Buying our first house - few questions!!

emma_lewis84

:j

Hi all - me and boyf are buying our first house - but the list of things we need seems endless!!

Washing machiene - any advice on best/cheapest?
Getting fridge/freezer hand-me-down!!
New Over/Hob/Extractor Fan - don't even know where to start on this one?!
Carpet - quoted £600 from Carpetrite for hall and stairs carpet...

We've been quoted £1800 from B&Q for a new kitchen (inc hob) is this good, bad or indifferent?!

Also, when do we need to hand over our 10% deposit?? The searches are underway, survey has been done (we only got a basic one) any idea how long it will take from now?!?

Any advice (even in terms of packing etc!!) would be very much appreciated!! xx

Phirefly

EBAY EBAY EBAY

If you're savvy (and you're on here so you must be) you can get some brilliant deals on ebay. We got a 6 month old top spec whirlpool fridge worth £250 on ebay for £45. That was over 2 years ago and its still working a treat. You'll find similar deals on washing machines etc, just do your research, observe the auctions for a while then go for it.

DO NOT USE CARPET RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot stress this enough. They're over priced, crap quality and use cowboy fitters.

Shop around your small local independent carpet shops, we found a gem near us, fantastic quality, friendly guy, its his own business and he does all the fitting himself so its in his interests to do a good job. You'll be AMAZED how much you'll save compared to huge carpet barns if you shop around a drive a good bargain. We got a really good quality carpet with cloud9 and fitted for about £200 less than quoted at Carpet Wrong.

Good luck

RibAd

with the washing machine, get one that has good useful functions like Time Saver and delicate washes an stuff like that.

If you getting a hob fitted seperately, my advice is to above the type of hob that are raised solid plates. Impossible to clean and ruined if something gets burnt on it and not the safest either because if you dont see if the switch is on, you wont know that it's on!

As for carpeting, do try local carpet places, or shop around for end rolls as these would be going cheap.

kyleweb

gumtree!!!

We are about to move into a new place and plan on getting most of our furniture from here.

In terms of the kitchen, ours is also going to need refitting so been looking about a lot. £1800 sounds pretty good for a low-medium range kitchen (depends on size though). Where we are having problems is getting the fitting done cheap enough (ikea £3k!!!!!!)

Doozergirl

B&Q do a great stainless steel integrated oven/hob combination which is in a box, sold instore from stock for £350, usually Hotpoint or Whirlpool. Go when they have one of their 15% off promotions and it's less, of course! Ideally you want a gas hob and a fan assisted oven. I always buy them for houses; not only do they they look good but they work just fine, lol!

£1800 for a small kitchen? I think you can do for nearer to £1100. Depends on the style of kitchen of course, but would shop around everywhere. Try Howdens, they provide solid carcasses which are the same as MFI's premium range and it saves on labour at least.

Don't ever use the fitting service provided by the shops, it costs an absolute fortune. I'm having a HUGE kitchen fitted in the next few weeks and it will cost us £600 for our carpenter to do it, compared to thousands of pounds at any of the kitchen suppliers. Ask around or again, ask at Howdens for a recommended chippie.

You never know how long it's going to take for a purchase to go through. Average is three months, should be less if you have no chain, probably more if there is a chain! 10% deposit needs to be in place for exchange of contracts; make sure your money is accessible quickly as you generally only get a few days notice!

nickmack

emma_lewis84 wrote: »

Washing machiene - any advice on best/cheapest?

Best - Miele, expect to pay about £1000, but as this is MSE, you probably want the best quality and value. Therefore the answer is Tricity Bendix.

Look out for models with A rated energy and wash and other features such as delay timers, so if you have Economy7 or similar you can benefit from cheap juice.

Bargain_Rzl

nickmack wrote: »

Best - Miele, expect to pay about £1000, but as this is MSE, you probably want the best quality and value. Therefore the answer is Tricity Bendix.

Look out for models with A rated energy and wash and other features such as delay timers, so if you have Economy7 or similar you can benefit from cheap juice.

Miele washing machines come a bit cheaper than that, I think.

However their washer-dryer is £1000 and worth every penny. I was fortunate enough to get a chunk of back pay just as I was kitting out my flat, so I decided it was an investment. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only A-rated washer-dryer on the market (I don't have space for a separate dryer, and don't have a garden either so a dryer is virtually essential), and it's unbelievably quiet (which is handy when you have an open-plan kitchen and therefore have to hear the TV above the washing machine )

Most importantly it has a predicted life of 20 years, which makes it probably as good if not better value than a cheaper model. Mine came with a free 5 year warranty as well, and I got £30 back on it by ordering it through Quidco (from John Lewis).

kyleweb

doozergirl: i dont expect your carpenter is in the london area?
Need to find a fitter for our ktichen but as only just moved down from scotland not really able to get personal recs from people we know.

TTMCMschine

Doozergirl wrote: »

. Try Howdens, they provide solid carcasses which are the same as MFI's premium range and it saves on labour at least.

It might be worth noting that they are the same bacause mfi own howdens!