Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Busy Shopping Weekend!! Part 1 :P

Boy, I had very very busy weekend last week. I woke up even earlier than my weekdays and already out of the house by 7! On Sunday we were even already on the train to city by 7.

As you all know, we just moved into our new house last month. So, last weekend we went to do furniture shopping. The prior weekend we already went to Ikea to see what we need to get. Last Friday we checked on Gumtree and all those furniture stores' website for all the things we needed. So the weekend was to finalize them all.

Saturday morning we left at 7 and went to North Bondi to inspect a dining table set. It was second hand, asking price was $400 for the table and $350 for 8 chairs. But if we buy them all, they're asking for $650. It's solid wood. Originally we thought to get one from Ikea, but the price is around $600 too. Plus it's Ikea quality, so well, you know, after 2 years maybe it's wobbly and stuffs. While this one is solid wood! And it has that unvarnished table top that I like. We saw it, liked it, haggled a bit and ended up buying them for $600. We will pick them up on Sunday. Phew, at least we didn't wake up that early on Saturday for nothing :)

We then went back to Bondi Junction, had brunch, checked out $2 japanese shop for those little things we needed for the house. Lucky we had brunch there, we won't have time for lunch later.

After that we went to Sefton to check out mattresses and beds. My colleague, Little Missy, told me he bought his bed and mattress from this place and says their price is very low. My sister actually went last Wednesday to check it out, but they already moved to Sefton. We got their phone number, got their new address and was told to call half hour before coming.

I called them before coming, and the main contact didnt pick up. Called the 2nd contact and was told they're open, just come. But weird thing happened, the main contact returned my call and said they have already closed their store and all of their stuffs are in his house in Burwood @__@ we could come if we wanted around 4.

The thing was, our next stop was Home Focus in Bankstown. Sefton and Bankstown are in the same line, so it works well. While Burwood is in different line. From Sefton to Burwood and back to Bankstown, I don't think we had enough time. We would, surely, if we drive a car, but we don't. And you readers, just read okay, DO NOT lecture me on learning how to drive. I will do it myself when the time comes. So, keep it for yourselves!

Wasn't it weird? The 2nd person said they were open. The main said they are already closed? We started to think there was some broken business relationships there... So my sister said, just go to Sefton to check it out! They said they are open, aren't they? I called them again and they still said they are open. So off we went.

The place was a warehouse. We had trouble finding it coz we didn't even know the store name. We only knew their phone number! Apparently they are called Awesome Furniture. The prices were alright, it wasn't as cheap as I wanted them to be, but still around $100 cheaper than Super A-Mart. I think I could get same or cheaper ones from Ikea, but my cousins warned me against Ikea beds as their ones already started to deteriorate after 2 years. And I did check Ikea's bedslates, they are very thin. I want something stronger. We got the prices etc and would come back later after our parents arrived back in Sydney.

Then we went to Home Focus Bankstown. We pretty much checked almost every single store! Home Focus is a shopping centre area for anything home decorating/furnishings. Well they have Gym World or something, but it's home depot really.

We found the rugs that we liked in the first store we went into, Rug Mart. But the price was a bit too much for the living room one. It's $350 for the one we liked for the living room, and $129 for the one in my room. My room's not that expensive considering Ikea sells that size of rug for $99 (And it's not as soft as this one!). I think I'm already biased here, aren't I? They did say they might be able to do something if we bought more. We left the store and checked the others, afterall, it was only the first one!

We checked so many stores, rug stores and furniture including DecoRug, Freedom Outlets, and Super A-Mart (the other ones I don't remember). But there were no other rugs we liked. And the price too, apparently compared to the other stores, the ones we picked were already the cheapest. There was one rug that we liked in Super A-Mart for the living room, but it's just plain colour, no pattern at all. And that I think already costs around late $200. Btw, Super A Mart customer service was really bad. Not rude, but just bad. We asked if they have other size for a particular rug, the girl said they come in 2 sizes, the big one and smaller one. Okay, there is the big one there, how much is it for the smaller one? She said, around $50 cheaper. She didn't bother at all to see which one I was refering to and check the price. Well, that makes it easier for me to decide :)

Super A Mart apparently has better bedslates compared to Ikea. The cheapest range has similar bedslates, but the more expensive ones have stronger bedslates. There was one that I liked that has thick bedslate for $600 or $700 I forgot. Probably $600. But it's bulky, hence will make my room appear smaller. Plus it's still more exxy than Sefton one.

Freedom Outlets was very expensive. Okay it's cheaper than Freedom, but really it's way out of our budget. I really need to be rich :l

But we did make a good decision with the dining table. With that quality, it would be easy $3,000 in Freedom. And still over $1,000 in Super A-Mart. Decent one in Super A Mart would be around $600.

So we went back to Rug Mart to get those 2 rugs. Thank god the living room one hasn't been sold yet hehehe... We negotiated the price and ended up getting them both for total of $430. Pretty happy with that :)) will be picked up on Sunday!

Then, we had to find our bus home T.T we had to walk a bit to catch the bus, and finally arrived at home around 5:45. What a tiring day! But no, we still have things to do. I had to make itinerary for Sunday as we have soooo many places to go, list the things we needed to get from Ikea and Bunnings, and checked out Bunnings catalogue. My sisters still needed to decide on the furniture she wanted to get.

Early start on Sunday!

No comments:

Post a Comment