Honesty is the best policy!!!!

I love to see the faces of tourists or people just passing by when they see someone homeless, they grab hold of their family and make some sort of unbreakable chain in their minds as Dad's legs begin to shake like whore on nickel night. Don't get me wrong there are some real creepy cats out there that I prefer my little princess not see, but some of the m make my day. Like this guy above! He isn't saying he's hungry or lost his job and the Big Brother gave him the whole 9". Nope, not him, he is telling you he wants to have a good time and asking passerby to help him on his field trip. Just like those kids that come year after year selling that shitty candy that they ask you to buy to help pay for their trip to somewhere. Ask and you shall receive, right? Who is your best bum? Anybody buy something special for their less fortunate brother or sister? Don't think for a second these people are happy where there at and if they really wanted to change they would be out working a real job. Real job?? What are they? Where do you find one of those in NYC? Don't get me wrong their are some assholes out there that I wouldn't give a red cent, but i have a few I bullshit with and slip them a 5 spot when I got it. I guess I got a soft spot because I know ANYBODY can be that person in no time at all. Even in my company I try to hire guys who not only need but want a second chance at life. We all make mistakes some get caught and others don't.b If you see the same guy week after week and he looks about your size why not stp by and tell him you got some old stuff that you don't wear anymore and they would probaly fit him swell. If he does take them you will get a feeling inside that I can't use words to explain when you see hin wearing the shirt you gave him.

Knock Down Furniture... Love or hate????

Hello Everyone:

I am sorry I haven't written in quite some time, but it seemed like nobody was listening. However, recently a few cats said they enjoyed my info and would appreciate if I continued with the blog. If anybody read my, I think first post it explains how I started this business from a screwdriver and a dream. Right now my little ole company is #1 on Yahoo & Google if you search "nyc furniture assembly". I thank my lucky strs every night that I have a great master assembler, his name is Lawrence. Rain nor shine he will build your whatever for you. Well, here is a little piece on Knock Down furniture. Take a minute and tell me what you think of my words of wisdom.

Christopher
EZ Furniture Assembly
&
Interior innovation

Unfinished KD (knock down) furniture or RTA (ready to assemble) furniture offers several advantages:

1. It allows the purchaser to give the piece a preferred finish, perhaps to match other furnishings

2. It allows the buyer to purchase a piece of furniture anywhere from one-third to one-half off the cost of a finished piece in the same wood species. That’s the good part.

The bad part is, KD and RTA furniture isn’t as easy as some make it sound. If you have ever bought such furniture from IKEA or similar stores you know exactly what I’m talking about. You see this beautiful piece of furniture either in the store, catalog, or online and imagine how beautiful it will look in your home. I believe many of us just entirely skip the thought of assembling the furniture. Once home you open the box only to see several dozen pieces of what appears to be wood with holes. A bag of screws and some other widgets. And finally the directions. Thank God for the directions. This mess won’t be that hard to get together with the directions, right? Wrong! Many companies have decided that it’s best to print the directions without any written instructions and use only illustrations as some form of universal language. It is definitely a language in its own right, only one that makes learning Chinese look like learning the alphabet. The directions are similar to your 3-year-old child’s fridge picture, and those signs Psychiatrists use to determine your sanity.

Hello Everyone. After a hard week assembling many busy New Yorker's furniture and exercise equipment, I finally found a few minutes to get online. While looking ariund I went to one of my favorite sites, New York City Apartment Therapy. I read the article I have below and felt I would be more than selfish if I didn't share this wonderful piece of information with you. I hope you find it intresting as well as amusing. We look forward to hearing your questions and comments. Have a grrrrrrrrreat weekend!

Christopher

www.ezfurnitureassembly.com

Atkins for Furniture: Protein vs. Carbohydrates

By Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan

Author of Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure

I have found that when most people shop for furniture they look at price and try to buy the most furniture they can for the money they can spend. But not all furniture is created equal, and it is very important that you know this before you spend any money. I recommend to clients that they approach shopping from various sources differently and think about what they are doing.

Most people:

1. Spread their money out
2. Have many inexpensive pieces and only a few nice pieces
3. Have too much furniture
4. End up having to throw out or replace furniture every five years

In light of this, it is preferable to:

1. Concentrate your money and buy good furniture
2. Have more quality pieces and fewer inexpensive ones

Most homes are filled with carbohydrate furniture. This is the relatively stylish, inexpensive furniture that is made of pressboard, plywood, and veneer with faux finishes to mimic solid wood. While I love the Swedish giant IKEA dearly, this is primarily what the chain sells. There is nothing wrong with this furniture except that the quality of its manufacture and the simplicity of its style are indications that its life will be short. Furniture like this looks best when it first comes in the door (or when it is photographed in the catalog), and the veneer finishes and staple-glued joints start to give way after a year or two, depending on how hard you press them.

Years ago I bought what I thought at the time was a beautiful bed frame from Pottery Barn, and when it arrived I was disappointed to find that it looked totally different from the way I’d seen it styled in the catalog. Then, due to the dryness of our apartment, the wood separated on the frame, and for the past four years we have used a variety of wood blocks and the occasional screw to hold the whole thing together. This was not a cheap bed -- I remember paying $800 at the time -- but by the time we finally replace it, it will be worth nothing, and we will have to throw it out. Not even the Salvation Army will take it away. At an even later point in time, the value of an old bed frame like this will be negative. We might have to pay someone to take it away, as it won’t go in the garbage. This bed is a carbohydrate. It provides only short-term sustenance to your home.

Protein furniture is finely crafted and well made, while carbohydrate furniture is cheaply mass made. As with any diet, both groups are valuable, but a better, more energetic home will cut down on the carbohydrate furniture over time and increase the amount of protein furniture.

When shopping at the bigger retail stores, it is good to know what they do well. Following is a ranking of the stores I use regularly, as well as their specialties:

Crate and Barrel -- While their style tends to be safe and not trendsetting, the furniture department is very good. Quality is high and service is excellent. The furniture division is separate from the assemble-it-yourself furniture that Crate and Barrel offers on the first floor.

Design Within Reach -- DWR has a great selection of quality mid-century modern and contemporary furniture. Since they are not a manufacturer, prices are higher and shipping has been reported to be very expensive on occasion.

IKEA -- IKEA is where you go for basics such as cabinets and shelving, bedding and curtains, tables and desks. These items are excellent for their low price point and will serve well. However, most of IKEA’s other pieces won’t stand up to heavy use or movement, lighting is unreliable, and glassware breaks easily. In general, at IKEA the more attractive it is, the more quickly it will lose its luster.

West Elm -- Started by Pottery Barn for urban dwellers with smaller spaces, West Elm’s design is attractive, but their quality is only fair. Beds have been reported extremely unreliable, while their tables are handsome but cheaply made.

Pottery Barn -- The biggest of the big, Pottery Barn always looks good, but watch out for quality! I won’t go near their furniture, but I rely on their curtains, curtain rods, and rugs, which are all excellent at their lower price point.

Williams-Sonoma Home -- This newcomer from the Williams-Sonoma empire is a nice addition, with higher quality furniture at higher prices. Style is strong but subdued, and quality is excellent.

Be choosy when shopping these stores, and if you do need something beautiful, look at the next rung up. If you can spend a little more to buy something from someone who has actually made it, or something that has been carefully made in small batches from a unique design, this is usually worth it.

RTA Furniture

RTA furniture

Ready-To-Assemble (RTA) furniture was created to solve a fundamental problem in shipping furniture: the relatively high cost of shipping the products compared to the low cost of actually producing them. All the pieces of the product are shipped in a very compact box with detailed instructions on how to assemble the unit. The intent is for the product to be assembled at home by the buyer. Costs are saved by the assembly not being performed in the factory and by greatly reduced volumes for shipping and storage by the distributor and retailer. Self-assembly furniture is very common in Britain, Europe, and Canada.

According to IKEA, flat-pack furniture was invented by Swedish draughtsperson Gillis Lundgren who, in order to fit a table in the boot of his car broke off the legs then reassembled it at home. He took his idea to his employers IKEA, who later built their business around it.

Do It Yourself (DIY) oriented people can find it enjoyable to assemble RTA units. The ease of assembly required also varies. IKEA furniture for example, is marketed on its completeness including Allen keys in the package if they are needed. However, the assembly of some brands require the customer to have access to a much larger selection of hand or even power tools. Ironically, a common complaint is that some RTA packages do not include necessary screws, fixings or even parts required to complete assembly.

The most common types of RTA furniture are living room and office furniture, including bookcases, tables, beds and lounge-ware. Outdoor furniture e.g. swingsets and patio settings is another common example of RTA furniture.

Self-assembly kitchens are available from some retailers. These are made to uniform sizes. They benefit from a wide number of options and the ability to easily update them through the addition of for example, new cupboard doors.

Consider a CD/DVD storage rack. In the design of this furniture the cost of transporting and storing this product is kept in mind by retailing it as a flat pack. A flatter product can be easily stored and the cost of transport is lower overall as more items can be moved in the same space occupied by the assembled product. The cost of labour can also be reduced as there is no need for workers to assemble the product before it is sold. Other cost-cutting techniques can be employed by using particle board laminated with vinyl instead of using solid timber for example.

EZ Furniture Assembly is NYC's experts in RTA furniture for your home or office. We also offer kitchen cabinet assembly and installation, and furniture repair. Click here to visit us now.

• Bush Industries
• O'Sullivan
• Sauder

IKEA Charging for Bags!!!

IKEA US to charge us for bags in it's workdwide effort to reduce them landing in landfills.

This is something they have been doing internationally for a while now, but they are now unleashing it here in the states. And since our store is yet to be built, it will effect us, so thus why I'm putting it here.

I personally am okay with it, it's 5 cents. Woop. The plastic bags they have are MONSTROUS and easily worth it the nickle. You could bury a gangster in one. So asking five cents for them making you think about if you really need it or not is fine by me. They probably cost them 5 cents anyway, they are that big.

But - and here comes the point whizzing into the lead from behind - they also sell, these equally (if not more - monsterous but reuseable shopping bags made of, basically, woven blue plastic tarp. They normally sell these things for 99 cents but are lowering them to a 59 cents. That's cool because they are actually useful for more than shopping at IKEA.

I personally have these things all over my house. I use them for camping (they hold TWO sleeping bags!) I use them for packing odds and ends when traveling around on weekends. I keep one in each car for when you have grocery bag blowouts or just need a way to carry in a awkward object when lazy and short on hands. I kinda have these things stashed everywhere.

Hell I even have one filled with IKEA catalogs from the last trek to Detroit. Which leads me to this... WANT A CATALOG? I know some folks still can't seem to get one, and this time of year you almst can't get them to send you one at all. I have like 20, muahahah!

Email me back and we'll talk shipping annd junk, all I'll ask is the cost of mailing.

The IKEA Faactor

The Ikea Factor

The IKEA Factor

The Ikea Factor is a project created in hopes of creating a collective of ideas from anyone who thinks they can improve upon Ikea. Whether it be the designs themselves or the stores, everything's up for grabs. What would Ikea be like if done through the eyes of the people who shop there?

Visit.

People Trust IKEA More Than GOD!!!!!!!

People Trust IKEA More Than GOD!!!!!!!

Swedes Trust IKEA More than the Church

What do Volvo, Ericsson, Saab and IKEA have in common? The people of Sweden have more faith in them than in the church.

..

REUTERS

An IKEA store in Sweden: People trust the furniture maker more than the church.

Perhaps the news shouldn't come as much of a surprise, coming as it does from a country best known for its meatballs and the bright blue and yellow warehouses selling cheap and cheerful furniture around the globe. Still, preacher men the world over must be reeling. A new poll taken of Swedes indicates that more people trust IKEA than the church in the largely Protestant country.

According to the poll, taken by the business weekly Dagens Industri, 80 percent of Swedes said they had "much or very much trust" in the world's largest furniture store chain, which was founded by Ingvar Kamprad. But only 46 percent of the 800 people surveyed said they trusted the Swedish church, which counts 80 percent of the 9 million residents living in Sweden as members.

IKEA isn't the only company Swedes trust more than the church -- the list also includes Volvo (69 percent), Ericsson (59), Saab (57) and pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca (47) as well as four other companies that beat out the church on the trust factor. Indeed, the church landed in slot 14, behind Sweden's public television station, its universities, small business, the central bank and the daily paper Dagens Nyheter.

There was, however, some positive news for the church: It got better marks than the conservative party of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (30 percent). And it fared better than foreign companies like Coca-Cola, which only 22 percent of Swedes said they trusted.

Does Ikea suck? Can they be trusted??

Does Ikea suck? Can they be trusted??

This little piece of reading material is compliments of the "Ikea Sucks" blog. We constantly scour the web looking for new and exciting material for you, our beloved readers.(haha) Anyway, these cats say Ikea sucks and can't be trusted!! What do you say????? Are you an Ikea fan or an Ikea Sucks fanatic? Man or mouse?

IKEA SUCKS and is NOT TO BE TRUSTED!

The world's largest furniture company, IKEA, owned by the wealthiest man in the world (yes even wealthier than Bill Gates and all of the sheikhs) DOES NOT stand behind their products.

Here's our story:

After years of hearing people rave about their furniture we decided to spend some money and buy a new coffee table. We thought we had found the greatest table when we decided on the Lamborn Coffee Table from IKEA. It is a multifunction table where half of the table top can be lifted out, turned around, re-inserted into it's leg holes and thus turned into a work/eating table. See below:






After three months the table top that is removable broke! The arm that pulls out and then gets reinserted when the table top is reversed, as is in the second picture, pulled out of the wood top; anchors and all. (See below.) One would think that this would be built in such a way that this stress point could and should withstand more than three months of use.










Now I am being told that because it is past the 45 day warranty period they have no responsibility to me or their merchandise. Imagine that; the biggest furniture company in the world will not stand behind their furniture for more than 45 days. How absurd is that!

Worse is the service I have received over the phone with regards to this. First I was told that there was a one year warranty on the materials. Then I was cut off while being transferred to the claims department. Then upon phoning back I was transferred to a person whose accent was so heavy I couldn't understand a word they were saying. After they slowed down and started annunciating in English I was able to convey my message to him upon which I was transferred again, but this time not before being told that I was out of luck. When protesting that decision to the next person I was told that it was my fault and had the customer service 'manager' (more on that later) yell at me about how he didn't know how I was using the table. All the while admitting that this should not have happened.

Sensing that I would get nowhere with this person I asked to talk to his superior. At this point I was told that I could not and a case number would be given to me and I would be added to a Supervisor Call Back list. I would hear from someone within 24 to 48 hours. I was not happy about this but what else could I do? So I waited, and waited and waited some more until 5 days later I called them back! When I got the customer service rep on the phone I immediately asked for his manager. He replied that he was the manager. After speaking with him for a moment and explaining the situation I quickly came to the realization that they all consider themselves "Customer Service Managers" and I will get nowhere with this fellow. In any event he puts me on hold for over 10 minutes while he retrieves the case file, only to have him tell me that I am out of luck and will not receive any assistance what-so-ever from IKEA, all the while insisting that they do indeed stand behind their products. I find this a very bizarre way of standing behind ones products. So yet again I insist on talking to his 'superior,' a term that I figure he may actually understand. He insists that I will get the same answer from whomever I talk to and again tells me that I can't talk to anyone right now and I can if I want go back on the call back list and wait at least 5 more days for a call.

So here I am, waiting for a call from someone who is supposedly a supervisor or manager or whatever the hell they call the next person up the chain. Still not at all satisfied with what's going on here and still sitting with a 3 month old broken table. Grrrrrrr.

Have any similar experiences with IKEA? Want to share that experience? Something tells me I'm not the only one going through this. If you want to share your experience please send me a comment and I will either post your story here for you or get you to do it. Don't let the biggest furniture company in the world get away with this!


Visit EZ furniture Assembly of NYC for all your furniture assembly & installation needs. Go to www.ezfurnitureassembly.com

Welcome

Hello. My name is Christopher, and I'm the owner and project manager of EZ Furniture Assembly of New York City. We are a professional furniture, fitness equipment, kitchen cabinet assembly and installation service. We also specialize in providing our customers with handyman and other helpful services. I spent a majority of my life working in sales and marketing. When I finally decided to leave this line of work I was the Regional Manager for a major marketing company. I was always told that whatever I decided to do, if I liked doing it it wouldn't be work. Well, when I worked in marketing the income was fantastic and I was living a "GQ" style life. As the years passed I became mentally, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted of this line of work and the entire lifestyle as a whole. I guess there just wasn't any real satisfaction in it for me, except the great income which actually became less important as I got older. I met the most wonderful person in all my life, and decided to move to New York City so we could be closer. Once here, I needed income but knew with every fiber in my body that I didn't want to go back into sales or marketing. I have always been very handy and come from a family of blue collar workers. When I was younger I always worked the summers as a masons tender, or as a carpenters helper. Then as I grew older many of my friends got into the real estate market and it seemed like every weekend I was helping fix or build something. And if you're like me you know and understand the great feeling of happiness and accomplishment you get when you see what your hard work has created or resulted in. So, I started doing side jobs here and there in the city to make ends meet until I found something permanent. After months of doing this I really began to take notice of all the furniture assembly work I was doing, and that there was such a great demand for this kind of service. I decided at that point that I was going to go all in and concentrate on building a business, a future. It's been about a year and it is still like going to school everyday, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have met so many wonderful people and can't begin to explain the feeling I get when I see the customers eyes light up when they the work we've done.

I decided to put this blog together where like minded people would have a place to meet, find and share information, tips, ideas, as well as their experiences. The blog is open to everyone, but I hope it will be the New Yorker's who really get involved. There are so many blogs that deal with an array of home improvement tips already. I want this to be the place where people in the city can share a sale at the Home Depot on 23rd, or how to make a SOHO loft look twice the size with a simple paint job. I hope that everyone from professional handymen, contractors, interior designers, and the like to the do it yourselfer and weekend warrior will find this blog not only informative but interesting and entertaining. I believe this will be just like any other venture I've been a part of, and we will only get out what we put in. If you have a question, ask it. If you know the answer, give it. If you have a story or experience, tell it. If you've been inspired by a story, share it.

I really have no idea as to what direction this blog will go in, but I do know that I look forward to hearing every ones suggestions, comments, and constructive criticism. I will be doing my best to answer any and all questions you may have regarding furniture assembly, kitchen cabinet installation, as well as any other questions you may have regarding your house or apartment. However, I hope that in time we will be able to put together a panel of experts that will be able to provide answers and information that are directly related to the services they provide. But keep in mind that this is an open blog and this blog is built on the concept of like minded individuals helping one another. So, if you know the answer or have a suggestion please share it.

The vast majority of the work we do is on IKEA products, so the first of hopefully many posts will be about IKEA and their products. Plus I've had a lot of this information on our company website and I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't share these articles.

I would like to thank everyone in advance, and hope to hear from you soon.