Happy Birth..Week and Half?

Sparrow is so blessed to have loving friends and family.  SO loving, in fact, birthday gifts have already been popping up at the nest.  This came today:

A lovely collection of happy things from Casey in Texas.  Look closely, you'll find:

• Stuff Christians Like, by Jonathan Acuff (a funny, witty, often thought provoking humor book that takes note of American Christian Culture)
• Swedish Fish (the best candy on earth, duh)
• One robot Tea infuser (what every tea lover/robot enthusiast needs)
• Four LOVELY little stainless steel/enameled bird bowls (of which Sparrow is head over heels in love)

A pretty nice haul for a Monday Morning.  But that's not all on the birthday front.

Sparrow's wonderful Poppa sent a very generous envelope to the nest last week.  Huzzah for Poppas!  With cash in pocket, Sparrow and Husband set off for Ikea to start the MONSTER DESK PROJECT. 

Since moving day last May (hey that rhymed!), the extra room has been a junk room, a badly needed extra storage space while the other rooms in the nest became more functional.  Now that other storage spaces have opened up and the orphaned junk has moved to their new homes, its time to turn the junk room into the home office the nest has been lacking.

Since the room is rather narrow, two facing desks were out the question.  Sparrow set out looking on the web for inspiration:

From Lovelyish.com

From Younghouselove.com



The YHL wall to wall desk was particularly inspiring.  They used recycled hotel night tables and stained wood planks to cut costs.  Sparrow figured we could do something similar, but without space or tools for woodworking, the options were a little more limited.  Ikea provided come cost effective options that could be easily tailored to the nest's extra room, a room that is exactly 140 inches long. 

As usual, the As-Is area was the first stop.  Husband, bona-fied genius, picked out a white melamine table top measuring 68 inched long by 29 inches deep.  After some poking around in the ikea catalog, Sparrow discovered the origin of the table top:

The Ikea Meltorp Dining Table.  Fortunately, they had more in stock.  Even better, the top and the undercarriage are sold separately, saving $30 right off the bat.  With the As-Is top and a new one picked up the in warehouse, the total desktop length came to over 136 inches long (remember the wall length is 140 inches even).  Perfect!  The second phase was finding the legs.  Sparrow came prepared for this.  With the Ikea catalog in hand, there were several legs to choose from.  We chose Three kinds of legs.

The Vika Alex.  There is one of these at each end of the wall.  These units provide some nice storage for office supplies, Wallings JR CDs and even the cat box.

The Vika Annefors.  This is the center leg that holds up the other end of each table top.  This will store printer paper and printing supplies.

The Vika Adils.  Because the table tops are so long and heavy, they tend to sag if left unsupported.  There is one of these supporting the center of each table top.

Over the weekend, the whole desk  came together, along with some further de-junking and re-organizing of the closet.  The desk, despite being huge (too huge to capture in one picture), the office still feels roomy and open.

The desk has completely has changed the room.  Even without a "completed" look, the office feels homey and peaceful.  Even better, the work and hobby projects have a home.

So what did this HUGE DESK cost?

-As is Meltorp top    $9.99
-Meltorp New top    $49.99
-Two Adils Legs      $3.99 (one already owned)
-Two Alex Legs       $49.99 Each
-Annefors Leg          $40.00
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Total:                        $203.95

Compare that to other deaks of the same size and built in look, and thats pretty good.  Happy birthweek Sparrow!