Sooo... I just bought a kitchen.

There were internet rumors. Internet rumors too intriguing to let slide. Specifically, when you are an IKEA Family program member (which is free to join), if you buy something and it gets discounted within 90 days, you can march your receipt back in to the store and get that money back. Normally it's just 30 days. This becomes a HUGE deal when you consider the IKEA kitchen sales. They happen twice a year, for a month, so if you have three months on either side of those sales to get the discount, laws of math tell you that the kitchen sale is ALL YEAR LONG! Yeah, so you don't have to buy your IKEA kitchen during the sale months when nothing is in stock, and all the IKEA kitchen people are stressed out and snippy. 

I heard another internet rumor (it's pretty much all I do after Elsa goes to bed, look for gossip on the internet regarding sales and trolling around for coupon codes) that the next IKEA kitchen sale starts on February 28th this year so I went in during my lunch break today to the Costa Mesa IKEA to force their staff into confirming/denying these rumors. Luckily the kitchen department was dead in the middle of a day right after the holiday weekend (strategery I'm telling you) and I had three specialists there to grill. So the low down is, YES you can buy your kitchen whenever you damn well please and get your money back during their sale month by bringing in your receipt, provided you are an IKEA Family member (you're dumb if you're not. You get free coffee and ice cream and a bunch of other perks for the cost of nothing but having to carry another plastic card in your wallet.). And NO, the sale doesn't start on February 28th. They haven't heard an exact date yet but it's the end of March when it begins. 

Sooo... since I was there anyways... I bought our kitchen! They helped me tweak a few things, and suggested a few modifications that make the kitchen a lot smarter for us (I'll do another post one day about not wasting money on a design service that specializes in IKEA kitchens, lesson learned, but rather just go to an IKEA on a non-busy day and find a competent kitchen associate that works there instead), and suggested that I purchase it right now because things are already going out of stock and being backordered. So I did. I was able to get everything we need, except for 4 cabinet doors (which will be in stock tomorrow so I'll pick those up on my way home) and my precious Domsjo sink. :( That one is a sad case. They are sold out around the world (California at least) and they don't know when (if) they will be back in stock. It is SUCH a good farmhouse sink that is a really good deal compared to what they sell for outside of IKEA. Like a third of the price. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed and IKEA on speed dial so I can call obsessively checking on the stock status. I'm hopeful there will be more sometime before the end of April when all of this is getting installed.

SO! Budget breakdown! Because this is the fun numbers part where I can be excited about how much money we saved. Keep in mind these prices include everything including the missing sink and doors, so it's 12 cabinets, a range hood, butcher block countertops for the whole kitchen, and all the trimmings (like plinth and filler pieces and cornices for the tops of the pantry and two upper cabinets). Also included, the $99 delivery fee- totally worth it considering it's 143 pieces being delivered (!!!). 

Pre-sale:

Sub-total = $4,790.73

Tax = $383.26 (Cheapskate Liv found out that Costa Mesa's tax rate is 8% and Carson's tax rate is 9% so even though Carson is closer to home, I saved $64.11 by buying everything at the IKEA I pass on my way home from work everyday. Werk it!)

Delivery fee = $99

Total = $5,272.99

Post sale:

Sub-total = $4,790.73 - 20% = $3,832.58

Tax = $306.61

Delivery fee: $99

Total = $4,238.19

For a grand total discount of $1,034.80! *Fist pump*

So the downer is that they are delivering it on Friday. EEK. Seeing as how we have a tiny garage now thanks to Jeff's studio hogging all of it, I'm going to have a whole flat-packed kitchen piled up in the office/playroom for two months. I joked that I would probably get antsy and just end up doing all the demo and install myself by the following weekend, but we'll see. This shall indeed be a test of my patience. 

On the upside, I've convinced Lynne and Jodi to help me assemble all of the cabinets over the weekend that Jeff and Elsa are up in San Jose, right before demo starts. They were surprisingly excited about it, so we're going to have an cabinet assembly sleepover weekend! I hope they're still my friends at the end of it... Anyways, their free labor will save us about $800 in professional labor to have the cabinets ready to install by the pros, rather than having them assemble them. Savings left and right! 

Sorry so many words and no pictures this post... the IKEA Home Planner website is under maintenance tonight (great timing IKEA) so I can't screen snapshot the final layout we're going with. Hopefully tomorrow I can share. Gotta leave you wanting more...