buying a house ..when to order furniture

bestbetyet23

Hello,

We are in the process of buying a house. Contracts are signed by us, the requested closing date is 25th March. The house is empty except for a dishwasher and oven in the kitchen. We have no furniture we own except for a single and a double mattress, a couple of IKEA shelves and a set of drawers and a few chairs. We have two kids.

So the discussion between between my husband and I about when to order furniture and white goods is heating up. :o) He is more cautious than I and advises not to buy anything until we have the keys. I would prefer not to live out of cardboard boxes for too long, also thinking of the kids as the move will be an adjustment for them and I want them to enjoy it as much as possible. I know living out of boxes might be an adventure for a while. I think its important to order new or source 2nd hand essential stuff pretty much now. eg kitchen table, sofa, freezer, washing matching. I know furniture can have a long lead in time.

I was wondering what other people have done in a similiar situation?

Thanks!

herbalplants

You could always get items from recycling groups in the area until you get adjusted to the house. This way, you don't spend a fortune at the start. I agree with your husband, wait till you get the keys.

SVI40

EZLiving. Great company. I bought all my furniture from them in their sales way back. House purchase was delayed, they kept all the furniture in storage, and when it came to paying the balance, months later, they still kept the sales price.

Had a issue 2 years later with the leather couch, called them, sent a few photographs of the problem, hour later they called back, and said to pick another suite. They replaced the faulty 3 seater, and the 2 seater which had no faults, so the replacement would be matching.

I cannot recommend them enough. Plus, they're an Irish company.

Nickla

It’s a tricky one and both you and your husband have valid points - my own experience for white goods is to avoid the big chains like curry’s who don’t keep much stock and check out the local retailers. If you want to post where you are you might get some suggestions. I’ve used swans electrical in carlow a few times and would recommend them to anyone. I needed a new fridge recently and it was delivered the next day with no delivery charge.

Sofas tend to have a long lead time so you could order that but check any restocking charges if the worst happens but the right sofa is worth waiting for. Keep an eye on adverts for furniture that might be useful until you’re living in the house a while and figure out what you really need, and try to avoid buying cheap stuff until you’re sure it’s the right piece of furniture

beds, kitchen tables and chairs are easily available so i wouldn’t worry too much about them. I’ve become a big fan of the velvet ottoman type storage boxes that you get in the range or home store and more. We use them as toy boxes, stools and leg rests.

congrats on the new house 😀 it will be an exciting time for the whole family

JVince

Do not buy any furniture until you are in the house and get a feel for it.

Understand the rooms, the lighting and the flow.

Free stuff from family and friends should get you over the initial few days/ weeks.

On the main sofa and table/chairs, draw out the size on the floor (use rope or similar), add in the coffee table, entertainment units, bookshelf etc.

Nothing worse than spending 3k on a couch and finding it's too big for the space.

Flex2016

Agree with the above poster, don’t buy until you’ve been in the house. Our sofas were too big for our sitting room really and I’ve constant bruises on one of my legs from walking into the end of our gorgeous, but too big, bed.

fergiesfolly

In a similar situation ( although we do have some furniture)

Request a viewing of the house. Bring a tape measure and measure every room and make a rough sketch of the layout making note of where windows, doors, tv and power outlets, light switches, radiators etc are. At least you now have some idea of what will physically fit in a room. Take some photos too. You probably think you know the new house reasonably well. After studying the layout and photos, I'll bet you don't. At least, we didn't.

Go to as many retailers as you can fit in. You might already have an idea of what you want. Take lots of photos. Give yourselves a night or two at home with the layout and photos. Nail it down to one or two choices for each item, so you're not dithering when you actually have to order. You could spend days mulling over a couch or a kitchen table.

As others said, local suppliers keep more stock in hand so you shouldn't be left waiting too long for delivery. If they have stock on site, they might be more amenable to taking an order that might fall through should the worst happen.

We're currently waiting on keys too and have talked to local furniture and electrical suppliers and most are understanding, especially if it's not a special order.

In the meantime, you've done the hard part. Enjoy the adventure of moving in, regardless of the furniture. You have two mattresses. The two kids can sleep top to toe. Or give them sleeping bags and torches. Kids eat that up. Borrow a couch and a garden table and chairs. Have a laugh at the situation and enjoy the new space before the actual furniture arrives.

Good luck with the house.

PSFarrell

Wait till your in the house...learned the hardway...bought a desk before moving in and quickly discovered we could not get it up the stairs and had to return it. We did this because the previous owners had a similar one, which we later learned they got lifted in when they were building the rear extension.

SharkMX

We just closed on our house. Only ordering furniture now that we have the keys. Didnt want to jinx it before. Ordered a couch, kitchen table, bed, lockers from Harvey Norman yesterday and they are being delivered on Wednesday.

Got the washing machine and fridge in DID. Being delivered Friday.

Bought microwave, kettle, toaster, bed clothes and stuff like that and brought them in the car with us.

We are sleeping on an air mattress until the bed arrives midweek. Spent all night last night and all day today painting.

Next thing to order is new carpets but we can take our time with that.

dubal

We ordered our white goods stuff a good while in advance in Harvey Norman, they reserved the stock (with deposit) in the warehouse for a couple of months in the end. We were very specific about what we wanted and stock was potentially an issue nearer the time.

Once we had a confirmed date, we arranged delivery, worked out well.

Dubal

Sleepy

Your husband is right. Wait until you have the keys. The kids will be fine, moving into a new place is exciting and you can sell them on the idea of "camping" while waiting for the furniture.

Don't discount second-hand sites like Adverts/Donedeal/Facebook Marketplace either. Most furniture depreciates at an insane rate, it's literally hard to give away a second hand couch / suite for free and even if you don't get exactly what you want off the bat, it buys you time to figure out what you really want, can afford and what will actually work when you're more used to the layout of the house and how your family use it.

It'd also be pretty sickening to be looking at a 6k suite that doesn't quite fit the room when you lose a few roof tiles in a storm or find the boiler in the new house has packed in and you don't have enough left in the budget to replace it.

Underestimating the costs of maintenance and upkeep are one of the most common pitfalls I've seen among my friends and family buying their first homes

endofrainbow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122816519#Comment_122816519

I'd say they're well sorted by now - original post was 8 months ago.