SHOPPING FOR NEW SPECTACLES

About a month ago I realized I could not read street signs properly when I was driving.  Geoff and I were looking for a street and he asked me to read the street names out for him as he was driving.  We quickly realized that he could read the signs way before me.  Time to get my vision checked!

So last Monday I went in and got my vision checked it changed but not by much at least not enough to make my vision as blurry as it has been.  The culprit was the anti-glare film on my glasses was so scratched up that it's like I am looking true fogged up piece of glass.

As much as I love my Theo's that I have had now for I think 8 years!!!! It was time to get new glasses.

A few pairs of glasses back for Geoff when our regular Eye Glass Shop changed owners we discovered Karir Eyewear.  See we used to shop at Envy in Beach however when the owner sold the shop we found that the new management did not carry any unique frames.  They still have a good selection on contemporary mainstream frames but that is not what we usually look for.

Not only does Karir have great selection; the manager at the Yorkville location is amazing.  He always remembers us by name and "frames".  When we walked in on Saturday the first thing he said to Geoff "How are your glasses treating you?" I would like to point Geoff was not even wearing his sunglasses.

Stay tuned for some pics of me in my new spectacles.

"Genius", Winners Find and Art (let's not forget Hockey)

"Genius"

This morning I had a long awaited appointment booked with the Apple Genius Bar. Ever since I have had my iPhone it's been glitchy - gets stuck in searching mode or just totally crashes on me. It took me forever - well actually 3 months to find a weekend that I could get away for the morning with C Monster and get my phone checked out. All I have to say is they are amazing. I waited a total of 5 minutes before the saw me and in about 10 minutes I left with a new iPhone. This is just another reason why "I am a MAC".

After my Genius appointment I took advantage of my me time to get some Starbucks and sit down and read. Right now I am reading Mothering Your Nursing Toddler - yup C Monster is still nursing and I am proud of it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is planning on nursing past 12 months; or who found themselves breastfeeding a toddler even-though they had not planned it. This book has helped me feel secure in my choices; gave me the courage to continue on those days that felt like C Monster only wanted to nurse and made me smile and laugh at great stories from other mothers just like me.

Winners

I used to be a huge fan of Winners for toys however that was before I decided that Melissa & Doug toys were being banished from my household. - Melissa & Doug have just had way too many recalls for me to bother with them. That being said if I find myself at Winners I always take a quick look at the toys just in case. Well this time it was well worth it as I found a great big pile of Discover Rigs by Sprig for 29.98 each. (these usually sell for around $65CND) We had money from my mother and father for a birthday gift for C Monster - so voila:

Thank you mom and Dad C Monster loooooves it.

Art

As always as soon as 6pm hits C Monster is climbing the walls. To diffuse this little beast we did art tonight. One of my favorite ways to let him glue stuff is make a mixture 50% white glue and 50% paint; that way if he ends up not wanting to stick anything to the page their is still a painting. One of the drop in teachers gave me this idea and we have used it over and over again. Tonight we used lots of little bits of various fun things that last week we cut up together when Christophe was practicing his cutting skills.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST - GO CANADA GO WE ROCKED THE GOLD BLING THIS WEEK AT THE OLYMPICS.

My Ikea experiance part 1

On June 26 we had a minor flood in our kitchen and this prompted us to decide to renovated our kitchen; the kitchen really needed a makeover and we were planning on doing it at some point so why not now. The only concern was cost we needed to keep the full reno at around 10,000. We got to this number after talking with my Realtor Josee Couture (if you live in Toronto and need a Realtor she is great) she basically said with the market value in your area and the condition of our home a kitchen reno would add approximately 10,000 to 15,000 to the value of our home. That said since we are doing all the work ourselves (or I should say my dad is doing the work) all we needed to do is try the keep the materials cost down and everyone knows that Ikea gives the more bang for your bucks in wow factor.

Luckily I am an Interior Designer so I was able to measure design and turn around a preliminary floor plan and elevations for my kitchen in a day; so off we went to Ikea North York on June 28 to purchase my kitchen. I had already chosen at home all the Ikea finishes that I wanted (their website is extremely detailed); they even have a kitchen planning toll online that I would have used instead of drawing my plans by hand other then the fact that the software is not compatible with a MAC. We go to the kitchen section of Ikea and I find someone in a yellow shirt; this is a brief description of our conversation:

Me: I would like to speak to someone to ensure that the kitchen I've designs works and then get some help to make sure I have all the components.
Ikea: Did you plan your kitchen using our kitchen planner?
Me: No, but I am an Interior Designer and I have full plans and elevations of the kitchen.
Ikea: You have to enter your kitchen in our kitchen planner; let me set you up - it should not take you too long. We will also place your name on a list so someone will come to talk to you.
Me: The only reason I did not use your kitchen planner was that it does not work with a MAC
Ikea: Yeah we know you should have just come straight in to the store; here is everything you need to get started.

I would like to point out that the whole family (Geoff, Chrstophe and me) left for Ikea that day around 10am. So I sit down get started various people come around and tell me how the plan looks great; wow you have such a big project, your kitchen it going to look great, and to answer various questions I have. Lunch rolls around we have pasta at the Ikea restaurant (the kitchen planning tool lets me save my kitchen on-line o I could leave freely and come back as I needed). After lunch I come back and finalize my kitchen around 4:30pm it's done I am finally ready to order. You ask why it took so long?

1. If I could have used the planning tool with my MAC I could have came in with a plan already inputted in their oh so sacred kitchen planning tool
2. Every time I tried to add a upper cupboards the system would go bonkers
3. I could not override the pulls to mix and match the styles (we are using long D pulls and want to select the length based on the size of the door or the drawer)
4. Unless you have a perfectly square room the programme does not seem to like you and gives you a hard to to place cabinets in that will need to be cut to fit your room
5. Every time I tried to rotate my 3D drawing it would zoom all the way in and I would have to restart looking at the 3D a few times before it worked
   
6. Whenever I wanted to speak to someone i had to wait 15 to 30 minutes on average. 15 minutes is acceptable; 30 minutes is a bit long. One time I waited almost 45 minutes. they really need more staff.

So at 4:30ish (it might have been latter then that at this point the time is all a blur - I have been there all day). Janice comes over to help me finally finalize my kitchen. I ask her all the right questions such as.

1. Will the cabinets fit with the height of my ceiling?
2. Will my range hood fit with the height of my ceiling?
3. What pieces will have to be cut to fit - so when everything gets home I know what to do.
4. Can I actually cut all the pieces we talked about?
   
5. What is the return policy
6. What is the warranty
   
7. Is there anything I did not ask or seem to have though about that your expertise as an Ikea Kitchen Planner can add?

TO BE CONTINUED...

Things I have learned about customer service

During the last month, I have been to more hardware stores then any other shopping destinations and I have to say service at hardware stores in Toronto sucks. Here is in order from the worst to the best:

Rona (Warden and Eglinton) - I needed to get 3 items in 3 different departments at Rona, after wondering the aisles for 30 minutes and not finding what I needed, I decided to try to get help. I found the first person available they said "I don't work that department let me page someone." Thirty minutes later I had help. I then asked that person about something in the next department they gave me the same answer and again 30 minutes later I had help; needless to say the same thing happend for the 3rd item I needed. 3 hours later I was at the checkout with a screaming baby in arms that was just about as fed up as I was. If it would not be for the fact that we had about $400 in gift certificates at Rona I would not have entered the store again for the duration of the project.
Home Depot (Gerrard Square) - This is our close large hardware store we end up going here for almost everthing just because it is only a few minutes drive away. The service is hit and miss everyone is always nice but you can't trust what they say more then once we have been mislead on how to use a product. Like the guy who said the concrete board should face label-side out when the labels were randomly placed on smooth and rough sides, and, in fact, the orientation depends on whether or not you're using mortar or adhesive on top.
Home Hardware (Gerrard and Coxwell) - Amazing bunch of guys that work here, they are very knowlegeble and friendly however the store is very small so you can not always get what you want.
Lowes (Warden and Eglinton) - I hate saying this but I am impressed with Lowes, the staff knows what they are talking about, you get service fast, the staff is extra nice. The store is huge so they pretty much always have what we need. I hope this lasts, our Lowes is pretty new.

And that is that on hardware stores. Basically, Rona has lost my business except for when we have gift cards there (I say this because you can cash in Air Miles for Rona gift cards); Home Depot could probably treat us like crap and we would go back just because they are convenient; Home Hardware is my first stop for little things; Lowes has definitely won me over and if I need to price compare I will make the trip.