179. Thank God for IKEA!
Everything in my apartment is from IKEA, the dining, the kitchen stuff and thank god for it, really! They do have some cute things and as an immigrant (haha! like me) you are forced to either choose IKEA, or Super-super-modern-expensive-I-couldn't-afford-a-thing, or the Orange/Red color crap stuff in no. 178. So, I chose IKEA. Now, the bad thing about IKEA (besides the quality) is that it is all do-it-yourself-carry-that-heavy-chair-back-yourself so every single thing in our apartment was carefully shopped, priced out, bought, carried out, carried up 4 flights of stairs, assembled, or returned (and there were a LOT of returning), and placed in our apartment by me. Now, that's a lot of stuff. I can now laugh at how I stuffed my husband's car filled to the brim with pots, pans, candles and every stupid kitchen item needed to furnish an apartment. It's funny to remember there was not an inch of space left in the poor car and I could barely drive as a bamboo rug was thrust upon my shoulder as I drove home. I fondly remember lugging each and every blue IKEA bag till I was heaving for air and sweating like a schwein (pig in german) up the 4 flights of stairs, screaming "I'm just a girl!" Thank god, those days are over. It only took 4 months and driving to 6 different IKEAS in 3 different countries (Germany, France, Austria-oh and you must return each item back in the same country) to get this place in order. Yes, it looks like an IKEA catalog but gosh darn it, it's the best I could do.