The 900- pound gorilla

Interesting that we're building a pre- fabricated house in Sweden, designed and furnished in a Scandinavian-modern way, and yet we haven't mentioned a certain retailer.

When Sooz and I lived in Stockholm in the 80's, we liked to drive down to Kungens Kurva, which was (and still is) home to the world's largest IKEA. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, looking at all the design ideas, having meatballs for lunch, and watching our fellow shoppers as we snaked through the store.

In our stuga, we expect that IKEA will provide the fitted kitchen, the main furniture, and much of the decor. But that's fine; we like IKEA, we like their products, and the memories of those lazy Swedish afternoons.

First stop will be the kitchen. We will have about 3 x 2 meters to work with.