ubernathan

Well, that escalated quickly! Two sets of viewings and we're buying a house.

I am searching for some recommendations:

* Movers in Boston area. We don't have much stuff to move (a rather spars 3 bed apt) but I can't be dealing with moving it all myself.

* Hungry Horace's 'where to buy curtains' question, but I can follow that thread. Specifically curtains, blinds and a couple of velux blinds.

* Gas range/electric ovens? The new house is currently an old electric one, which we want to replace. I think the width is about 120cm or whatever the standard US size is around that dimension. This is something we want to fix by end of year, not immediately.

* Paints. What are the equivalents of Dulux/Crown/B&Q? A couple of rooms have a color we do not approve of, and need a quick repaint.

sir_eccles

Home Depot - Their own brand Behr paints are pretty good, I've used them many times.

MMcD

Congrats on finding your new house

Benjamin Moore paints are superb
Infinite colour choices
You can play around here:

Paint Color Wheel - Benjamin Moore Paint Color Chart - Paint Color Palette

Pulaski

Home Depot or Lowes for paint, I've used both and they're much of a muchness.

Lowes does a variety of blinds from cheap 1" vinyl to more substantial white or wood effect 2" blinds. Generally Lowes has more "interior decor" choices than HD.

If you can spring for an induction stove (they're 30" BTW), then I highly recommend them. They provide the control of gas on a sealed glass electric cooking surface, so no fumes from the gas, and they put all the heat into the pan, so they're very efficient, and don't turn the kitchen into an inferno in hot weather. They're not cheap, but prices are falling all the time, around the middle of last year they started around $1,500, but IMO worth every penny.

petitefrancaise

Ikea now has an induction stove for $1000 which I am very tempted by. I had an induction stove in France and having to cook on a ceramic one now is really frustrating.
NUTID 4 element induction cooktop - IKEA

We bought washing machine dryer from sears seconds shop. Samsung fridge/freeze was costco, big dyson came from bestbuy and little dc59 dyson came from costco (with kids, dog and rabbit this one has been the best buy ever)

Paint has mostly come from Lowes/HD but since talking to a neighbour about paints, I think I'll try Sherwin Williams for when I do the kitchen.

Bob

For movers, most of the "big" names, check who they sub the local end of things if they aren't franchised, but you could do the whole 2 men and a truck thing, or rent a truck and put a add in craigslist.

As for paints, all hit or miss, even the good brands can be a duffer, so whatever you can get a deal on really, as paint just seems a lot more pricey here.

md95065

For ranges, ovens and other "white goods" go to Sears (or their web site) - they actually have stuff in stock and available for (almost) immediate delivery and installation pretty much everywhere (unlike Home Depot, Best Buy and several others who will offer you delivery times that range from several weeks to months in the future).

cxx

We used Sherwin Williams on the advice of our builder and were really disappointed by them. The area covered was poor and despite the paint appearing very thick it took several coats to cover a fairly bland colour.
The HD / Lowes options work much better.

If you can find a Sears sale shop they have really good offers and the goods are usually in reasonable nick.

Pulaski

Only the basic stuff, or "featured models" are usually in stock. IMO it is usually worth waiting for the model you really want. IME you invariably have to wait for induction stoves.

Our house had been kitted out with Kenmore appliances when we bought it (the appliances appear to have been new when the house was built five years before we bought it). They were unremarkable, neither bad nor especially good.

IIRC the dishwasher lasted 11 years, which right on average for a dishwasher, but it was noisy and we were happy to upgrade to a Bosch.

The fridge lasted 15 years, which isn't too bad, but by then several plastic bits had broken off.

The stove we shipped off to a new home, and as far as I know is still working OK, and we replaced it with an induction stove.

We would never willing buy an non-induction stove again, and we were not impressed enough to go loking for Kenmore appliances ourselves - they were no better than the various Whirlpool, GE, and KitchenAid appliances we have bought since, though in fairness they seem to have been basic models - the dishwasher surely was, I hope!

md95065

Certainly, the appliances that I bought weren't particularly exotic - middle of the range GE refrigerator and range, and a LG front loading washer and dryer. In the case of the washer and dryer Best Buy quoted two weeks delivery for one of them and 6 weeks for the other. Sears had them both in stock, I ordered them online at about 3pm and the earliest delivery that they offered was between 10am and 1pm the next day.

So, yes, if you are require a very specific model or set of features you will probably have to wait a bit, but Sears is good for basic to mid range stuff and have several makes available, not just the Kenmore brand.

Pulaski

I forgot that Sears boasts of being the only store to sell all ten of the ten most popular brands of appliances.

Englishmum

A good place to check out for ordering window blinds online is:

Steve's Blinds and Wallpaper - Blinds, Wallpaper, Window treatments, Borders, Window Coverings, Wood Blinds, Honeycomb Shades and More

They will send out free samples too. I bought some cordless honeycomb (insulated) pleated blinds from them which can be raised from the top or bottom and the prices were much cheaper than Home Depot and Lowes.