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I’ve been living in our new home for about two weeks now and the wife and kids have been here for eight days. Finally things are starting to settle down. We’re almost fully furnished now but do have a few more odds and ends to take care of.
The kids are really enjoying their summer camp that we’ve got them enrolled in. My 9 year old daughter has already made a good friend and my 5 year old son is very attached to one of the teachers at the camp. Overall 100% success with the kids.
The wife is quite happy with things so far. There are a couple of things she doesn’t like, but that’s to be expected. I can certainly remember several things I didn’t like when I first moved to Korea and even up until I left there were other things that bothered me about living in Korea. In any case there is no perfect country.
Earlier I wrote about going to Ikea and being underwhelmed. I have since been back and am 100% convinced that I will not go back again. The furniture is all over priced, but cheap quality and most of it has very little style that is appealing. Honestly veneer covered particle board or chip board tables should not sell for $400 plus tax and that was the cheaper crap that they had on offer.
I have since been to the brick, paid more and also got a bunch of self assemble furniture. Not very impressed with the state of furniture shopping in Canada. Brick products were slightly better, but many items were also made with particle or chip board and 90% or more were for self assembly at home. The quality of the instructions at the brick were better and easier to understand than Ikea, but still not as good as they should be.
In my opinion if you’re selling self assembly furniture it should actually be cheap to buy, not just cheap quality. Another thing that is annoying is the $80 delivery charge on top of the cost of what you’re buying. Just bury the delivery charge in the cost of the furniture and tell me how much it is going to really cost.
The furniture we bought in Korea was equal or in most cases better quality for less money and was delivered at no extra cost fully assembled. My recommendation to people moving to Canada from overseas is to keep your current furniture or buy new and have it shipped in a container home. If we had done that, our shipping costs would have gone up, but not buy as much as we’ve spent on furniture here.
Comments(4)
Paulie: Saturday Jul 23, 2011 at 12:13 AM
Excellent info once again, Sean. I had thought, like you, that buying new in Canada would be the way to go - but after reading your post, it looks like we might shell out a few bucks before moving back (eventually, one day), as you suggest. I’ve always thought shipping costs to be astrionomical, but really, when compared to the price of stuff in Canuckland, + tax, + shipping, + your left pinky finger, it sounds more and more like I should stock up here, over time, and ship it.
I’m wondering what you’d suggest with respect to electronics and appliances - I’m guessing with voltage and plug-in differences, it would make sense to buy in Canada…?
Great stuff once again, Sean. BTW, what are the things your wife is having trouble adjusting to?
P.