First proper weekend

This is the first proper weekend we've had at our temporary residence.  It's been so hard to get things set up how we want them.  The first weekend Mick rushed off to New Zealand to see his mum (she's not doing terribly well unfortunately) and last weekend we went away to Barwon Heads.  With us being sick as well it's not been an easy start.

Finally now we've made progress.  Our "lockup" as we call it (where our households contents are stored) is finally looking properly sorted out.  We had stuff all over the place at the beginning.  The final 2 days of packing up our house resulted in those things being thrown into boxes, crates, bags or just loose in the car.  It wasn't a terribly organised couple of days and to have those things sorted out and properly packed away is a relief.

The small office at the shed is now all sorted with our fridge and kitchen table so we have somewhere for the bread maker and the slow cooker.  The guys also use it as their lunchroom when they're working here in the workshop so they have a kettle and sandwich toaster.

The larger office has been emptied of all the built in reception furniture, ready for painting.  We'll then have a clean room to use as a living room.  We won't know ourselves then!  The dinette seats in the caravan are ok for eating meals but are not comfortable for evening sitting. For the first time in about 15 years we're watching tv in bed.

At last... if we need Panadol, or a bar of soap, sticky tape, window cleaner, an envelope... we can find it!!

Preparing to go list

I've been keeping, and updating, a list of things we need to do before we can go to the UK.  Some of these items I'll have a blog entry about - I've found little information about many of these things!

So far we've done the first item (buying a cheaper house) and we're on our way through the sorting and packing.  I've also started with applying for my passport because I'll have to go to Sydney to lodge the application (and have biometric details taken). We aim to have our house on the market for sale in June.

If there is anything I haven't thought of, do remind me!

Buy a cheaper house

Sorting and packing up belongings

 – things to go to new house

 – things to store because we don’t need for now

 – things we’ll take with us to the UK

 – things to sell at garage sale

Apply for Elly's Finnish passport

Sell our house

Arrange insurance for stored belongings

Move to new house

Open a UK bank account

Send remaining chickens to their new home

Cancel private health insurance

Arrange for our mail to be dealt with at home

Arrange for mail in the UK

Book airfares

Ship belongings to UK

Rent out our house

Arrange for someone to have the potplants

Pack up remainder of our belongings and store

Sell Elly’s car (Mick's truck to be left at workshop)

Book hire car in UK

Transfer money to UK account

 

Update - shipping

We did notice that the cost of household items and groceries appeared to work out cheaper in the UK, even more so when the exchange rate is so favourable for us at the moment.  At first glance it would seem like a lot of money to pay $700 to ship a few boxes over.

Well, I had a browse through the Asda online store to see what it would cost us to buy the things we'd need.

BEDDING :
Duvet £20
Duvet set x 2 £25
Sheets & pillowcases x 2 £35
Pillows x 4 £20
£100 for the minimum both in quality and quantity of bedding.  This doesn't allow for a guest or particularly cold weather. 

Allow another £100 for cooking and dining equipment and maybe £50 for towels, bathmats etc.  Now we're up to £250 and we have the barest essentials only.  That is already $450 AU and leaves just $250 or £150 or so to spend on tools to match the shipping cost. 

I want to have my sewing to do while we cruise (a 10 year patchwork project), we could wrap things in old towels/sheets that would then be useful for cleaning or drying rags, we have a spare mini dvd player that is region free so would be perfect on the boat.  The bedding, towels, and some cookware we have an entire spare set that would likely go to a charity shop rather than in storage - we might as well take them and use them and leave them at a charity shop in the UK when we're finished.  Mick has multiples of a lot of his tools so he can choose those he's happy to leave behind.

We've weighed up the pros and cons and decided that for us the best option is to ship our own belongings over. It would be different if we would need to bring these things back again or if we would need to replace them if we left them behind.  We need to make this decision now as we've started packing up our house in preparation for moving later in the year.  We will only take the essentials to the new house because we'll hopefully be renting out within a year or two after to start out narrowboat trip.

Shipping belongings

I have started to do some research into the cost of sending some of our belongings to the UK for while we're living on our narrowboat.  Mick is convinced he'll need at least basic tools so he can get a little work along the way.

We have double of a lot of things from the days of living in Melbourne and having our current home as a weekender.  So we've started putting aside bedding, linen, kitchen utensils etc that we'll ship over but not bring back again.  It is probably a close call whether we could buy all these things (if we bought mostly second hand or discount) for the cost of the shipping.  By shipping, we'd have our own belongings and we need to get rid of some of the things we've been storing anyway.

Pack and Send quoted me $700 to send 8 packing cartons (1 cubic metre).

I've asked the Aussies and Kiwis that we've made contact with in the last couple of years and there's mixed opinions on whether to send belongings or buy them when you get there.  It's made more difficult by not knowing what might be left on the boat you buy. 

Comments would be appreciated!