JennP

I find The Brick to be one of the more expensive spots - but they can have good deals if you watch. I recently purchased an amazing queen mattress and boxspring from Serta Sleep Centre for around $800 including a few extra items. I helped my sister find a simplier set from them for $500 and I helped a roommate pick out a set from a local furniture place for around $675.

And they both delivered for free (The Brick wanted $60 to deliver).

louisbourg

hi there
we were over this year in the summer to our house in C.B for 3 month's although we are still waiting for p.r
we shipped items like........... duvets because they are soooooooo expensive
bedding because , i knew what colours , and i find the choice in canada is very limited ..........
curtains........ for our living room whick we had made , they alone weighed in at over 40 kg but looked breathtaking , and no one had ever seen the likes before
cushion inserts got a good deal at wilkinsons
towels again , specific colours , from asda , but towels i found to be reasonably priced

we took 3 bags weighing 64kg , which we sent as cargo on our flight with canadain affair ........worked out at £210 , we were happy with that

there was a stove .cooker sorry already in the house , but that gave up the ghost on us , our new one cost i think around $390 which was a good price for a 30" range

also a settee and chair from celtic in their sale around $1000 so not too bad again

beds we bought and yes i think they are expensive .....
front loading washing machines are soooooo expensive , but there are good deals to be had

i think really it's just the personal touches from home ,
i love a bargain ,
check out some websites to get some ideas on prices

best regards
sharon

poll72000

We didn't bother bringing anything over, only photo's and treasured things. We sold our car in the UK did car boot sales and stuff (that was frustrating watching your stuff go for a lot less than its worth)

Anyway we came over with $30,000, 15,000 GBP and set up the house we are renting with everything we needed bought a car. Hubby bought a 52" TV and we got a free Xbox with it. We also had money over!!

Biiiiink

We took the opportunity to throw away/sell/give away as much as possible but we kept the good stuff and are glad we did.

If you search the forum you can find all the differing bed sizes, my UK superking is only 4 inches bigger/smaller (I forget which!) than a Canadian king, so sheets have not been a problem for us. We're still using a UK duvet, I expect that may be more of a problem getting replacements, but not bringing the bed on the basis of having to buy a new duvet at some point in the future would have been rather like throwing out the proverbial baby...

To give you an idea of cost, I furnished a 1bed+den condo from scratch to rent it out, I didn't do it myself so maybe the purchases were not the most economic but from the receipts I scrutinised the stuff came from The Brick, Ikea, Zellers...so not exactly pricey places either. That cost 11k CAD or 13k CAD (not including fees), I can't remember. This included electricals like TV, DVD player, vacuum, stereo, phone, coffee maker, toaster, microwave etc etc, but not fridge/freezer/dishwasher/washer/dryer/stove which were already in the condo. It also covered all furniture, linens, crockery, window coverings from scratch.

Rich_007

Eeek typo, read 5 quid :scared: it was an approximate cost

Rich

iaink

Serta sleep center ("Sleep Country Canada"?) has ads on the radio here for $139 per piece, regardless of size. $139 for the matress, $139 for the box. King size is a "three piece set" of course...I guess 2 boxes and a matress.

United Furnature Warehouse around here is consistently cheap, less than Leons or the Brick (which I have never found a good deal). Our best matress set was about $350 for a Queen Posturepedic a few years ago, and that was from a local bedroom specialist store (non chain) and was much reduced as the matress and box did not match cosmetically (like anyone will ever see).

Good luck, shop around, and I hope you can find something more reasonable!

Helen Parnell

If you are going to bring everything over from England then why move, new country, new house, new job, new experiences and the same old furniture from England.!!

Rich_007

In our case yes, new country/new house/new life/new job.

However, we brought our "same old furniture", mostly 3 years or less old, very nice classy stuff mostly not available in Canada or if so very much more expensive, all of which transplanted very nicely into our new home. Shipping it was a fraction of replacement cost.

Shipping household stuff isn't a big deal for people who know what is worth shipping and what isn't.

Problem..... your previous comments appear very naive and don't reflect what I would expect from a well-travelled rounded realtor/relocator.

Rich

Tangram

Nice retort Rich. If we DO come over, we will be bringing furniture ( like yourself it was expensive here and there is nothing wrong with it ), clothes, toys and that's probably about it. The electrical stuff can be sold off.... the only thing I will bring electrical is my iMac as the voltage is fine across the world, together with all my Mission speakers.

daft batty

We plan on bringing some wooden furniture with us, (dresser, wall cabinets, etc) i reckon it will make our new house feel like home more quickly if we have something familiar around us, plus my dad made it so its priceless to me and its cabinet maker standard which cant be replaced cheaply.

Strangely though I do have an urge to bring our new gas cooker with us, illogical and probably wouldnt work, but the cookers i have seen over there seem pretty dull and old fashioned looking. yes i know its "sad" to get attached to a cooker and I do need to get out more......... did anyone take a gas cooker with them????

thesnodgrass

Hi

We had a bit of a life laundry before coming to Canada and got rid of loads of stuff that we hardly ever used , some of which was still in boxes from previous moves in Britain.

This is what we found to be useful -

1. eBay - sold 2 cars and numerous other things on eBay.
2. Amazon - sold books through amazon - they dont just sell new stuff. We sold books, cds, even a board game we never played. You need to start this process well in advance as some things took 6 months to go.
3. Car boot sales - did one at Cheltenham racecourse towards the end to get rid of the rubbish and still took 300 quid.
4. This was the best list4all - Added good valuable items to a website called http://www.list4all.com/ where you create a list with a picture, description and price - all for free. This I emailed to all my colleagues at work and did surprisingly well. I also printed it out and handed it around the neighbourhood.

Oh also we had a bonfire - massive.

In the end the shipping cost us 1400 quid to BC. and was the essentials we couldnt bare to part with. This actualy worked in our favour as our goods were delayed by the Vancouver dock strike, and we were not desperate for them to arrive as we had bought beds etc. locally.

We also got our photo collection in order at long last - bought 10 albums and chucked out all the ones that were out of focus or boring.

Biiiiink

Agreed. And haven't we even seen an article on here claiming that those who bring possessions from home are more likely to stay and make a sucessful go of things? Whether that's related to the positive mental effect of familiarity of possesions, or just the fact that those who bring any quantity of things are likely to be immigrants from the developed world who stand a better chance of having their skills recognised and utilised...I don't know. I can't find the post now I'm looking for it

wiggs1034

Two questions:

1. Is Ikea the "Cheap & Cheerful" alternative in Canada (where there are branches) as it is in the UK? Is it such a popular fad as it is in the UK?

2. Are the stories of UK wooden furniture drying out and cracking true (depends on humidity levels I suppose, but a few people have told us this is true in Calgary - our destination)? Is Canada (or even Ikea) furntiure more fit for purpose as it does not dry out and collapse?

Thanks

daft batty

i looked online and ikea prices are the same as here, slightly more, though you can order online and you cant here

Biiiiink

Beware of online delivery costs - they've scrapped their flat-fee and do it by weight now. I think it cost me something like 120 CAD to have 320 CAD's worth of bookcases delivered. Steep, but I couldn't find anything I liked round here...

They don't tell you the delivery cost when you place the order either, you have to give a phone number and they call you up in a day or two and tell you what it will cost, and ask if you'd still like to go ahead. Strange system indeed!