To ask for help in furnishing a home.

[Makingahome]

We've unexpectedly been awarded a social housing home.

We've been on the housing register for years and very surprised to have a been successful in a bid for a three bedroom new build. Technically our housing needs are met as we are in a three bedroom now but the bedrooms are tiny. As long as the bedrooms are bigger we will be taking it but don't get to view just before Xmas.

Unfortunately being a new build it means we need to carpet it, need to buy a cooker ( electric ), curtain poles, curtains, towel rails lampshades etc etc.

Lounge carpet, kitchen vinyl and then cooker are the priority areas. Saving as much as we can but with Xmas, needing to paint existing house for deposit etc money is tight!

Advice on what flooring to get would be much appreciated. I've been to two carpet showrooms and both have said £300 ish for lounge based on 13 5m squared. Not even nice carpet - just hard-wearing but stain resistant!
No idea what colour to go for. We have dark brown sofas. White walls! Needs to be comfy for a toddling nearly one year.

The cooker - I'll need to pay to get installed so want to get kitchen flooring down first. No idea what to expect to pay for Vinyl.

The rest of the house we'll do bit by bit. Prob need to do mixer taps and shower hose too.

So grateful for this opportunity. The security of tenancy will make a huge difference to us. Just a bad time financially as despite working we have no spare cash!

I always buy carpet end of rolls, never from posh carpet shops. I do like to change my carpets when I decorate and have had some top quality carpets really quite cheap as a result. You might have to go round a few to get the right colour. These carpet outlets usually have self employed carpet fitter contacts.

Do you have any relatives in big cities? You could keep and eye on stuff near them and ask them to pick up/store a few second hand bits for you! Do you drive? Lots of cities have big second hand shops selling home stuff and cheaper carpet outlets etc

If you haven’t managed to find rugs etc I would recommend trying to get to a local carpet place and seeing what they have in the way of long/deep pile off cuts. I did this last Christmas and have two big (2x2.5m each) rugs from an offcut of gel back long piled carpet. It sheds a bit and as it’s not as heavy as a proper rug it moves slightly, but it only cost me about £30 for the two bits.

I second the advice to buy the absolutely best underlay you can afford, and then get a cheap roll end or cheap per square metre carpet. Underlay makes the biggest difference to a carpet feeling crap vs amazing. And don’t buy fort backed!! We had one in our bedroom when we moved in here and it was awful. Really hard and cold to walk across so I can’t even imagine what it would have been like on a concrete floor!!

felt backed not fort

If you're area has its own online forum/message board, post on there and explain your situation and ask if anyone has any carpet, a cooker etc that they no longer need and would like to sell.

Fitting an electric cooker is no harder than wiring a plug, even I can do it (although LA's claim to insist they're "professionally fitted", I think this is a liability get-out in case some muppet cocks it up and causes a fire).

I also favour the independents, and would avoid Carpetright like the plague. Very dear for what you get and I paid extra to have my living room carpet Scotchguard treated, after seeing how brilliant it is when someone spilled red wine on a friend's brand new cream carpet. The first time something got spilt on mine it became obvious that it hadn't been treated at all.

Next time, I'm looking in Carpetright to choose what I want but shopping around and getting it from somewhere else.

You can find curtains in charity shops and we have some great charity shops that just do furniture where I live.

Hope you'll be very happy in your forever home!

We rented a cheap house once and had the felt backed carpet glued to the floor in the attic room, which I was using to work from home. It really was very thin and felt cold underfoot. We had the same carpet with underlay in a bedroom and it made a world of difference. I agree with using independent carpet shops, we had a bedroom done recently with underlay and fitting, grippers and everything for £160. It feels and looks fine for low traffic area. Shame we’re not near you or I’d give you the shop details! I think the fitting was £30.

We went to an independent carpet Shop and had a look at the remnants. Unfortunately due to the size of the lounge there wasn't any cheap ones that we could have. It will be cheaper buying off the roll and was signposted to a felt backed one . Price all in for fitting including grippers and underlay £225. Already cheaper than all the other shops. Can't see the size we need on any of the discount sites that will come in cheaper.

This shop said sub contracted first would be happy to fit our second hand carpets and they could supply underlay if necessary. Need to prove up buying it ourselves too though.

Next mission curtains and curtain poles. Luckily we have to only buy curtains for our room. Looking at Grey blackout ones from Asda. Need two pairs as have double and single window in our room.

Curtain poles are so expensive too! Wooden or metal. Same throughout or mixed? All boring to DP whose only question is cost

Leeks

Leeks

Whoops sorry 😐

I was a little confused! Lol

I wanted recipes 😧 mn isn’t google 😅

This has cracked me right up. Leeks!

Argos have offers on curtain poles- I had 2 extendable poles for £30, one was for my huge 2m window and it was v sturdy. They may have them on clearance in the new year? Good luck!

Wilkos are very cheap for things like curtain poles. Basic grey wood start from £7. Also they have just changed their curtain range and our local one was selling off the old ones very cheap £4 a set in some cases.

We bought copper pipe from screw fix and cheap brackets on amazon for our curtain poles- less than £10!

If you are in Cornwall, try Trago Mills ( the Newton Abbot one has most choice though)

There's a furnishing store called Leekes though, isn't there?

Yes but Not as tasty as my leeks will be tomorrow 😂

Second hand rugs and such will do for DC playing for now including things like picnic rugs. Make it an adventure and they'll think it's fantastic.

We moved into a new build HA with no flooring except for rubber in kitchen/bathroom - it was wooden boards upstairs, and concrete downstairs. I remember having great fun throwing bouncy balls down the wooden stairs! And toy cars went wonderfully across the concrete. We had lots of rugs borrowed/donated from friends/family which we used to protect the floors in bedrooms and we wore slippers all the time to protect from cold. Don't panic. It will be alright.

Leeks is an excellent suggestion, shred them and put them on the floors. Will discourage all neighbourhood cats plus is environmentally friendly!

I used to work for a large prowprtty developer and in order to get planning a certain percentage had to be social housing. I have never heard of bare concrete floor. It may be bog standard but it is usually floored. Any that would mean vinyl, laminate or floor tiles. Please check it could be a costly mistake if it's already there. Get a list of all fixtures and fitting, ie cupboard, fitted wardrobes. If it's near to completion they will have this information.

Good luck OP

Just seen Bertie's post - gosh I am shocked. So it does happen. Ikea do fab rugs very cheap, especially children's rugs

This was late 90s so standards may have changed now but that's how it was when we moved in. Shared ownership scheme. The idea is that HA properties are homes for life so the tenant can choose their own flooring etc.

We had bathroom plumbing fixtures (bath only, no shower), kitchen cabinets with space for 3 under-counter appliances and space for cooker, (apparently if you wanted a dishwasher this was only possible with tall fridge-freezer, for which one top counter is removable). That was all. Basic light fittings ie a bulb hanging down on a wire, fluorescent tube light in kitchen.

I've been to see the property and they're definitely is no flooring just concrete everywhere except the stairs which is wood and the bathroom and Kitchen which is vinyl.

Will be making a trip to Trago. First one in years. We hate it there as always so busy. I'm sure I've read that they have fitters phone numbers who will collect carpet for you too.

Trago is one of those experiences that is best tried only every 5 years or so. I like it but always feel slightly shell shocked as I leave.
Check and see if Thursday is still pensioner's discount day. That's a truly terrifying experience you wouldn't want to stumble into by accident!