I have heard this said many times in the past, along with 'You get what you pay for.' In light of the condition of our furniture here compaired to the condition of our furniture back home, I would have to agree with the statement in the title, but disagree with the latter one. In the states, we never bought new furniture, mostly because we couldn't afford it. We lived in a college town where it was common for folks to put their unwanted furniture at edge of the street, hoping that someone else would pick it up and take it home. Over the years, we have given away and acquired furniture in this manner. We also shopped in thrift stores. We made a few of our bookshelves ourselves. (I miss Lowe's!) With the exception of the pieces that we made ourselves, all of our furniture was old. Yet, it was *very* durable. In the rare event that something did fall apart, it was no big deal to toss it out.
Here, it's a different story. Since we didn't ship anything over when we moved, we had to buy our furniture when we got here. We shopped as frugally as we could while still trying to get good quality furniture. (Ikea, Home Center, etc) Obviously, we weren't going to buy top of the line pieces for a household of 4 bouncy kids and 2 shedding cats. (sigh) Less than two years later, a tour of our home reveals four wrecked pieces and two wobbly ones. And it's not so easy, mentally, to toss furniture in the dumpster that was brand spanking new just a few months ago. Lucky for us, we have a lot of experience in fixing things. A quick trip to the hardware store for a few brackets, etc. should do the trick.
This blog began as a description of our life in Al Ain, UAE (United Arab Emirates). Brn worked at the UAE University Libraries Deanship for three years and Bss homeschooled our four children, D, B, P, and O. After returning to the the USA for five years, we are living in Abu Dhabi now.
8 comments:
Yeah, I wasn't impressed with the furniture over in the UAE. The expensive stuff probably isn't any more sturdy, just more garish (or baroque if you will).
Even though I've often described our style as "Early American Hand-Me-Down" meets "Garage Sale Chic" Eclectic I will say what we have is well made. Not attractive, but well made.
Even if we could buy top of the line we have two who believe the word sofa = trampoline and two furball cats and one hairy dog.
Oh well...could be worse.
It's funny that you say that your couch doubles as a trampoline. Every time I turn around, our 4 year old is jumping away on ours. That's the reason why we bought the trampoline last year, and why we miss it so much since someone destroyed it. We may have to find one of those very small exercise trampolines to keep in the family room so he'll have an outlet for those jumping wiggles.
To help financially, we sold our furniture. It was nothing fancy, as I had purchased the furniture years ago from an ad in the newspaper. To improvise, we use a futon mattress--no frame. We just have the mattress sitting on the floor and against the wall just like a couch. It works perfect because my little can jump on it all she wants, it is safe, I can lay down on it with her etc. I thought I would hate being so low on the carpet, but I actually like it now--I can play things on the floor with her much easier now--it has really helped being at her level. Also--takes up less space than our old overstuffed couch. I do agree about the quality of furniture though. Unless you are rich you get stuck with fake wood products which fall apart easy.
Good morning,
We (my hubby, triplets and I) are moving from South Africa to Al Ain this year. My hubby will start his new job there 1 May 2007 and the triplets (all girls) and I will follow round Jul/Aug this year. Are you guys happy there and could you tell me a bit about the place. We are very excited to be moving to Al Ain, but don't really have a clue as to what it is like over there.
Hello Angelique!
We are happy here, for the most part. Al Ain has a nice, relaxed feel to it, and is very green compared to other cities here. Feel free to ask any questions you have about Al Ain and living in UAE and we will do our best to answer them.
After moving from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia, I noticed that most of the products here are low quality compared to the U.S. If you want higher quality products you will, first, have to find them, then pay for them as well as paying for the inefficient medium that got them to you, so you end up paying way more than it's worth. That's my theory.
LOL "brand spanking new"?
Was the furniture "brand" or "spanking"?
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