January Sales

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 03 Jan 2012, 14:54

DominicJ wrote:I suppose I could have built them for less, but it would have taken rather a lot more time, and proably wouldnt have been as good either.

But you'd get more satisfaction from having created them yourself, and would be practising, or acquiring, useful skills for the future.

SleeperService · Post by **SleeperService** » 04 Jan 2012, 08:14

JohnB wrote:
DominicJ wrote:I suppose I could have built them for less, but it would have taken rather a lot more time, and proably wouldnt have been as good either.
But you'd get more satisfaction from having created them yourself, and would be practising, or acquiring, useful skills for the future.

There isn't enough wood in the world for me to get enough practice to be any good at carpentry. Metal, polymers and machinery no problem. Wood and SS equels a trip to A&E usually

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 04 Jan 2012, 10:37

SleeperService wrote:There isn't enough wood in the world for me to get enough practice to be any good at carpentry. Metal, polymers and machinery no problem. Wood and SS equels a trip to A&E usually

So your real name is Reg Prescott is it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p_mdGtY26Y

SleeperService · Post by **SleeperService** » 04 Jan 2012, 23:12

Yes it could well be!

paul m · Post by **paul m** » 05 Jan 2012, 06:33

DominicJ wrote:There was a bit of text on the John Lewance Clearance Sale advert

*Items are not usualy John Lewis Lines.

The only place I'm aware of that does a genuine "sale", ie, where it sells off excess stock at near cost price, is Next.
But they build for fashion, not longevity. I went in 2007, I think, and bought everything in my size, bit of a shame I got fat.

We went to look at new sofas, ended up with two more wardrobes from IKEA.
Not on sale, IKEA "sale" stuff doesnt appear to match the usual quality....

Sorry to shatter your illusion,they buy most of the stuff in to create a feeding frenzy. How do I know?my neighbour is a Next store manager.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 05 Jan 2012, 09:00

Really?
Perhaps its changed since I last went, but I'm fairly sure most of what I got had been in for a while.

the_lyniezian · Post by **the_lyniezian** » 06 Jan 2012, 00:54

Lurker saves old wodden school chairs from the skip, John goes one better and builds furniture from old scrap wood... are we finally seing the Womble economy in action?

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 06 Jan 2012, 13:43

the_lyniezian wrote:John goes one better and builds furniture from old scrap wood

The scrap wood is running out! Next stage is trees (waiting for man with chainsaw mill to come), clom (cob to those of you in England), stone, bottles, and maybe old bricks from a possible brick mine! Meanwhile I can start collecting more scrap wood!

woodpecker · Post by **woodpecker** » 09 Jan 2012, 13:53

Doing a totting up around this place, it's difficult to find a new piece of furniture. Most of it has been other peoples' cast offs. I can count one living room low table (former pig slaughtering surface! obviously second hand) and an office table, plus some second-hand office filing cabinets, and some kitchen cabinets, as stuff actually bought. Everything else from bedsteads to kitchen table to side tables to Ikea CD towers to sofas to wardrobes to bookcases has been otherwise acquired, for free. For very shabby-looking but solid tables and chests and chairs, I've given them a coat of decent paint. And there's a snug (acquired free last year) I'm about to recover with loose covers, I'm just choosing a fabric. I may paper over the filing cabinets with something a bit more interesting - maybe even something I make myself.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 09 Jan 2012, 14:13

I'm sitting on an office chair I bought new probably getting on for 20 years ago, I've got a desk and filing cabinet bought at the same time (business expenses), and I bought the dining table and chairs in our shared kitchen new about 27/28 years ago. I've got a few things acquired from family members, and the rest was here when I bought the house, or was acquired FOC.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 09 Jan 2012, 14:26

The Bedroom is now almost all new, we have 2 bedside tables, a chest or drawers and the bed which are hand me downs. Had hoped to get them replaced in the next few weeks, but thats not happening now.
Hand me downs have/will migrated to the guest bedroom, and when we replace those, will be handed down to someone else.

The office desk is a hand me down, but we have a load of ikea bookshelves, not sure what we are doing with the desk, its giant, which is great, but its really really giant.

The sofas are hand me downs, they might be passed on, but the dogs have damaged them, nothing a few throws wont put right, but some people....

At the end of the day, if no one bought new, who would supply the hand me downs?
And its not like cars.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 09 Jan 2012, 16:07

After setting up home with wife, wife has insisted on a steady replacement of all second hand/cast off furniture with 'good' stuff. Although I have yet to identify what good is in this context, I have tried to limit purchases to furnature made from wood (not chipboard or the like) which is solid enough to outlast me, so can be handed down to future generations. For a sofa I bought one with a washable cotton cover and a spare cover. With young children this has been invaluable, although the springs are now suffering.

By the time we are finished with old stuff, it is past handing on, and it is stripped for all usable wood before being land filled.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 09 Jan 2012, 16:17

Ikea is chip board, but even so, is remarkably well engineered.
Well, compared to the quality I'm used too.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 09 Jan 2012, 19:49

Written nearly 2 years ago but still true. Yes, if everybody bought old, where would the stuff originally come from, but then again, we have (rough, everyday-type, not "antique") stuff here that's older than I am, and well-built stuff can last the best part of a century before needing replacing.

I love olde stuff. And since that blog was written we have acquired a huge, rough French-style dining table from (no less than) one of the Directors of Taylors-of-Harrogate (tea emporium), for the princely sum of, Nowt

Post by **clv101** » 17 Jan 2012, 22:04

DominicJ wrote:Ikea is chip board, but even so, is remarkably well engineered.
Well, compared to the quality I'm used too.

It is possible to find furniture worse than Ikea - but not that easy! I've lived with more than my fair share of Ikea furniture over the years; the materials are always cheap and nasty, the engineering always rudimentary... The world would be a better place were Ikea never to have existed and for folk to have designed, built and bought a lower volume of higher quality furniture. The whole Ikea phenomena is a caricature of the wrong direction we've been heading for the last couple decades.