Furniture

[robin]

On Sunday we will begin our drive to Florida to order all new furniture, rugs, window coverings, etc. for the condo. This was supposed to happen in 2020, but we all know what 2020 was like. We will be shipping everything along with stuff from home that we can't take on the plane. We are also hoping to send new shower doors, and kitchen appliances, but we have to look into it more once we are there. The woman who has the condo above us and her family own furniture stores in the Tampa area and used to have one in Aruba. They are experts at shipping to Aruba and dealing with customs. I will give more details as I know more.

Our trip will also be a business trip for Stu, so we will be in Cary, NC, then Springhill, Fl(where the store is and ours live), then Ft. Myers, then Winter Haven and finally Durham, NC. We may stop in DE as our friends should make settlement on their new home by then.

[act1966]

Exciting!

[Andrea J.]

terrific.
as I type, Paul and a friend are in Spring Hill today looking at a new golf cart.

[bhoffdhoff]

On Sunday we will begin our drive to Florida to order all new furniture, rugs, window coverings, etc. for the condo. This was supposed to happen in 2020, but we all know what 2020 was like. We will be shipping everything along with stuff from home that we can't take on the plane. We are also hoping to send new shower doors, and kitchen appliances, but we have to look into it more once we are there. The woman who has the condo above us and her family own furniture stores in the Tampa area and used to have one in Aruba. They are experts at shipping to Aruba and dealing with customs. I will give more details as I know more.

Our trip will also be a business trip for Stu, so we will be in Cary, NC, then Springhill, Fl(where the store is and ours live), then Ft. Myers, then Winter Haven and finally Durham, NC. We may stop in DE as our friends should make settlement on their new home by then.

Robin, did you win the lotto? Just kidding.

[brady bear]

So exciting !!

[ArubaAngela]

I’d be interested in knowing more about shipping. I’m doing a backsplash in my condo and since it’s not that large will probably try to bring in my carryon. The selections is aruba is very limited and VERY a expensive.

[robin]

Robin, did you win the lotto? Just kidding.

We have been preparing for this since we purchased the condo. The plan was to do the furniture last year and appliances this year, so it might all happen at once. In a year or two we want to redo the kitchen and bathrooms or at least the master bath.

[robin]

I’d be interested in knowing more about shipping. I’m doing a backsplash in my condo and since it’s not that large will probably try to bring in my carryon. The selections is aruba is very limited and VERY a expensive.

I'll know more later in the week.

[robin]

I made a mistake in our itinerary. We will be in Winter Park not Winter Haven.

[robin]

So, we did pick out all new furniture, rugs, window treatments, pillows and some bedding. Kim did an excellent job of picking things for us and we also added and changed a few things. We have never bought furniture using a decorator and it does make a huge difference. We may add in a few things, such as bed pillows-I just have to decide what I want. We also never bought so much at one time. I did take pictures of the boards, but the pictures she printed of some of the items are so off color, that sharing now would not be reflective of the purchase. We will need a 20ft. container and shipping will probably run about $5,000-yet to be determined. We will also have to pay duty in Aruba, but no sales tax in the US. We will also have to pay for labor in Aruba to unload and set up the furniture, but Kim and Derek will be there to oversee it all. Like most manufactured items, things are still delayed but not as bad as last year. Once she has delivery dates of the furniture, we can then figure out shipping and whether we will need to go down in Nov. or if we can wait until Jan. The condo will have to be repainted to match the new decor. We did have an idea of what we were going to spend, and we are only over what we thought by a few thousand $$-I didn't realize how expensive mattress have gotten-we had to order low profile box spring, but I had to climb on bed frames to get on the mattresses to test them out. They are so much nicer than the one we have at home that is probably 12+ years old. Stu even seemed to enjoy it, and I may be able to convince him to redo our living room, dining room and family in a year or so.

Currently we are in Ft. Myers. Stu sees a client here this morning and then we go to Winter Park for him to see a client. He is excited to go to a restaurant there that we ate at in our two previous trips. He also saw one in NC on the way down and will see one on the way back. He didn't plan this trip as well as he could. He saw the client in NC in the morning and we did not leave the hotel in Cary until 1130ish and drove to Spring Hill getting there around midnight. It was a long drive. He usually likes to drive it all, but I did about 3 hours from NJ to NC and about 3 hours from NC to FL. His leg is still healing(not his driving leg), and by him sitting in the passenger seat, he could move it into a different position. Driving his new Escape is different than driving my 8 year old Pilot. The technology is so crazy advanced especially using the cruise control and it slowing and stopping on its own as needed. Tomorrow will be another long drive, but we will leave much earlier in the day and it is a little shorter.

Some observations while we travel: So far we have stayed in Fairfield Inns, and Springhill Suites and Marriott is still requiring masks. Their breakfasts are either grab and go or they have someone preparing the waffles or filling your plate with hot food-each location is different in what they are providing. Most restaurants still have their employees masked. I think only one was not masked-it was a family owned dive Mexican place. Several of the places we had breakfast or lunch or dinner has staffing issues-people just do not want to work(we have this issue at home too). Most using the rest stops along the highways were wearing masks indoors. Only a very few were not.