Moving House - Methods and Madness
Everyone says that moving house is probably one of the most stressful things you can do, especially when you’re trying to sell your existing house in the process. Our plan is to move into our new home, get our current home ready to sell and then sell it.
I indeed tend to agree, but I’ve been saying to myself “I refuse to be stressed about this”, so to this end I’ve been trying to put as much of the process in online and do the “GTD” thing of getting as much of it out of my head and written down as possible.
As Nabila and I are sharing the workload, putting everything online helps immensely with the “who’s doing what?” and “Steve, that slacker, I bet he hasn’t called the contractor yet!” questions…
So, we’re tracking all our moving expenses and various documents in Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets, and all the work items, todo lists and milestones in 37signals’ Basecamp.
This all appears to be working a treat so far!
There are milestones for “House is ready to sell”, “New House Closes”, etc… and todo lists associated with each.
Notes for each contractor we’re getting quotes from are being tracked as are dates and dependencies, etc…
As an aside, having a really good real estate agent is another piece of the puzzle that keeps you from going insane and we’ve found a really good one in Kathy Magner. From being told what we need to do when to helping us get our current house ready for sale and generally making our lives easier, she’s a bit of a star…
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Ah, welcome to the club...
I too am building and moving. You say you will not get stressed, but believe me, it only takes one thing.
Currently my list is as follows:
1. Geothermal system should have been installed 3 weeks ago, and because it isn't the heating is not on. This means that flooring, painting and essentially any internal work cannot continue.
2. I love nature... but not when a set of protected birds decide to make nest in my cooker extractor fan outlet. A further month's delay on the cooker at least.
3. Broadband! Now I know you are sitting on your uberfast fibre link there Mr. Lacey... but us folk that build in the country have to rely on some "bloke" with his "other pal" who install wireless broadband. 1 month delay.
4. Adding 25k onto your build price, because you "just forgot" about the extras.
These things... or at least your own version of these things may just send you over the edge ;)
Happy moving :)
Oh, hang on... there is one more:
6. Having three interest rate hikes in 4 months, and some idiots in governments that keep hanging carrots in front of first time buyers on house taxes.... having the market fall off, and having your house that you were going to "just sell" sit on the market for 8 months...
As I said...
Happy moving :)
Nick
A bit late on, but WOW!! you are moving :)
You've probably already had the house warming, but where are the photos??
Imagine what it's like having to plan to move and before all that choose paints, carpets, tiles, etc., etc., etc!!!!!!
Hope it went well, or is still going - is the process more UK like or NZ style where it's all over in 2 weeks??
Maybe I'll come over and see it one day :P
We move mid-June. The process is slooooow in the states, but at least there is a process :-)
We're in the middle of packing now...
And Kev, you need to come for a trip - it's not that far - I've done the Seattle to NZ trip - tis easy :-)