Steve--
today the " ikea problem" came up here because our neighbor wants DH to put together an IKEA cabinet and she will pay him, of course. He started reciting the IKEA lament about a many pieces, missing parts, questionable instructions, yadda. It was kind of funny because we had just been talking about the issue here.

so I pinned down DH about why this seems to be such an issue and he said it's because he can't estimate how much time it will take to put together this IKEA stuff. I asked why that mattered since he was being paid By the hour. He said that it is impossible to,plan his day if he's working on one of those IKEA build things. Now that he is retired that's not a big thing, but for people who have several customers who want them right away as well as an close estimate of the cost, it's not good.

DH has put together several IKEA kitchens and he doesn't mind those.