A series of articles: how did we save up to 10% of the renovation budget by shopping online?
Like most couples approaching a renovation project, me and my husband were on a strict budget. As a young architect I saw this project as an opportunity to showcase my design abilities and to have the end result as my “business card”. It all sounds perfect up untill this point, right? We felt a bit discouraged when we went for the first visit in the local hardware stores looking for plumbing fixtures and faucets, since every item we liked cost about 5 times what we allocated for it in the budget. We understood that we needed to find a smart way to save money on those items.
Thankfully, I’m an experienced online-shopper (not to say a shopaholic) so I suggested we apply the online shopping methods to this situation as well, with a few “upgrades”. We managed to save thousands of dollars by daring to buy home improvement items online, mainly from the Chinese shopping giant "Ali express”. Luckily, It was November, and the Chinese have a special holiday (Singles' Day) where they have major discounts on many different items, and we found plumbing fixtures practically equivalent to those mentioned before in the local hardware stores, for only 1/5 of the price!! A crazy 80% discount.
At first, I wasn’t sure I should recommend other to do the same, but after almost a year of constant usage I can surely say we made the right decision.
So how did we made sure the items we bought were high quality?
Up to that point I mostly bought inexpensive items (up to 10$), and now I had to develop a better verification method. I looked into items which had a lot of positive feedback (preferably ones with pictures) and made sure someone from Israel already got the product and it matched the local piping type.
I've also perfected my browsing method, if I looked for a specific style and didn’t find exactly what I wanted, I looked into similar ones' sellers and usually there I found what I was looking for. Slowly but surely, I created a collection of stores, offering the styles I liked.
Usually the first thing people ask when they hear about it is did we order EVERYTHING from Ali Express? The answer to that is, of course, no 😊
We've ordered items that it was worthwhile ordering- shipping weight and cost wise. For example, the sink, marble and cabinetry we've designed and bought locally due to the weight and size of the items. The faucet, soap dispenser and lighting fixtures were bought online due to the extremely cheaper prices. I confirmed with my contractor, electrician and plumber that each one of the items is of high quality and good to go, before installing them.
and here are the links to purchase - click on the items' name to a direct link to the seller I bought from:
1. Main bathroom Wall mounter Faucet (Black Matte)
2. Rain fall shower head + mixer tap + hand held set (Black matte)
3. Simple clothes hook (black Matte)
4. Toilet paper holder (Black matte)
5. Toilet Brush + holder (black matte)
7. Wall mounter faucet (guest bathroom)
10. Guest bathroom matte black sink plumbing p-trap
Want some advice with your renovation?
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