Tips for moving house please ...

TTony

After more twists & turns, and a load more stress, than a stressful twisty turny thing, we managed to do the exchange of contracts today, with completion set for a fortnight on Tuesday.

Hal-le-kin-lu-jah.

As context, we sold in July, to (verified) cash buyers.  We bought a couple of months ago, from people who are emigrating.  So the chain is about as short as it could possibly be.  But it's still been on the point of imploding more times than I care to count.

So, all the finances are sorted.  The removal company is booked and are delivering packing boxes tomorrow.  They're packing the breakables (for insurance purposes).  The guitars are sorted (they're overnighting at a friends place rather than being entrusted to the removal company).  Mrs TT will spend the day on the phone tomorrow sorting out all the utilities / council tax / post office address stuff.

I have the first 6 mths project plan sorted out and we'll start to get the trades sorted to give us quotes for the various works as soon as we move in.

Now, what haven't I though of ???

Not moved house for 16 years, so all those who've done it recently, what are the little gotchas that you forget about until ... well, until they getcha ???

sev112

The cat ?

Sporky

Remember that the day itself is boring if it's going well. Leave a book unpacked.

TTony

sev112 said:

The cat ?

Shit !!!

Have we got a cat ???

Actually, we've got 3 dogs, so if we ever had a cat, I think it'd be long gone by now.

We did have 4 pheasants in the garden this morning, but we should probably leave those behind, just in case they don't get on with the geese that we'll be inheriting with the new place ... 

TTony

Sporky said:

Remember that the day itself is boring if it's going well. Leave a book unpacked.

The only thing I'm planning on reading is the inventory and the site plans.

"That box goes in this room, this box in that room", etc.

JezWynd

Asprin.

And keep the kettle/t-bags/mugs/milk handy

thumpingrug

Make sure you know where the take aways are at the new location as you won't have time to cook.  We moved in March this year and lived on takeaway pizza for several days.   Also make sure all the boxes are clearly labelled with the stuff thats in them or you will be searching for something for ages.  I wish we had booked a couple of nights in a hotel so we knew we had a bed and decent brekkie for a few days, but cats and child make that tricky.      Hope all goes well.

WezV

A survival pack for your car.... including kettle, mugs  etc as well as lots of sugary snacks for energy.  Tool kit, batteries, fuses, light bulbs etc 

Nothing worse than than realising you did pack that essential item and you know exactly which box it's in... the first one loaded into the van

axisus

The one time we moved (18 years ago) it was bloody hard work! I hired a BIG tail lift truck, and moved everything with my Bro, my dad (68 at the time) and his pal (67). The wife was no use at all, 'apparently' you can't leave a toddler and a baby.

TTony

thumpingrug said:

make sure all the boxes are clearly labelled with the stuff thats in them or you will be searching for something for ages

Boxes will all be indexed, with a spreadsheet that links the index number with the origin, destination and contents.  Yup, seriously.

And we're still in Waitrose's delivery area, so on day +1, they'll be turning up with a load of quick meals.  Saves the trip out to the takeaway.

Also on day +1, Majestic will be turning up with a van full of the essentials.

octatonic

Book your broadband connection day now.
It can take up to two excruciating weeks to get it turned on otherwise.

TonyR

Have the kettle to hand - them removals type chappies need lots of tea and coffee to keep them happy!

TTony

WezV said:

Nothing worse than than realising you did pack that essential item and you know exactly which box it's in... the first one loaded into the van

I can see that happening!!!

It does worry me slightly that it'll likely be dark before we're moved in.  A supply of torches & batteries is added to the list.


axisus said: The one time we moved (18 years ago) it was bloody hard work! I hired a BIG tail lift truck, and moved everything with my Bro, my dad (68 at the time) and his pal (67). I did that the first time that we moved.  Tranny van and a few mates from the rugby club (as I mistook "bulk" for "strength"!).  But that was from a 1-up, 2 down and was still bloody hard work.  This time, we're paying Mr Professional Removers Ltd to get us shifted.  Apparently, there'll be 3 vehicles, and I don't think that they use Tranny vans.

NPP

Beer. 

And beer. 

WezV

axisus said:

The one time we moved (18 years ago) it was bloody hard work! I hired a BIG tail lift truck, and moved everything with my Bro, my dad (68 at the time) and his pal (67). The wife was no use at all, 'apparently' you can't leave a toddler and a baby.

I had the in laws and my dad helping last time we moved.

MIL decided she must do a deep clean.  Sounds helpful but she was constantly in the way and spilled a full bucket of dirty water on the landing.

I asked dad and the FIL to put the nursery together, nicely out the way whilst I did rooms that were actually needed that day.  They had a power tool pissing contest and one of them managed to split one of the main beams in the cot.  Neither will own up 2 years later.

At the end of the day, all moved in, we still had the van so FIL decided we had to use it to fetch their old sofa bed from someone else to store at our new house.  

I may have started to seem a little ungrateful for the help at this point!


next time, I'm paying somebody!

TTony

octatonic said:

Book your broadband connection day now.
It can take up to two excruciating weeks to get it turned on otherwise.

Ahhhhh ... "broadband".

The good news is that the local exchange is fibre-enabled.

Yay, welcome to the 21st century!

The bad news is that we're way too far from the local cabinet to get "superfast" or even "mildly quick".  We have copper cable over telegraph poles.  I'd pay for fibre to be run, but can't find an ISP to give me a service.

The even worse news is that we seem to be in a bit of a mobile network blackspot, unless a Yagi receiver on the end of a long pole at the corner of the plot can capture a decent signal.

Else, we're on a satellite connection.

ToneControl

buy a new microwave  - so you don't have to search for  the old one when you are  heating the ready meals
be ready to do fast DIY before placing stuff.  If you need to replace a carpet or paint a wall,  don't move the stuff into that room. Put the heating on  full blast if it's cold and they  are in and out, you need to stop pipe bursts


our first move  was awful.  friday the 13th, enough stuff to take 5 men 2 days to load into 3 lorries
then the sale collapsed - wrong form had been processed by our buyers. we had to stay in a hotel with a baby and a dog, and couldn't  find out if the sale would complete at all until dusk on Saturday, when the Orthodox Jewish buyers were allowed to talk about business.  It went ahead on the monday, but after a month of packing and indexing,  it took months to unpack.

so.. the next time,  we bought before we sold,  I rented a LWB transit or merc every weekend, and  do 18-20 hours each weekend, whilst working away in the week.  On the critical day,  we had removal guys in to move all the heavy stuff on one day, while I was in London. then a  few more weekends with the LWBs
Way less stress: stuff straight from source to destination, without the boxes,  much less cost.
No use to you now,  but worth  thinking about for those who can

WezV

NPP said:

Beer. 

And beer. 

And gluten free beer for Tony 

ToneControl

octatonic said:

Book your broadband connection day now.
It can take up to two excruciating weeks to get it turned on otherwise.

haha
our second house was in a village with only dialup, after years of cable internet
had to get satellite internet for 2 years

octatonic

TTony said:

octatonic said:

Book your broadband connection day now.
It can take up to two excruciating weeks to get it turned on otherwise.

Ahhhhh ... "broadband".

The good news is that the local exchange is fibre-enabled.

Yay, welcome to the 21st century!

The bad news is that we're way too far from the local cabinet to get "superfast" or even "mildly quick".  We have copper cable over telegraph poles.  I'd pay for fibre to be run, but can't find an ISP to give me a service.

The even worse news is that we seem to be in a bit of a mobile network blackspot, unless a Yagi receiver on the end of a long pole at the corner of the plot can capture a decent signal.

Else, we're on a satellite connection.

I'm sure I've said this in other threads but we ruled out some very nice houses because they didn't have fibre broadband.
We thought about it for a bit and didn't think it would be an issue until I throttled our home connection in London down to 2meg to see how we felt about it.
Took about an hour before we both agreed it was a non-starter.

Is this the same house from a few months ago?
I thought you'd pulled out of that one?

TTony

WezV said:

NPP said:

Beer. 

And beer. 

And gluten free beer for Tony 

Do you guys do anything yet @WezV?  But it's a good point, I need to add a Brewdog order to the Waitrose & Majestic orders.

ToneControl said:

had to get satellite internet for 2 years

We may well be stuck with that too @tonecontrol - any views on how that worked??