean or not, I assume it’s dirty. Thankfully I was able to get my bed setup on the first night, but I didn’t get phone/Internet service until three days after moving in. In retrospect, this was probably a good thing, as without Internet service there was literally nothing distracting me from getting tasks done.

Starting work

I started work on the 4th of September, the day after labour day, and things went smoothly - sort of. My manager was actually on vacation the week I started, so he had referred me to another manager for orientation. My station was nicely setup for me on the first day, and everything including e-mail was working; e-mail access on the first day, imagine that! I spent that day and the rest of the week meeting coworkers and getting up to speed on the protocols in use at work. The week after that was reserved for training, and this past week I finally got started on some actual project work.

Getting Furniture

Not having a car or any furniture, the result of being a new graduate, I decided the best way to outfit my apartment would be to visit the local IKEA while I was in Edmonton at my parents’ place, and decide what I wanted to get before leaving. While visiting IKEA and looking for furniture deserves its own section, in summary I had made a list of all the furniture I wanted and proceeded to order it online from IKEA’s site, since they offered delivery. Their ordering procedure was a bit weird - you place the order online, and the next day, a representative calls you to confirm the order and get your credit card details. I assume this is because they have to manually determine shipping charges for large items.

I placed the order 27th of August, and the rep. said that it would take between 1-2 weeks for the order to arrive. No problem - I understand that it’s probably a busy time of year for IKEA, with the start of September being the back-to-school season, meaning that there are probably tons of university students also ordering and buying furniture from them. Two weeks later, my furniture had still not arrived and my credit card had not yet been charged. I sensed something was amiss, so I called IKEA back, and they told me that Per your request, we canceled the order..

I was baffled - I had done no such thing. However, the issue was quickly corrected and my order was promptly shipped. It finally arrived this past Wednesday, the 19th of September. The delivery man was nice enough to leave a message on my machine asking what time would be best for me. Thankfully, he was able to make the delivery at 6 PM, after I had arrived home from work. Having received the furniture, the arduous task of assembling it all could begin….

Putting it all together

During the rest of that week, I got two or three items put together after I’d got back from work. This past weekend though, was the big push. I managed to get everything, save the dining table, put together, and at the same time, also went out and bought a TV. I also threw out my old $75 Wal-Mart desk that had served me so well for the past three years. In the process, I completely re-arranged my apartment and the end result is a space that looks and feels much better than sitting inside a warehouse, which is what things were like before I got my furniture. I’m a bit sad that I forgot to take any before pictures, having only the shots from after the rearrangement.

What’s left to be done

There’s still some minor reorganizing to be done, and of course, throwing out a lot of empty boxes and cardboard. Though it was a lot of work, in the end it was very rewarding since it’s my stuff and my place. I almost wish I had another space to setup, since the work keeps you busy, and boredom is my greatest enemy. While IKEA furniture is inexpensive and functional, some people dislike having to assemble it. I’d say that having to put it all together yourself makes it more valuable since you’ll remember the literal sweat you put into making it your own. I say this only with a bit of sarcasm.

The convocation ceremony itself was long and somewhat dull, but necessary. Thankfully, it wasn’t too hot in Jock Harty Arena, where convocation has been held for quite some time. This year is actually the last year that convocation will be held there, since it’s being torn down this summer to make way for the grand Queen’s Centre. It was also nice to be back in Kingston and to see all my friends again in one place for one last time before undergrad is over.

But for now, it’s back to the real world!

If you can, definitely go to the local passport office to apply. It will be much faster and you don’t have to send sensitive stuff like your birth certificate in the mail.

Our fourth-year project team, consisting of myself and two of my buddies (also in Electrical Engineering), worked on the design and production of a scale model autonomous warehouse robot that would be able to store and retrieve packages from a mock warehouse. This consumed many a late night, but it was nonetheless gratifying to see it all work out in the end. I can’t be sure how many hours we put into the project, but it was definitely a lot.

My last exam was actually way back on the 25th of April (one day after my birthday…), but I didn’t move out until the 30th, and then didn’t fly home until the 2nd of May. I’ve spent the last few days just unwinding and getting things in order. Now that I’ve gotten all that stuff done, I’m looking forward to some time off and getting back into some web development, which I took a break from due to school.

In particular, I’m looking to try out several frameworks, such as Cake for PHP and jQuery for JavaScript. These frameworks look like they’ll make the process of web development easier and more logical - especially with regards to JavaScript. Nowadays, I believe a good framework is almost necessary for JavaScript development - while you should still understand the underlying basics, a framework greatly simplifies many tasks.

My schedule is significantly easier than fall. I have “only” four courses (five if my project/design course is included), as compared to six before. I also hope to be a TA this semester again, helping out in a second-year lab course. And, hopefully I’ll have more time to spend with friends as well. But, as mentioned before, I want/need to spend more time deciding my course of action after university is over. Whether that’s applying to jobs or graduate school, it is definitely the most important and urgent thing in my life right now.

The break at home with family was fun and relaxing. I’ll most likely be heading back there for reading week. But, between now and then, there’s a lot of work to be done.

I ended up taking six courses in the fall (seven if you count the project course) for a few reasons. Firstly, I didn’t want to be stuck with a tough, last semester of school - I’d rather get the tough stuff out of the way first and hopefully not have too much to worry about when the end is near. Secondly, our fourth-year project course is structured such that most of the work tends to be done in the second semester - and from what I’ve heard it’s best to make as much time available for it during then.

The semester itself wasn’t that bad, but the exam period was rough. Six exams was quite a bit for me, and I was pretty much studying every waking hour for close to two and a half weeks. I managed my time well though, and got exercise almost every day to help break up those arduous study sessions. I actually think I ate better - but ended up almost eating the same stuff everyday. It’s safe to say that home cooking was one of the biggest things I was looking forward to.

The flight home wasn’t bad, but I had to wait in the airport for close to four hours just because of how the bus and airline schedules worked out. That was boring, but I had my DS Lite to keep me company. I also picked up a copy of
America (The Book) Teacher’s Edition: A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, which turned out to be quite hilarious.

After getting home, things stayed busy for a while - I had to do all my Christmas shopping after all, since I didn’t really leave the house during exams. Shopping wasn’t too bad, considering I don’t really like crowds. At the local Best Buy, they had just gotten in a shipment of PS3s when I was there on Dec. 22nd. Surprisingly, the line for them was quite orderly.

Thankfully, I haven’t been doing much since Christmas other than getting some much needed relaxation. Next semester should be easier, with only four courses in my schedule. That should leave me some spare time to help out at VH, and work on this website as well. I’ve had a few things I’ve wanted to get done, but just never had the proper amount of time to accomplish. Hopefully, that’ll change.

I’m thinking about graduate school, so I have to apply for funding for that - NSERC and OGS applications are due on October 16th and 23rd, respectively, so I’d better get started on that. Additionally, the deadline for many job applications are also in early October, making October the “busy month”, especially when you consider most midterms fall around that time. I intended to make my fall term more busy, since I thought that most job searching would take place in the second semester - boy was I wrong!

The upside is that a lot of companies do seem to be hiring, and a lot of them seem to have good programs for new graduates as well. I’m not really sure if I want to go out in to the workplace or whether I want to continue with graduate school, but I’d like to keep my options open at this point.

School starts tomorrow, and my course load for the first semester is quite heavy. I’m signed up for seven courses (which includes a fourth-year project course), and my schedule includes 8:30 AM starts on most days. I also have a conflict between one of my technical course and an elective course that I really want to take - but it’s only for one particular lecture, so I’m hoping I can work through it. We’ll see.

I think I’m getting a bit tired of this school stuff - I can’t wait to be done this year! (Though this may just be a side-effect of starting up a new school year…)

I’m liking the new house a lot, as there’s a lot more room and the layout is just less cramped - though maybe that’s just because I’ve been living in Kingston student housing for the entire summer. Location is pretty good as well, as most of the services are close enough for a bearable bus ride or just a bike ride.

The new neighbourhood is very much the definition of show-home suburbia; most of the houses in this huge neighbourhood are less than a year old, and I would’ve liked to see what this place looked like just a few months ago. With the huge housing boom (and general boom in Alberta), prices have gone through the roof, creating what some call “the myth of the rich Albertan“. I couldn’t agree more - I don’t see how many people can afford any of the new slew of show homes that have popped up in the area, and construction is still on-going, with all the amenities like strip-malls being built as well.

A quick estimate of the money involved - let’s assume 1000 new houses, at an average selling price of $300,000 - this yields $300 million of suburban real-estate going up in a very short period of time. If anyone’s benefiting the most, it must be the contractors, banks, and other related businesses.

While it’s amazing how fast this new neighbourhood is being built, with new houses, and the attendant things like roads, sewer systems and utilities, they did manage to mess up some of the road signs, resulting in this “Twlight-zone” scene.

No, that image was not doctored - I have next to no photo-editing skills. That intersection must be nightmare for parcel delivery services.