A New house - Advice on contents

Iluvebay

I'm in the process of buying a new home and just like to ask you for your advice.

1) Would you buy appliances for the kitchen from the builder or would you save more doing it yourself. (Must be standard sizes I think)

2) Lawned garden. again would you do it yourself or get the builder to do it. I've estimated the lawn to be about 120m2 so I haven't a clue how much this would cost.

3) Carpets - where would you buy them (Carpets, underlay. grippers, vynl)

The house is due to be completed in August and I'm still waiting for a price list of their extra's.

Thanks

bunking_off

Iluvebay wrote:

1) Would you buy appliances for the kitchen from the builder or would you save more doing it yourself. (Must be standard sizes I think)

In this market, I would be pushing for them to be included in the sale price - I thought they normally were in any case.

Iluvebay wrote:

2) Lawned garden. again would you do it yourself or get the builder to do it. I've estimated the lawn to be about 120m2 so I haven't a clue how much this would cost.

Are you sure about the dimensions?? 120 sq m is about a 1000 sq ft, ie 30 ft x 30 ft. That makes it a pretty big garden for a new build (indeed under current planning regs it's difficult for builders to provide such large plots even if they wanted to). In any case, I'd DEFINITELY do it yourself. The quality of a lawn very much depends on the quality of what's underneath it. That means having good quality topsoil, not the building rubble / grade 2 stuff that a builder would leave there while you're not watching. If you get them to do it, not only will they not be cost effective, you'll be trying to get the thing in decent nick for years.

Iluvebay wrote:

3) Carpets - where would you buy them (Carpets, underlay. grippers, vynl)

Get the detailed dimensions, and go to an out of town retail park which has 2 or 3 big carpet retaillers (e.g. Allied, Carpetright etc). Get quotes for a whole house deal and literally stroll from one to the other playing them off against one another. At bare minimum you should expect their normal deal, plus another 10-15%, free grippers and in the less-used rooms free underlay. Even with that, be prepared for a sharp intake of breath...the cost of carpetting a whole house is not to be sniffed at. Other things to beware of;

1) The retailer will probably want to do a final measurement of the house - this could be problematic if you're wanting to move in right on completion, and
2) For an August completion you should be ok, but be aware that should completion slip it's a 2 man/2 day job to carpet a whole house (depending on how complex, e.g. if there's turning staircases), and if it's a busy time, e.g. run up to Christmas, you may find some places unwilling to quote as their fitters are fully booked (n x 1 room fittings bring in more money than 1 x n room fitting, if that makes any sense!)

ilovefreebies_2

Thanks very much for your reply. Its quite a big 3 storey town house (live in the north so its cheapish) The width of the house/garden is 33 foot and I had a check of it and have guessed the length to be about the same. I've been told that grass is about £8m2 but I'm sure I'll get it cheaper.

Kitchen appliances which I will have to pay for is washer and dryer for the laundrey room and a dishwasher for the kitchen. I thinks I'll check the model numbers of the ones in the show homes and do a search on Kelkoo to see how much I can get them for.

Carpets will be a big prob and a large expence no doubt. Thanks again for your advice and your tips!

bunking_off

ilovefreebies wrote:

Thanks very much for your reply. Its quite a big 3 storey town house (live in the north so its cheapish) The width of the house/garden is 33 foot and I had a check of it and have guessed the length to be about the same. I've been told that grass is about £8m2 but I'm sure I'll get it cheaper.

Funnily enough mine's a 3 storey in the north as well. Remember that even if you're going for the most basic (read boring) layout for a garden, you'll need to strip off 3-4 feet around the edges for flower beds, and then space for a patio etc. Gross, my garden was about the same size, but by the time I'd added a patio and 3 x 5m conservatory, I seem to recall I only needed approx 45M2 of lawn. From memory, the cost of decent topsoil way outweighed the cost of the turf itself....I had to barrow 20 tonnes in. As a cost saving & quality measure, find your nearest farm/turf provider and get them to deliver, don't get any old rubbish from your local DIY store.

ilovefreebies wrote:

Kitchen appliances which I will have to pay for is washer and dryer for the laundrey room and a dishwasher for the kitchen. I thinks I'll check the model numbers of the ones in the show homes and do a search on Kelkoo to see how much I can get them for.

Ah - understood - washer & dryer probably aren't standard items....dishwasher was in our case though.

alanrowell

ilovefreebies wrote:

Kitchen appliances which I will have to pay for is washer and dryer for the laundrey room and a dishwasher for the kitchen. I thinks I'll check the model numbers of the ones in the show homes and do a search on Kelkoo to see how much I can get them for.

Carpets will be a big prob and a large expence no doubt. Thanks again for your advice and your tips!

EBay is very good for this sort of thing and I don't know what area of the north you live in but in the area around Halifax & Colne there are lots of carpet mills that sell very good quality carpet for very little money.

flea72

for the lawn, i really wouldnt bother laying turf, i would go with seed, and let it grow naturally - its alot cheaper, but it takes time

put it down this autumn, and by next spring you will have a nice lawn - turf, will take that long to bed in too, so why pay the extra, other than you can obviously walk on turf, within a couple of weeks - if you dont think you will be using the garden much after you move in, then go for seed

Hunnymonster

Iluvebay wrote:

I'm in the process of buying a new home and just like to ask you for your advice.

1) Would you buy appliances for the kitchen from the builder or would you save more doing it yourself. (Must be standard sizes I think)

Never - I choose my appliances to suit *my* needs, likes & dislikes.

2) Lawned garden. again would you do it yourself or get the builder to do it. I've estimated the lawn to be about 120m2 so I haven't a clue how much this would cost.

Around here, decent weed-free lawn turf is about £3/sq.m delivered. As others have said preparation is all - rake it flat, get rid of the larger stones, watch all the weeds come up, dispose of them however you wish, watch again etc.

3) Carpets - where would you buy them (Carpets, underlay. grippers, vynl)

A tour of all the carpet merchants in your Yellow Pages is a good start (assuming the buggers have bothered to leave a Yellow Pages when they fit your phone line, or you're already in the same directory area) - what worked best for me shopping around for my wood flooring was to hit the big 4 local ones in no particular order and when I got to the one I actually bought from he foolishly said "I'll beat any genuine quote by 10%" - so I took his arm off (neat little 45% saving there versus the first place I looked, 60% off list - and I managed to get free delivery on it to an address 60 miles away)

The house is due to be completed in August and I'm still waiting for a price list of their extra's.

Thanks

Get your chair ready now - some of the prices will be just silly.

Oh and I discovered on moving in here that lightbulbs were not provided, despite the fact that there was a full set in place the week before handover when I called in to measure all the rooms and windows etc. - seems (from talking to the site agent) that too many people called them to say "lightbulb has blown" as a warranty call! The learning there is to ask what is included and what is not.

Jacster_2

See this thread for more info on carpets.

Unless the applicances are built in, I would get my own. I think it's worth built in for the finished look in a new house, but if you don't get that, save the money and buy yourself.

Don't let them near your lawn.:eek: They'll turf over clay and builders rubble, and you'll have a nightmare with it for years. Do it yourself, and put in some hefty soil improvement measures before you turf/seed it.

YorkshireBoy

Not sure whereabouts in the north you are, but my tips relate to Huddersfield.

ilovefreebies wrote:

I've been told that grass is about £8m2 but I'm sure I'll get it cheaper.!

Whitakers in the Outlane/Oakes area have turf from £1.80 to £3.80/m2 - more than 30m2 and they deliver free within 20 miles or so. I had the £3.80 stuff and its excellent quality.

ilovefreebies wrote:

Carpets will be a big prob and a large expence no doubt.

I haven't bought from the "major" sheds for years. Take a look at Howkel Carpets at Great Northern St in Huddersfield (behind Homebase). Don't pay too much attention to the building/area (its where the Yorkshire Ripper murdered Helen Ritka) - its the carpets you're going to look at! If you do buy from here, make sure you ask for them fitting by Steve Lumb - he's a self-employed guy who does work for them and he's VERY good.