Moving House aka HELP!

[Jewel]

Hello!

I'm hoping to get some advice from anybody here who's from the UK. I'm moving house soon, we finally got our moving date today. October 10th! Seems quite far away, but considering the fact that we need to buy lots of furniture not far away at all!

My question: What furniture brands/retailers do you recommend? Particularly for sofas!

We will be on a bit of a budget but with the sofas and the bed we'll want some nice quality and something that will last for a while!

Some more details:
It's our first own home (weeee!). We don't want too much clutter, so we're just looking for the essentials at the moment (fridge, chairs, cabinets, maybe desks and the above).

Carpets in the lounge are cream, so sofas must be darker, and no leather because we want a kitten from our housemates' cat's next litter.

Thanks!

[Ceri]

I can't help much on the furniture front, sorry, but whereabouts are you moving to out of interest?

[Jewel]

I'm moving from Guildford... to Guildford. About 400 metres away from where I am now. ;D

[Belle Pullman]

Lol!

My mumsy's just moved into Guildford! She recommends Furniture Village... homebase, Ikea... but then keep an eye on things like Freecycle for second hand stuff being given away that may well be perfectly good, older stuff is usually better quality than cheap new stuff!

[Ceri]

I live near Guildford! Or I did 'til I moved to Cambridge today. ;D But my home home is about half an hour or so from Guildford.

...Still can't help you though

[Jewel]

Belle, hope your mum is settling in okay. Guildford is not my favourite place in the UK (that will forever be Sheffield <3 <3), but it is nice living here!
In my area it's quite villagey. Really confused me when I came here though because everything looked the same to me. Could just be my lack of orientation though...

Thanks also for the advice about freecycle, I didn't even know about that website, but have joined one of their groups now.

We actually spent most of yesterday furniture shopping. We thought it would take us the next four weekends to find anything at all, but we kept going back to Homebase (4 times I think) and then actually bought quite a few things there.
We'd actually more or less decided on what to buy and we'd been given a quote, but then went home because we weren't sure about the measurements etc. I checked the Homebase website just to look at the items again, and turns out most of them were cheaper online! So made a list of the prices, went back again and got the whole thing £300+ cheaper. Hooray for the internet!

We weren't too lucky with computer desks, and we'll still have to get a washing-machine, freezer etc, but that won't take too long to deliver. Anybody know a good washing-machine and dryer in one?

Ceri - don't worry if you're not a furniture expert, at least you're taking an interest. What's it like in Cambridge, do you like it? Have you been to the uni? Is probably a cliche question as that's what most people think of first, but I think the uni is what I'd look at first. I miss student life.

Here goes another moving question btw:
Which phone/TV/internet provider do you guys recommend?
We'd like to get a package with all three from one provider. Bf wants Virgin Media because they're well-known and he thinks they'll probably have better customer service. He wants Sky Sports and Setanta Sports though, so overall this will be quite expensive I think.
Definitely not going for BT, but are Tiscali & co really that bad in terms of customer service and the internet connection??

Again, any comments would be greatly appreciated. *picks your brains*

[Ceri]

Not *the* uni, but I'm at *a* uni - Anglia Ruskin, I think it's fairly near *the* Cambridge uni. Cambridge as a town is awesomely awesome, and I've only been here two days but student life so far is all good by me. ;D
[/maybeabitdrunk]

[elsieoverthemoon]

Hi Jewel!

Hope you are well, sorry I haven't spoken in a while but I have been soooo busy!
Ooh, Staying in Guildford? yay!
I would recommend a Bosch Washer Dryer mainly because a) you can easily get the parts b) you get a good warranty with it once you have signed up online and c) they are fairly robust! Have a look in Comet (in Guildford it's next door to Homebase) and see what the models look like then take a note of the style number etc and go online and find it cheaper.
If you can get to Camberley there's a Euronics shop just outside the shopping centre that did a great deal for us, we got washing machine, oven and dishwasher (Bf had fridge already but they also have some great stuff)for a bargain price. much cheaper than in a high street chain store.
they even took away the old washer and cooker and plumbed everything in and really cared about us rather than Comet who cared about our money!
If you want someone to go shopping with, I am around most Saturday afternoons after my classes at GSA finish. I have a car so can take you both into Camberley if you like!

As for internet etc if you can get Virgin in your street then go for it. We are in a private road in Guildford and the cables stop just at the end of the street so we can't get service from them, our flats object to sky dishes being put up (anothet thing to check!)so we have to get a freeview player (we got a posh one that records two channels at the same time!) but we would have loved Virgin as we could have got phone and internet too but we are stuck with BT, boo hoo!

Anything else you are stuck with then go to Argos/ Homebase (they are the same company now) and also Robert Dyas in White Lion Walk has some great deals on for smaller things like irons, bins, pots and pans etc.

Hope this helps,
xxxxxx

[Ceri]

Where abouts in Guildford are you? Are you near the main town, or further out?

['Boose Boy]

elsie, do you teach at gsa or study? miss chatting to you! xx