Travels in Fairfaxistan

Went to Crate & Barrel tonight to check out the coffee table, and ended up taking it home. Paid for the desk too, though there's no way it would fit in the car. Put it together while Jenn made cupcakes for Easter dinner.

Things progressed much more expeditiously with the screw driving bits for the drill. It can be rather difficult to keep from over-driving them into the unit, and cracking the wood.

Even though we measured out the height, in the living room, it still looks taller, when you see the mass of it. But I like it.

Now begins the challenge of keeping crap from collecting on it.

Going to pick up my desk without some muscle was a major, major mistake. Got it inside a friend's loaned Blazer, but the box was about 5 feet high and 3 across, and elicited the following dialogue at the Crate & Barrel loading dock:

Me: "I'm picking up a Bungalow Desk."
Stockboy [staring]: "You are an evil, evil person."

So I trundled home, and roused Jenn for some help getting it upstairs. Unfortunately, she could only manage from the car to the bottom of the steps. Great effort, though. I couldn't sling it on my back but finally managed to push it up the stairs, end over end, with Jenn providing alignment and landing guidance.

So now there's a giant box standing in my bedroom. Hope no big trucks drive by tonight.

Took a stab at assembling the desk this morning. Hit a snag when I discovered the rear legs didn't have screw holes drilled in them, as the illustrations in the instructions indicated. Not a huge problem, not one that the drill couldn't fix, anyways. But the crossbar seems to have been mis-drilled as well. There are two holes, one for the screw and one for the dowel. The screw hole begins on the bottom of the bar, and hits the leg at an angle. The screw is supposed to exit in line with, and below, the dowel hole. In my case, it's coming out somewhat to the side.

When I try to tighten the screws, the off-center entry point torques the bar and the leg, causing the legs to not lie flat if they were placed on the floor, and the bar to be twisted along the longitudinal axis.

I could try to fix it by bolting the legs to the frame and forcing the legs to behave, but I don't think I want that much pressure/tension on these base pieces.

I called Crate and Barrel, and a manager got back to me. Since visualizing the issue seemed to be a problem, I sent the (helpful) manager pictures. As it stands right now, the options are to return the unit (unlikely, considering the pain it was to get it up here) or to possibly get new parts. She didn't sound enthusiastic about that second one, though.

We'll see what she comes back with.

UPDATE: Nikki at C&B was very helpful, and secured a new crossbar and legs for me. However, they were drilled - or not - the same way. Either the entire shipment was screwed up, or the instructions were wrong.

But this is where the Tyson's C&B staff went above and beyond. From the floor model, it was impossible to tell if the legs were drilled, or where the crossbar screw exited. They tried to track down who had assembled it, and when that failed, Nikki and one of the stock room guys tried a couple different times to put the pieces together, until it got to a point I was happy with. It wasn't perfect, but they were straight, not under a lot of pressure, and there was a small gap at each end of the crossbar.

Took the assembled piece home, slapped it into the leg mounts on the desk frame, and finished the rest, righted it, and slid it into place. It definitely feels big, bigger than I thought it would be, even with measuring it. But I think it's going to be a great workspace.

Now to find a chair.