Bills, Bills, Bills

If you are saving for a house or planning on buying soon and are wondering how much extra you will need for contents etc. here's a quick run down of how much myself and Dean spent on the 'basics'. As it was a new house we were lucky that we didn't have any old features to remove, our house also came with a fully fitted kitchen (no floors), fitted bathrooms and fitted wardrobes.

I think it's fair to say we didn't go too extravagant with what we bought but also didn't to go too cheap on the important stuff either. Hopefully what we bought will last us for many years to come!

Floors

We opted to go for laminate floor (cheaper and more durable) in our front room and then carpet for our stairs, landing and into all the bedrooms. This cost us about €2,000 for supply and fit and was done by Carpet Luxury Ltd. We had picked out the floors well in advance and once we got the keys the guys were in straight away to measure the floors, with samples, just to confirm our choice. The carpet and the underlay we got is extremely thick and bouncy, so very high quality.

Tiles

For our kitchen, hall and small utility room we went with large off white tiles. Obviously tiles are a more expensive option than laminate or a lino type material, but we had budgeted for tiles and were happy to spend a bit more on this aspect of the house. We got Walsh Tiling in for this and it cost us approximately €2,000 for the tiles, adhesive, grout and labour. This also included supply and fit of a shower door in our en suite.

Kitchen Appliances

Thankfully my Dad works for an appliance company so he was able to hook us up with a few bits, others we bought ourselves. We bought a hob, double oven, 50" TV and fridge/freezer all from D.I.D Electrical for approx €2,000. Nothing was really top of the range, the TV was a bit of a splurge but I have to say I am loving it! 😝 We went with Electrolux for the oven and fridge and Zanussi for the hob which are mid range brands.

Blinds

Take my advice....get these sorted asap. It's no fun trying to get dressed while lying down on the floor so your neighbours don't see you, or waking up at the crack of dawn with the sun bursting into your room!
 Blinds for eight windows in our house (three bedrooms, kitchen window, kitchen back doors, front room and hall) was €1,000 for supply and fit from Clonsilla Blinds. 

Bed

Perhaps not an essential if you have your own bed to bring with you, but myself and Dean needed a new one. We bought a king size bed and mattress from EZ Living for €1,140. The mattress we got is feckin' huge and brilliant quality, like I said I don't plan on replacing it any time soon!

IKEA

So far we've gone to IKEA three times and have probably spent about €700 altogether. But in all fairness we got loads! TV stand, bedside tables, bins, mirrors, glasses, side tables, kitchen bits, plant pots etc.

As for a few other things like our kitchen table and sofa, we got those second hand. Our sofa was €140 from someone selling it on Facebook and the kitchen table was from my old office, which we sit at with Dean's parents garden chairs!

On top of all this and the deposit for the house we had to pay Stamp Duty (1% of the house price), solictors fees which was €1,200 + VAT and a Property Registration Fee which took me by surprise at €950!

So as you can see, once we moved in our bank balance depleted pretty quickly!

We still have plenty more to get to add a bit of life to the place but that will come in time :)

X