It Is Done!
- vvienl
- Oct 16, 2013
- 3 min read
Just received an email today confirming receipt of final payment for our tapware and bathware order from the UK. Again, I feel a little like putting the cart before the horse as we haven't even got our approved plans yet, let alone a builder for our renos but this is our second biggest commitment after placing the order for our kitchen. This means we're committed to this renovation now. I'm slightly anxious but excited at the same time. I'm also psyching myself for a very long road ahead.
I have always dreamed of having Villeroy & Boch in my bathroom one day. I have always admired the wonderful ceramicware they produce. To me, they define the essence of luxury and classic style. But when I enquired about prices for the items we needed for our renovation, I realised they were way out of our budget. It seeemed like we had to settle for a generic China-made brand after all. But then I stumbled on to this post when I was doing research for the renovation. This guy in Perth imported a whole heap of items from the UK for his home renovation and saved about 40%, after paying the GST and all freight and import charges. I decided this was something that we really had to look into. After much research, I narrowed our search down to Walton Bathrooms. I dealt with the owner himself, James Bagnell. Their prices were very competitive, they sell VAT-free, the service was excellent with prompt reply to all my emails and queries. James even managed to source Franke sinks for me from a colleague of his and had them delivered to his warehouse to be included in the container he was shipping out to us. I was a little apprehensive with sending a huge chunk of money overseas to a business I had never dealt with before. I googled the address of the business and did some background check and research on the internet to ensure they were a legitimate business, and everyone came back fine.
So here is our shopping list, total price (including what we expect to pay for GST and freight and import charges) will probably be about 30% cheaper than buying the same models here in Australia. Just for the Franke sink alone, the price was about a third of the best 'sale' price we could find here in Australia. If we needed kitchen appliances, we probably would have looked at importing some Miele too.
Hansgrohe Metropol Kitchen Sink Mixer
Hansgrohe Talis Classic Basin Mixer
Hansgrohe Talis Classic Shower Mixer
Hansgrohe IBox
Hansgrohe Raindance Connect ExoSmart 180 Shower Pipe
Hansgrohe Raindance Air 300 Shower Head
Villeroy & Boch Subway Close Coupled Close to Wall WC in Ceramic Plus
Villeroy & Boch Loop & Friends Undermount Basin in Ceramic Plus
Villeroy & Boch Evana Undermount Basin in Ceramic Plus
Vado Wentworth Floor Mounted Bath Shower Mixer
Kohler Vinnata Kitchen Sink Mixer
Franke Kubus Undermount Sink
I sent the payments via Currency Online, which greatly reduced credit card fees and also had a very competitive exchange rate, I sent the final payment for the Franke sinks to James' colleague 3 days ago and received an email from him saying it has come through to his account.
Now we wait until we hear back from James. Once all the items arrive at his warehouse, they will be consolidated into one container and shipped to us via sea freight.
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