The IKEA Nesting Instinct

Well, it’s officially official! I have an apartment, and it’s pretty much awesome. A 1 bed, 1 bath, but furnished in a very cozy and Western style. Also, it’s in a district called Xujiahui, of Xu’s Confluence, which sits perfectly between my office in Chunshen, and downtown (where all the fun stuff happens in town)… yes, I realize I’m running the risk of sounding very repetitive. I’m willing to take that chance, though.

After a string of definite “no’s” and one “probably” which unfortunately sold as I was going for a second look, and then a few more definite “no’s” and a couple “maybes,” Coco (Nancy and my Wenzhounese friend in Shanghai) and I were heading into the final stop of our 4th night looking. From the exterior, I was expecting yet another overpriced hole-in-the-wall (though I do know all-too-well that the exteriors of building are absolutely no indicator of their interiors, for better and for worse). We were greeted by a middle-aged man in a wife-beater who, by the look of it, had just woken up. Still, he was very nice and let us into the apartment in question. He showed us around a bit, and I immediately knew that I liked what I saw. I let Coco know, and she asked if I wanted to wait a bit on it. Having just had a potential domicile fly right out from under me, I didn’t want to take that chance again – especially given that it had been, far and away, the best apartment I’d yet seen. And after 4 days of searching, I was getting really tired of “the hunt.”

She told the agent, and so the man showing us the apartment called the owner – his little sister. Soon thereafter, Coco was put on the phone with her and the negotiation began. She had initially wanted 3900/month, with an initial down payment of 3 months rent, plus a month’s worth of deposit. I’d made very clear to Coco that I wanted some changes to the “typical” arrangement. To her credit, she performed wonderfully, and was able to reduce the price to 3700/month, and only 2 months + deposit. Needless to say, I readily assented to this arrangement. They required some “good faith” money until the following day, though, and so we put down 500RMB for the night.

The next day, I rifled through my various offshore holding, numbered Swiss bank accounts, corporate shareholdings, and mutual funds to come up with the requisite 11,100RMB ($1650) + 1295RMB surcharge for the agent. Thanks to some help from Nancy’s sister, I was able to account for the whole sum (in cash) without needing to make a cash advance on my credit card…. I was trying really hard not to have to do that.

And so, contract duly signed and large stack of currency given, I was able to move in that night. Unfortunately, most of my stuff was still in the Xiamen Rd. hotel – a 20 min train ride, and then 15 min walk away. I made it there and checked out, and made the return trip with the rest of my luggage in tow. And let me just say this: a 15 minute walk up and down stairs, potholes, and uneven streets is made even more arduous by lugging around 40 lbs on each arms.

One minor problem: while there was a bed, and most of the apartment was nicely furnished, the bed itself had neither pillow, nor blanket. This made the first night rather interesting… I ended up using my travel pillow, and 3 workout shirts as a makeshift blanket. I resolved to make that a 1-night-only situation. Thus the next day, after sitting through a morning’s gamut of “orientation and training” (which I get to look forward to sporadically for the next half month), I searched the internet and found that there was a brand-new IKEA store near Xujiahui. At least, it looked near on the Google Map. Turned out it was something like a 45 minute walk… and it was only once I got there that I realized that I could have taken the metro one stop instead. Oh well. I bought a comforter, pillows, sheets, and covers for all. They look nice (I went with a black-and-red schema). And they were very reasonably priced… and accepted Visa. Horray for Sweden!

A quote from Fight Club comes to mind, though, as this is the first time I’ve actually bought anything from IKEA…."I had become a slave to the Ikea nesting instinct, even down to the dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof that they were crafted by the honest, simple, hardworking, indigenous people of wherever…" Oh Palahniuk, you have a quotable for everything…


(CS) TAW Out.

LYRIC HERE