Well, quiet in only the way a weekend in the city can be. I mean, the sirens never stop, and there’s always tons of foot traffic–but quiet meaning we didn’t really do anything outside the confines of the ‘hood.

Once the Brain and I made our foray out on Saturday morning, we were home for the afternoon, and didn’t even go outside yesterday.  We totally rocked three Billy Bookcases from Ikea, a micro-SD card for my phone from Staples, and breakfast from Chick-fil-a (Brain had spicy chicken biscuits, and I had an ice-dream cone.  Breakfast of champions!).

The weather was gorgeous, the windows were open, and life was good. I love quiet weekends.

The predominate house in Baltimore City proper are known as row houses.  In today’s language, it would be called a ‘condo’, but I digress. Row houses came into style in Baltimore over 100 years ago (the one that the Brain and I live in dates from like 1896 or something crazy like that).

Since the purpose of a row house was to cram as many single family homes into the smallest parcel of land possible, the homes in downtown tend to be very narrow and long, rather than nice and square. Needless to say, there’s not many furniture options for a house that is only 10 feet wide.  We’ve (okay, I’ve) had to change decorating decisions to accommodate our residence.

The antique dresser that I like to use for my clothes won’t fit up the stairs to the bedroom, so it now resides permanently in the living room area. Now I have two shelving units chock full of collapsible bins that we use as dresser and clothing units. The queen bed that we had was given away in favor of memory foam and an Ikea platform bed (assembled IN the room, of course). Now, we need bookcases to help organize our tiny space–and that means yet another trip to Ikea (at the White Marsh mall).  My plan? Hopefully three Billy Bookcases to fill in an awkward section of wall that is currently not being used to it’s full potential.  

Of all the Ikeas that I’ve been to (Potomoc Mills and White Marsh), this one is my favorite. The first time we ever ventured into an Ikea was a few years ago at Potomoc Mills, and it was RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Worst mistake ever. Trust. We got in, and couldn’t get out.  We followed the arrows around and around and around–before I began to suffer anxiety attacks of wandering for days before intrepid girl scouts stumbled on our withered remains.

Anyways, it was over two years before we decided to try THAT again.  Enter Ikea at White Marsh.  I don’t know what it is, but this store is more approachable. It seems smaller and easier to navigate. I especially love Wacky Wednesdays, where everything in the AS IS  room is 50% off.  I’ve scored TWO pre-assembled items (I think they’re BestA shelves, but not sure).  Either way, they were already together, and even though I found them months apart, they are the same color, and both fit perfectly into two small cubby areas where we couldn’t think to put anything else–now making it a functional space. w00t.

I have grown to love Ikea, like the thousands that have gone before me. Long live Ikea!