hi all, had expensive, in my view, quote on shipping furniture over.
how did people find the:-
wait for your stuff?
any damage on arrival?, if so could/did you claim?
cheaper to put the money into buying furniture once arrived? (The Brick, looks expensive, is it?)

thanks rae

Rae
We moved to Calgary and only brought a small amount of stuff with us. Have you had a quote for a container? Its better value than loose goods.
We waited 10 weeks for our household good, but rented a furbished 1 bed appartment when my family arrived in Calgary so furniture was not a problem.

We had a few damage good. Bike wheel and a few pots. We put them in storage for a year and so the insurance would not cover the replacement costs.
We found its was fun buying new furniture, but easy to blow $20k replacing beds, tables chairs etc. We wished we brought more stuff to Canada as we sold our bed for 50 quid and paid $900 to replace it.

The Brick is not Cheap as its commissioned salesman and on the 'never never" type of store.

Comments we had from some friends visiting Canada it that that though White goods and furniture seemed more expensive. We actually went to auction and purchase a load of pine furniture that needed finishing which seemed good value.

In Canada there are IKAEA stores in the major cities.
We purchased some garden furniture in Ottawa last year for about $1400 and a few weeks later we were in England. My wife wanted to go to IKAEA where we were staying to see what they had. Out of interest I did a price check and found I would have paid just over 500 quid for garden furniture in the Bristol IKAEA. Im not sure if IKAEA prices in Canada vary with the exchange rates?

See if you can get a deal on a container if possible.

hudd

Is there a good secondhand market in Canada? Or Ebay or anything like that? We are also considering just taking the essentials and selling/storing all furniture in GB and had just assumed that local Canadian classifieds would have pages of used furniture like the Free ads here.

I'd say bring as much as you can, furniture and beds can be expensive here (where untold expense awaits anyway!)

We lived in an unfurnished house for 9 days with two inflatable matresses, a travel cot, a laptop and a few hastily bought kitchen bits and pieces. It was okay, we had so much to do, we were out most of the time.

Few little bits of damage, also front wheel of bike (!), kitchen table (cheap IKEA think) was cracked, and one broken picture. We didn't claim as we though the excess would cover it.

E bay not as good as the UK. Also the problem of shipping cost with long distances.
We went to auctions and brought furniture to finish or refurbish. There is Free Ads paper I know in Calgary. My friends brought everything second hand when they moved there from Scotland.
What I can say is that you can get good second hand deals as most people buy furniture on credit. We found that returning to the UK, we "gave way" alot of our half decent furniture, which I think in England you would get a better price for. You may be shocked with some of the style of furniture?

Yes, been having a look at real estate in S Ontario, and the pictures of the interiors is quite an eye-opener. It all seems a bit 1970's with lots of crochet and rag rugs. Having said that, I don't think I have ever bought any furniture new - been lucky with hand-me down stuff which is serviceable. It's amazing what some strategically placed throws can do to the look of a place.

Sinope

I think its English culture to have a nice home and keep it updated. I know some of our friends in Canada would come to us to see how we renovated a 1905 Brick farmhouse. I though my wife could have had a business modernising houses in Canada, just for our friends.

Whats quite common to see all the Brits on home DIY shows in Canada. Debbie Travis(from Yorkshire) has made a mint by just copying English home designer ideas.

My wife & I when we were first married would go to second hand shops or old mills and buy old furniture to refurbish. I agree you can make old furniture look nice in the right settings.

Even my 85 year old gran looks after her house and is in pretty good shape.

I spoke to my 75 year great aunt recently near Canterbury and she was telling me that shes having a new Magnet kitchen installed and laminate flooring in the living room. Could not see my 70+ year old neighbours in Canada, see why you need to update their 1976 house. I assume just a difference in culture etc!

Yes lots of houses in Canada still have 1970's shag pile carpets etc. Lots of people I worked with said its only a "place to sleep" and would rather buy a quad bike for hunting in this bush than paint the house.

There are thrift stores such as Value Village and some communities have "Freecycles"

watch for yard/garage sales. People just selling their stuff from their front lawns, driveways, or where ever, usually on Saturday mornings. Watch for signs around the neighbourhood and check the local paper (some local rags will list where and when garage sales are for free).

Yard sales and thrift stores sound great to me. I have never been into the keeping up with the Joneses thing, it just seems utterly pointless. However, I have seen loads of other posts (on other threads) about how consumer-driven Canadians are or is it just different things and as you say Hudd, the average Canadian would rather have a big new skiddoo than a new kitchen? Sorry, all gone a bit off-topic. I shall shut-up now.

Ikea here is great and as mentioned the great Canadian yard Sale. But please I beg you not to shop at the Brick, they are useless, they lie to sell you the furniture and their after care service is about as much use as tits on a bull, im stuck with a sofa that i was told was machine washable with shrunk cushion covers because it wasnts,and they refused to even care about it, and i even bought the insurance policy with it adn was told afterwards that I dont get a copy of the insurance doc (basically because they can tell you that it covers this and that and doesnt) Dont shop their, stick to Ikea (great customer service) or Sears and The Bay, bit more expensive but great after care service and quality merchandise.

I don't agree about the non-updated houses. I bet there are just as many cheap shoddy houses in the UK as in Canada. It totally depends on the owners. I have actually found the opposite. People I know get rid of things much more often than the people I visit in the UK. I have a friend and if she paints her bathroom a different colour, she gets rid of all her old towels etc. My towels are every colour under the sun - my friend has to have everything matching!

The people I know who came here three years ago brought their expensive furniture. If they had cheap stuff, they left it behind. They left their electronics stuff behind and bought new. With the difference in electricity and the way things are changing in TVs etc. I don't think it's worth it to haul it over here. I suppose if you had a brand new HD Plasma TV, it might be worth it.

Sinope

Some people seem to get upset easily. Just I lighter note I had a young plant operator working for me(yes in the sticks in Ontario). We were talking whats important to us in general conservation.

He said:
1. New Truck
2. New skiddoo
3. New boat for fishing
4. Converting an old school bus for hunting
5. A house

I what about what you girlfriend? What does she want? An engagement ring he said. But she will not get one until I got No 1 -No 5 first.

We justed had a good laugh about it.

hudd

Most Brits I know have brought most of their household goods with them because, other than electrical stuff, for the most part it is cheaper . Check out the Ikea website for Canada and the UK and you will see the comparison in prices. They are actually similar eg an Ektorp 3-seater sofa is $699 +taxes here and in the UK it is 295 pounds, the only difference being that based on minimum wage it takes twice as many hours to earn the income for the sofa here as it does in the UK.
I agree with everyone about The Brick and I would add Leons too and maybe even Sears now- similar sale associates and only interested in helping you if you are going to buy something that day. The Bay I would still recommend. Unfortunately the appliances have to be bought here and that makes me sad when I see the great prices on the Uk websites. We have the American stores Ashley, Lane etc here now, but the furniture is very expensive in my opinion and fine if you still like that Tuscany/North American style. Mattresses etc are definitely cheaper in the UK or at Ikea here. Ikea takes advantage of cheap production but at least it passes the savings on to its clients.
Garage sales- Ugh! Has anyone been to a car boot sale in Scotland- completely different standard of merchandise available- some bargains but lots of rubbish which should be thrown out, unlike England where more bargains are available. I think the garage sales/flea markets are the same here - it is the Canadian Scottish genes. (Scottish family so I have the privilege to say that ) I remember being passed on children's clothing by friends when my kids were born,and they were so disgusting I threw them out- had to lie about giving them to another mother when I was asked to return them for someone else - I did not realise that the stuff was passed around to everyone. Hence when stuff is at a garage sale it is quite often yucky And don't buy kids cribs etc from a garage sale- always buy the new ones, with the much improved safety standards.
If you have furniture and household items - ship them, probably cheaper than buying over here unless you want a new start in life. I like going to Brits houses here though- quite often British furniture, obviously different styles but not stuck with the so called Canadian antiques which not even charity shops in the UK would take on board.

[QUOTE=rae] Not bad at all, slightly under 4wks from when we called for it (was in free storage until then), Glasgow - Winnipeg.

Yep, a few bits and pieces. By looking at the damage it's my guess that most of it was caused by the Canadian removers - the container was unpacked this end, contents loaded onto a smaller lorry, and then unpacked again at our new house - unnecessary scope for damage by unpacking twice. A few large pieces of furniture were scraped on the revolting textured ceiling here

Claim was slow to be dealt with by the UK remover but once in the hands of the Canadian handler it was superb. Furniture man came out and repaired the scrapes, leather guy heated the dent of chair, pictures fixed, and cash payout for the rest in our choice of CAD or GBP. They were flexible too - offered me cash for a broken book set, I said no, I'd rather you fixed it, and they did. No complaints at all about the service.

No, bring what you can. I keep reading people chucking out beds - these things are a few cm different here max, I'm using Canadian King linen on a UK superking bed with no problems whatsoever. If I'd listened to the forum I'd have binned an expensive bed for no good reason :scared: If your duvet covers don't fit, buy a new duvet here but don't bin the bed.

I'm sure it's been mentioned on here that quite apart from the cash you save, immigrants who bring familiar pieces from home are more likely to settle and make a success of their early years here.