Home shopping

One of the bigger challenges of doing a renovation here in Belgium is getting the materials, fixtures and fittings we ideally want. Firstly there is not great variety (which probably comes from Belgium not being a huge country). Secondly, most things are expensive. Really expensive. Probably again a result of the small market size and fairly high taxation.

However, while fairly small, Belgium has some big neighbours. And these big neighbours offer a range of materials at good prices (we already a trip to one of these neighbours, France, in this post). God bless the single market!

This weekend we headed back to the European market with the biggest choice and lowest prices of them all – the UK. Combining a trip to see family/friends with bringing back a car load of stuff. Mainly light fittings and taps, but also specialist building materials such as acoustic insulation and tools.

Pampers. An essential part of every renovation.

Thank god we’re doing this before end March 2019!

The UK is incredible for buying materials. It has sales or offers 365 days a year, the second highest  level of online shopping per person in the world – and we know that with online shopping comes even cheaper goods. So we managed to get e.g. exactly the lights we want here at ¼ of the price of the lights we didn’t really want in Belgium and an angle grinder for the same cost as chicken wings and beer for two at Matonge's famous Soleil d'Afrique*. And of course it was a lovely weekend too.

However, the big challenges with doing this shopping around are connected to organisation and timing. While things bought locally can often be bought just in time for fitting, more foresight.... and storage space are needed when getting them abroad; particularly given we want to minimise the number of trips (and hence expense). So now our apartment looks like this:

Box jenga

And the attic of our house like this:

Is that an imported workshop we see developing? More to follow in later posts...

i.e. full of materials and tools.

However, having them sitting around ready---- means we won’t be delaying our undertaker when he needs something, and as the saying goes, time is money.

*If you live in Brussels and have never been or visit Brussels, check it out! It's awesome. Oh how we'll miss Matonge once we move.