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Buying a home and don't know how anything works

I have always moved myself. Last time - late 2020 / early 2021 I got a pack of boxes from big yellow storage, lots of bubble wrap and tissue paper, also some rolls of heavy duty tape off Amazon. Packing materials probably cost me under £75. Double tape your boxes at the bottom and don’t overfill them as a) they’ll be easier to carry and it’s a long day and b) they won’t split! Worth getting hold of a heavy duty sack trolley for appliances.

I used my car and a mates estate car for the move into storage - his garage 10miles away - which involved several trips but I wasn’t on a deadline.

For the move out of storage to Devon which was 150 miles or so I hired a Luton van - tail lift essential. Probably cost me £700 for both moves, including petrol, van hire, packing materials. The same mate helped me on both occasions so I got him a bottle of gin each time and got the beers / pizza in at the end of the day.

Bar a chest of drawers which got fucked because I didn’t remove the drawers when carrying it, nothing got broken. What went wrong other than that was we didn’t pack the van very logically as the storage unit had been filled at random and it was pissing down with rain. Consequently unloading was a bit of a shit show! That said it took about an hour to load / unload the van. Luckily we had put kitchen appliances in last so they were first out.

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Every time I’ve moved with a purchase involved it’s been from / into storage rather than from house to house on the same day. So I could pack at my leisure rather than to a deadline. This time round I will pay for removals - too old for that shit now and have too much stuff to move (like kitchens appliances) which need more than 1 person to carry.
 
5t3IIa said:
Sounds.... promising? Not sure at which point we need to get 'excited'? I mean, we are not decluttered or packed and only own three empty boxes.
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What a long-winded way of saying “We are still waiting for the certificates”.
 
I bought boxes from Amazon which are very strong and sturdy along with a roll of bubble wrap and packing tape. I bought a tape dispenser and it's invaluable. I paid for movers because I just can't manage a move these days, can't remember the cost now but considering it was about half a mile and three men carrying stuff, it wasn't too bad.

My top tip is change the bedding and pack it and a clean sheet in a big box, then unpack and make the bed at the other end.
 
Yeah getting a removals service does take a big chunk of the stress out of proceedings. If you want to do that they will come round to your current place to see what stuff you have and quote & will supply some boxes.

Though last time we moved there were so many books we had to buy extra boxes. There's online places that will deliver packs of cardboard boxes in various sizes if you wanted to start the process now.

I think next time we will go for the full packing service as well. We've started decluttering already but it was painful enough last time moving from a 2 bed flat and now we're in a 4 bed house.
 
equationgirl said:
I bought boxes from Amazon which are very strong and sturdy along with a roll of bubble wrap and packing tape. I bought a tape dispenser and it's invaluable. I paid for movers because I just can't manage a move these days, can't remember the cost now but considering it was about half a mile and three men carrying stuff, it wasn't too bad.

My top tip is change the bedding and pack it and a clean sheet in a big box, then unpack and make the bed at the other end.
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Agree. Make your bed as the first job in the new place and then when you get tired of unpacking you can just sleep without having to faff about finding it all.

Put the bedding box & other essentials (overnight bag, kettle, valuables, cats etc) in your car or a mate's car rather than let it get moved in the van.
 
baldrick said:
Agree. Make your bed as the first job in the new place and then when you get tired of unpacking you can just sleep without having to faff about finding it all.

Put the bedding box & other essentials (overnight bag, kettle, valuables, cats etc) in your car or a mate's car rather than let it get moved in the van.
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When I moved last I didn’t have a mattress, only a wooden bed frame so our first task was to re-assemble a sofa bed we had dismantled three months. Not fun after a long day!

I’ll be paying the removals guys to dismantle and reassemble the bed frame, sofa bed and my desk. Partly because they’ll do it far quicker than me, but mostly as these are all 2 person jobs and there’s only one of me!
 
Write what room (contents) on the box and so it can be taken from the van to that room.
I didn't pack the kettle. It had pride of place on the passenger seat of my car, along with the mugs, tea and milk. I also took my cleaning stuff in the car, so I could get a head start on cleaning shit before the van turned up.


My husband swore that he wouldn't move us again. This was two moves ago now. He aged noticeably each time. :D
 
My sellers have found their onward purchase - a newbuild - and (the housebuilder) have asked for an exchange date of 19th May which is a bit soon as they’ve only just got the draft contracts out. I’m keen to get things done but only at the right pace.

Need to get a survey organised now!
 
Elpenor said:
My sellers have found their onward purchase - a newbuild - and (the housebuilder) have asked for an exchange date of 19th May which is a bit soon as they’ve only just got the draft contracts out. I’m keen to get things done but only at the right pace.

Need to get a survey organised now!
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What is the completion date?

This is the issue we had with a sale, they want to exchange immediately but then have an uncertain completion date that may be months away.
 
Thora said:
What is the completion date?

This is the issue we had with a sale, they want to exchange immediately but then have an uncertain completion date that may be months away.
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Not sure on completion, the house builder have suggested that as an exchange date, presumably they want to get the exchange done before one of their own internal deadlines. But too early to be talking about dates really
 
Elpenor said:
Not sure on completion, the house builder have suggested that as an exchange date, presumably they want to get the exchange done before one of their own internal deadlines. But too early to be talking about dates really
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The problem we had is that the builder wants to get you to exchange asap/within 6 weeks so you are locked in, but then they can complete essentially whenever they want - so they might say exchange in May, hopefully aiming to finish the house in September and will complete then, but might be any time until mid-October.
The problem for us was that our mortgage offer would expire between exchange and completion so we would have to reapply, and we felt it was too risky - what if we couldn't get a new mortgage offer? What if interest rates rise too much in the next 6 months? What if we lose our jobs? What if our vendor changes their mind and pulls out?

We asked our vendor to complete on our sale within a reasonable time frame (before our mortgage offer expired) and then go into rented or something if her new build was delayed but she wouldn't agree to that.
 
Thora said:
The problem we had is that the builder wants to get you to exchange asap/within 6 weeks so you are locked in, but then they can complete essentially whenever they want - so they might say exchange in May, hopefully aiming to finish the house in September and will complete then, but might be any time until mid-October.
The problem for us was that our mortgage offer would expire between exchange and completion so we would have to reapply, and we felt it was too risky - what if we couldn't get a new mortgage offer? What if interest rates rise too much in the next 6 months? What if we lose our jobs? What if our vendor changes their mind and pulls out?

We asked our vendor to complete on our sale within a reasonable time frame (before our mortgage offer expired) and then go into rented or something if her new build was delayed but she wouldn't agree to that.
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That’s a good point, and yes I remember you relating that tale earlier on the thread. I will have to bear that in mind. Forewarned is forearmed.
 
I had tons of boxes from my weekly food box plus some other crates collected over the years. My friend moved soon after me so I said I had boxes & turned up with about 50 & a tape gun & she laughed thinking no way would she need that many. Turned out she did & a little more.

If she hadn’t taken them I would have offered somewhere for free.

I’m so excited for all the soon to be house movers especially Thora your experience has been bonkers.
 
Elpenor if it's a new build I'd go and see it, to check progress. Also be prepared to compile a snagging list of everything that needs fixed just before you move in, like gaps around sockets needing plastered, loose wires needing a fitting or dealt with, cracked or broken tiles replaced and so on.

Check the washing machine can be properly opened all the way without being half stuck behind a bit of wall (have seen it done irl) and so on.
 
equationgirl said:
Elpenor if it's a new build I'd go and see it, to check progress. Also be prepared to compile a snagging list of everything that needs fixed just before you move in, like gaps around sockets needing plastered, loose wires needing a fitting or dealt with, cracked or broken tiles replaced and so on.

Check the washing machine can be properly opened all the way without being half stuck behind a bit of wall (have seen it done irl) and so on.
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It’s the people I’m buying from who are moving to a new build :)
 
5t3IIa said:
What, packing EVryThInG?? 😂 Congrats! 🍾
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Yes. I'd actually planned to take the week off, but my colleague has already booked. I've confirmed it's ok with us, but they didn't get back to me so I can't even do stuff like book a van.

Artaxerxes said:
Given the size of this place I'm dreading packing everything up to get it all out.
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Ours is only a two bed with a shed and I'm dreading it.
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
Do people actually buy boxes and stuff? Seeks a weird thing to do, but yet no idea how to pack everything without doing this. In fact I've no idea how to pack full stop. Seemed chaotic enough when I moved from a room in a shared house to our current place.
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I think people are more inclined to buy packing boxes if they're getting a removals company to shift stuff, because it's better/easier for the removals company to stack uniform shape and size boxes.

If people are moving themselves, though, they're possibly more likely to ask around if anyone's received any big deliveries and has boxes to spare or asking in the supermarket/other shops for spare boxes.
 
Elpenor said:
Also worth noting that a lot of removals companies won’t cover on their insurance anything they’ve not packed themselves.
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It's been a good 20 years since we last moved but the removals company were incredible they turned up with a large truck and 4 guys and just got stuck in.
The woman who booked it said don't pack anything just leave it to them and she wasn't kidding.
They just swept through the house unfolding boxes and packing stuff as they went along.
Our biggest concern was that they were working so fast they might end up packing one of the kids.
They were just as efficient at the other end, broke nothing and took all the empty boxes away.
 
Yeah from what I understand (my brother does casual work as removals) they are mega quick partly as they’re not reminiscing about the holiday to Tenerife when they bought that paperweight etc as me or you might :D

In the few months he did it he found amongst other things sex toys, WW2 era guns, a LOT of weed, and something they thought was heroin. So yeah put your contraband and highly personal items in the same box as the kettle :thumbs:
 
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