El Andalous - Balcony Furniture

New Furniture - My Daytime Working Space

Up until now, apart from a swinging chair (which I’m quite proud of, I must admit!), I’ve just been using my dining table and chairs as places to sit on the balcony. They’ve served quite well and the chairs are quite useful since you can move them about – believe it or not, I move them about so that they’re always in the shade. With the computer on my lap, it’s just too hot in the sun.

When I bought my swinging chair, I started sitting mostly on that, but now that the weather is getting hotter, I find the chair cushion hugs me a bit too closely and I get rather sweaty, so I’ve gone back to the dining chairs, which are kind of netted in design, so there’s always air around you.

I also discovered that in the summer, my balcony is always in the shade; it gets sun only in the winter. This is actually ideal.

Anyway, with all this information now in place, I felt in a position to order some balcony furniture. I’d seen a set ages ago that I liked, so I went to El Nasr street in the hope that it would still be available (indeed, in the hope that the shop would still exist). It was really too expensive, but I hoped to get the price down. Besides, it was a one-off purchase that I would use a lot, so I may as well go for what I wanted rather than settle for something else and forever be thinking of the one that got away.

The good news was that the shop was still there and so was the desired furniture. I asked them to measure it, but to my dismay the sofa was too long for the space I had available. On letting them know this, they re-measured it and all of a sudden the measurements met my needs (This is Egypt). At this point, I asked to do it myself; I established that there was no way it would fit.

I decided that maybe I could have the smaller 2-seater sofa and 2 armchairs; at this point the guy serving me suggested I speak to the manager on the phone since he wasn’t able to negotiate a price for me. My heart sank as phone conversations are usually not good; I can never understand a word. However, the guy spoke excellent English. It turned out they had only one armchair and this wasn’t enough.

Before I knew what was happening, he was bombarding me with pictures of various similar suites that they had and rattling off prices. Having said that, he was being very helpful. I decided to carry on looking round the shop.

Upstairs there was a similar suite where the 3-seater was not quite so long (I made sure I measured it!). So, there I was on the phone again, negotiating. I was pushing for 6k LE total, but we ended up agreeing I could have what I required for 7k instead of 10k LE (the 10k was for the entire suite, though), but that I would go back home and measure up again to see if I could squeeze the sofa into the space. He added that delivery would be free but that he’d add 100 LE for all the consultancy he was giving me, which coincidentally, was the exact same price as the delivery fee. I couldn’t be bothered arguing and I took it as a sign that maybe I was approaching his liimt.

I was impressed, because he followed up the conversation with an email attaching pictures of everything else he had available. I eventually made up my mind, sneaked in an extra corner table into my order, and reiterated the price (I was now ordering the entire suite minus one armchair). He agreed without hesitation, which made me wonder if I could have haggled more, but I was happy enough.

The delivery people came and then insisted on a tip, which surprised me a bit, since when I agreed the final price, the 100 LE had turned back into a delivery charge. I didn’t really know what to give them (this is the major problem). I gave 50 LE which I thought was very generous as it was basically an extra 50% on top of the delivery charge (but only 10 LE per person, as five of them unpacked), but having just handed over 7100 LE for the suite, I got the impression they thought I was being a bit stingy. I’m always acutely aware that for many Egyptians I am paying out ridiculous amounts of money for non-essential items and I feel quite embarrassed about that. But, then, I wonder how much they also play on that embarrassment. It’s a nightmare.

Nevertheless, once I’d sorted out where to put the furniture (I ordered the 3-seater even though it didn’t fit where I wanted it to go), I’m very happy with it. My balcony now feels like home and I feel a bit like some colonial lady overlooking my property!