Get Moving: The Checklist You Need When It’s Time for a New Home

12th September 2022

This is a collaborative post

As soon as you decide it is time to move home, the stress starts to build. There is so much to organise and manage, from finding a new home all the way to moving day.

Here is a checklist of important things to do in preparation for moving day, and on the day itself to help make things easier.

Book a Removals Company

Moving house is one of the most stressful events you can go through. When the day is finally over you will swear to yourself that you are never moving again. The best way to ease the stress is to make the hard work someone else’s responsibility.

Hire an experienced firm like G W Twilley and Son Removals to take the strain so you can concentrate on organisation and the paperwork. They can even do the packing for you.

Before the Big Day, Declutter

Every time you move you will find things in boxes and wonder what they are and why you brought them with you. All these little things add up and get in the way, so it’s well worth thinking about hiring a skip from somewhere like ECS – Essex County Skips and having a serious clear-out before you move.

There is an opportunity to make some money here, especially with clothes. With enough preparation time, you can sell a lot of what you don’t want online and use the profits to help pay for the move.

Get Your Bills in Order

You are going to have to inform a lot of people about your new address, and not just your family and friends. Your bills are going to have to come with you, unfortunately, and you need to let them all know.

There are services that can help you do this quickly, but make sure you move sensitive bills and post like bank statements and credit cards yourself. Switch to a paperless service if your banks offer it, as this will cut down on the number of letters through the door.

Make a Moving Day Box

There are going to be things you will need immediately in your new home, and there will be many important papers and documents you may need close at hand during the day.

Make a box of the important things. Tea, coffee, a kettle, a folder full of your documents, anything you can think of. Keep this box with you or in your car. Don’t let it get mixed up with all the other boxes and bags making the move.

Know What Goes Where

Unpacking can be worse than packing if the right boxes are not in the right rooms when you have finally finished moving in. Make sure you label boxes when you pack them at your old address.

When you are moving in you need to direct people to the right rooms. It can be handy to put a label on each door in the house so people can easily see which room is which, i.e., master bedroom, kids’ room, dining room, and so on.

Use all these tips and your moving day should be a breeze. With a little preparation before the big day and a plan in place, it doesn’t have to be as stressful as you think it will be.

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4 Things to Look For Home Builders

19th March 2017

4 things to look for in a home builder — home builders

This is a collaborative post

If you are looking for new home builders that will help you build the beautiful and comfortable house that you have so longed for, then it is in your best interest that you consider and remember these 4 things that will help you in your search;

Competence and Innovation

The trend in home building is very dynamic and is always evolving. There are various themes and concepts one can look at in building their house. It is very important that the chosen home builder will have the competence to build according to your desired concept and style. The home builders Overland Park KS are experts and will help you build your dream house.

Be sure to take a look at the portfolio of Write Homes Utah home builders, or local home builders you have in mind, as this will be an accurate indicator of their competence.

It is also good for home builders, like the ones at Garman Builders near Lancaster, to be innovative in their work. Since most of their clients have no experience in the technical aspects of home building, it can also be a great plus for them to suggest new ideas to enhance the aesthetics and functionality of your house while still planning the design.

Budget

Home builders such as French Brothers homes can also be categorised by the scale of their projects. There are small-scale and large-scale home builders. Small-scale builders often specialise in building houses for a small family. They are home builders that can help you maximise the spaces in a small housing lot. They only employ about 10-20 workers in a single project. On the other hand, large-scale home builders are those who specialise in building mansions and villas with large lots to build on. Their employees can reach up to a hundred people in a single project.

In order for you to save and get the most out of your budget, it is very important that you choose the right kind of home builder. If you are building a two-storey house in a small or medium-sized lot, it is better for you to hire a small-scale home builder. If you think that hiring the home builder with more workers will be better, thinking that with more workers will make the project completion faster, then you are greatly mistaken. There are processes in home building that can’t be started unless another process is finished; electrical wiring can’t be installed unless the general structure and roof of the house is completed. Thus, it would be very expensive and inefficient to have a team of electricians while still in the early stages of construction.

Communication

It is also very important to have a good and steady relationship with your home builder bayside, or builder in your specific area. An open line of communication should be established to ensure that you are informed of their progress and possible setbacks and delays. This way, both you and the home builders will be able to address and solve the issues before they become bigger and cause worse situations.

Help-line

After the house is built and you and your family have already settled down, it can be expected that you will encounter some problems in the house. It would be a very big plus for a home builder to actually return and fix the problems for you even if the contract is already done and paid. Home builders with this kind of help-line or troubleshooting services are very rare and definitely one of those “perfect home builders”.

Home Improvement

Kitchen chronicles – We have a floor!

19th April 2014

You may recall we’ve been without a proper kitchen for just about the whole time we’ve had the house and at times it has really got us down.

The last few days, however, has seen Ant slaving away, getting it emptied, a radiator removed, the floor down and today we started papering the walls 🙂

The paste is still wet which is why it looks patchy!

It finally feels like we’re on the way to getting a proper kitchen and I have to say I’m beyond excited!
Argos are delivering our kitchen units on Tuesday and Ant will be fetching the worktops from B&Q ready for the kitchen to be installed (by him) at the weekend. After that his last job will be to buy and fit the tiles 🙂

I really cant wait to get unpacked properly and make it all pretty!

In another couple of weeks we should have a normal house, one where rooms aren’t used as storage for items from other rooms and where I’ll be able to hoover the carpets and mop the floors without having to shift boxes/books/white goods to be able to get to the floors!

I do have the sheds and greenhouse to sort out as we’ve been using them to store more boxes but the majority of that will be garden stuff that needs to stay in the sheds and a few more bits for the loft.

Home Improvement

My kitchen woes!

28th February 2014

Im sharing my kitchen woes with you! As you probably know, we’ve not had the best of times with this new kitchen. When Ant started to get it ready to connect our electric range cooker he noticed the wiring looked a bit dodgy. He got an electrician out who informed us that the whole kitchen needed re-wiring. It wasn’t even earthed for goodness sake!

Kitchen Woes

We then had to get the lino and plywood up from the floor and remove cabinets so the electrician could do his thing.
Before the electrician could actually do his thing, though, we had to phone British Gas to get something upgraded (don’t ask me what, I have no clue, I just know it cost a lot). This meant we were going to be without a kitchen for longer than we had anticipated because we had to wait for the company British Gas put us in touch with to do their thing. We then waited for the electrician to be able to fit us in to his very busy schedule.

We’ve moved that cupboard to a different wall; you couldn’t use the door because of the boiler!

Still No Kitchen!

It turns out, we’ve been without a proper kitchen for the whole time we’ve had the house and it’s got to get done now because we just can’t live like this for much longer.
When we moved in, the plan was to take out the breakfast bar, hob and oven, put our range cooker in, wallpaper, paint and unpack.
As I’ve found out, things don’t always go to plan!

Ant got the corner unit put back in and the counter which gave us a bit more space to move and he also got the washer and dryer in and a counter over the top so I was able to unpack a few boxes which gave us breathing room in the living room.

Removing Tiles

I started taking the tiles off yesterday and panicked a bit when the wall underneath started coming off in big chunks with the tiles.
I Instagrammed a photo of the door frame where I’d been working and said I should have Googled, ‘how to remove wall tiles’ before starting but when I did go and Google how to remove tiles, it seems there’s no other way to do it and it’s common to have to re-plaster after removing tiles 🙁

Kitchen woes - took the tiles off and the plaster came off with them

So I carried on doing what I was doing and I’ve now got a kitchen that looks like this…

Kitchen woes - the cupboard is back but the walls need plastering

Kitchen woes - big chunks of plaster have come off the wall

Kitchen woes - I made a right mess of the window sill when I took the tiles off!

Yes, I do live next door to a builder and no, our budget won’t stretch to hiring him, even though I’m sure his prices are very reasonable!

I don’t think a tub of Polyfiller is going to be enough to fix it this time!

Not Panicking!

You’d think after seeing those photos I’d be panicking a little, or a lot, wouldn’t you? Surprisingly, I’m quite calm and the reason for this is because I’m totally refusing to think about it anymore!

It’s got to be fixed and re-tiled now before I can do any wallpapering so tonight I’ll crack on with glossing the woodwork and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we have enough in the budget to actually go and buy the tiles!

New Kitchen Design

We’ve decided to go to B&Q and get them to design a new kitchen for us so we can get an idea of the amount we’ll need to save to get rid of these old units.
I was going to paint them but the cupboard paint and cabinet paint sprayers are not in the budget so we’ve decided to live with them like this until we get the new kitchen.
We’re most probably going to fit it ourselves because it’ll save a lot of money and Ant can turn his hand to anything so hopefully, we’ll have a new kitchen sometime next year 🙂

Home Improvement

Update – Aiden’s room – Before and After Photos

19th February 2014

A quick photo update before bed as I’m shattered, as usual!

Aiden’s room before

After –

Apologies for the rubbish photo, I forgot to check it before moving on to the next one. It was unlike me, I usually take 2 or three to make sure I get a good one!

The ottoman was going to stay there under his desk so I was going to paint it dark blue but I’ve moved onto the landing now so I think I’m going to paint it cream and put a new green cover on the top to match the carpet.

I’ll be back, tomorrow hoepfully, with before and after photos from the girl’s room 🙂

Home Improvement

New bathroom and toilet (Before and after photos)

17th February 2014

The keys to the old house have been handed in today finally and thankfully! so I can now start to get this house organised into a proper home 🙂

We cut it very fine with the old house; Ant and I finally finished the cleaning close to 10pm last night and we were exhausted.
It was thanks to my family that we managed to get everything done and words cannot express how grateful we are to them all.

So on to the decorating!

We’ve decorated the whole house except for the kitchen, which had a bit of a disaster when we found out it needed completely re-wiring. The kitchen is the next priority now we’re finished at the old house and after having a rest day today, I’ll be making a start in there 🙂

I finally got the upstairs bathroom done after Ant got rid of the rest of that wallpaper and it looks so much brighter now it’s painted white.
I still have to get all the red grout out and re-grout it with white but that’s a job for another day, when the kitchen’s been sorted!

Before

The toilet is tiny and it was painted a dark lilac colour. We painted it magnolia and it looks much better.

I’ll be back, soon hopefully, with the bedroom and shower room photos 🙂

Family, Home Improvement

Now the hard work begins!

21st January 2014

I LOVE our new house

I LOVE our new garden.

I’m so excited to be making a start today on turning our new house into our home 🙂
Today I’m going to be stripping the wallpaper off the upstairs bathroom walls, sanding down the woodwork and hopefully getting the woodwork painted 🙂

I forgot to take photos of the upstairs yesterday but here are the downstairs photos 🙂

We’re going to be painting the cabinets a nice cream which will do until we can afford to buy either new doors or a new kitchen.

We’re going to be having a new boiler fitted and I’m hoping we can get a smaller one and have it moved so we can use the cupboard!

The breakfast bar is being removed so we can fit the tall fridge, washer and dryer along that wall.

Ant’s going to box the sliding door in so I can have my shelf unit in that space.

This is looking from the kitchen door into the hall. To the right is the downstairs shower room and straight ahead is the under stairs cupboard

I can’t wait to have all the coats and shoes shut away instead of in full messy view like we have them now!

Living room. The fire doesn’t work and is too dated anyway so we’re taking it out.

This is the other side of the living room. Ant’s building me an entertainment unit along the back wall 🙂

My wonderful garden!

I’ll be back with proper garden photos on Thursday when I’ll be linking up with the lovely Mammasaurus 🙂

Right, I have to get to work.

Now, where’s that sandpaper?!

Family

Finally – A completion date :D

7th January 2014

Ant got an email this morning from the solicitor asking if the 20th of January would be acceptable to complete on our new home 😀

I’m so excited! It feels like we’ve been in limbo and now we can start to move forward 🙂 I started to pack right after Christmas but it all felt a bit premature because we had no idea of an actual date but now we do!

Packing to move isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, (my mum packed up the majority of my last house in about 3 days!) but when I stop to think about how much we still have to do, I get a little panicky!

I’ve packed Kaycee and Ella’s room, the bathroom and Aiden’s room so those rooms are full of boxes with only the essentials (clothes, bedding and a teddy each!) left till last. I’m currently doing our bedroom and will soon be moving onto the living room.

The living room, at the moment feels like it’s upside down and inside out as it’s playing home to a three seater sofa, a two seater sofa and 3 arm chairs as well as Ant’s office which is all packed into boxes.

The reason for all the furniture is because I saw a bargain on a Facebook page for things for sale in our area and I couldn’t pass up the two seater sofa with matching arm chairs!

Yes, that is Kaycee trying to peel potatoes on the chair…she wanted to make dinner but she also wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland! I ended up doing the potatoes in the kitchen!

When we move, we’re getting rid of the three piece suite we currently have because Ant’s mum is giving us her lovely cream leather three seater sofa. We already have a cream leather chair so we just needed another chair and I also wanted two armchairs for either side of the fireplace in the new house so when I saw the sofa and chairs for £30 for the three, I had to have them!

One of the chairs from our original suite is now on the kitchen table and the other has been sent to Derbyshire to my mum’s! We’ll be sending the sofa and chair this weekend hopefully.

The rest of the table is taken up with yet more boxes, as is underneath the table. We’re having to eat on our laps in front of the tv which as you can imagine, the kids are very happy about!

As soon as we get the keys we’ll be able to start making room here by taking stuff to the new house and storing it in the garage while we get the house decorated.

Once we’ve got the new house done, we then have to clean this house from top to bottom and give some of the rooms a lick of paint to cover up all the holes we’ve had to fill in (lots of pictures and bookshelves have adorned these walls!) and the marks left by removing stickers the girls had put on their wall!

In the garden Ant has to dismantle his shed which doesn’t sound too bad until you see that the front part is sat on a mini wall (you can just see it if you look at the bottom of the door) and Ant has to remove that wall and the concrete steps once the top part has been removed.

We also concreted those swings into place and I’m dreading having to try and get them out again! We may end up cutting through the legs and giving them to the scrap man.

We also have to dismantle the sunken seat, steps and the waterfall then fill in the hole and level out the ground.

It’s starting to feel like there’s too much to do but I know that it’ll get done and before we know it we’ll be handing in the keys to this house and settling into our new one and I really can’t wait!

Family, Home Improvement

Moving House….Soooo Excited!

29th December 2013

We’ll be finding out our completion date very soon so I no longer have to keep this bubble of excitement contained within!
We’re moving house in the next few weeks and I don’t think I’ve been this excited in my life before, ever! It’s the first time I’ve been house hunting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sitting for hours online and finding houses to view wasn’t a chore at all! If you’re currently looking for your forever home, check out these new homes and start planning your move too!

When we started looking at houses, this one was the first one we both really liked and the one we seemed to end up comparing every other house on the market to.
The things we loved most about it were the garage for Ant and the garden for me. It also has a downstairs shower room and having two toilets in our house is going to be heaven! We have quite a strict morning routine to make sure everyone gets to the bathroom on time to get to school and work, so having the shower room downstairs means the kids can get ready for school and Ant won’t have to wait for them all to finish when he needs to get ready for work 🙂

The kitchen needs modernising and it was one of the things that weighed heavily on the decision because a lot of the other properties had gorgeous new kitchens but then either didn’t have much of a garden and/or a garage and/or a second toilet.

We could have picked another one with a small garden and no garage but with a lovely conservatory and en suite to the master bedroom and we wouldn’t have had to spend any more money on it but the way we see it is, this is going to be our forever home; we don’t have to get everything done right away. I can live with the kitchen for a few years until we’ve saved enough for a new one and getting the house the way we want it is going to be a great project for me to work on 🙂

I love the large living room and can’t wait to install bookshelves on either side of the fireplace. I’ve always wanted a chimney breast wall with bookcases on either side! The gas fire in the picture is being removed and we’re putting our fire surround and electric fire in its place.
We’re going to use this side of the room as the dining area.

This side is going to be the sitting area.

We’re planning on building some shelves in a similar style to this at the far end and mounting our tv on the wall.

I have to admit, I did fall in love with the garden as soon as I saw it and it was, for me, the main reason I really wanted this house. I can make all my gardening dreams come true in this garden. I’m going to grow ornamental pumpkins to use as decorations in the autumn and the kids want to grow peas so they can pick them when they’re ripe and eat them raw straight from the pod!

It has an apple tree in the middle of the lawn and I can not wait to pick apples and make a pie!

I’m so excited about this house, I’m not even bothered about all the stress and hassle it takes to pack everything and move! In fact, we’ve made a start already and it’s now making it all feel even more real, seeing our bathroom empty of all but the very few necessities like toothpaste and body wash!

The Christmas decorations are nearly all down and packed away for another year. I’ve never ever taken them down so early but far from being sad that Christmas is over, I’m too excited about the move to think about Christmas anymore!

Ant took the photos off the wall on the stairs yesterday and filled the holes in with polyfiller and I started packing up the girl’s room while they’re away in Derbyshire with family 🙂

We have a lot of work ahead but it’s going to be fun, happy work rather than a chore and I seriously can’t wait!

new home

Get Moving: The Checklist You Need When It’s Time for a New Home