[sophiedb]

To those who've already made the move... how do you manage to time everything?

My mind is boggling about the whole house sale manoeuvre in the sense of should we book flights and hope it all works out, or should we plan for spending a few nights/weeks in a motel, etc etc. Or book last minute flights?

The one thing I'm not so worried about any more is giving notice on hubby's job too early (his contract states 3 months), as the redundancy has taken care of that - hahaha. My notice period is a much nicer 4 weeks.

I am curious as to how others have handled this dilemma, especially with young kids :)

ta muchly, Soph

[Duncan74]

(Listens intently, especially re the job notice thing)

My plan is ITA submitted in October.
House on market just after Xmas.
Decide on NZ job February

Then see where everything is. I'm on 3 months too, but reckon I could drop that down in the circumstances. So only hand the notice in after the PR comes through, the house is agreed in principle and a job sorted in NZ. In the grand scheme then the cost of the flights between booking a long time in advance and a month in advance is minimal. Equally, of we have to move into a rental place / hotel in the UK for a bit then so be it.

[Kalla]

hmm, we had the job before we did anything else (well, besides the PR application as that was in AGES ago).

Basically, we had a job offer and then about a week later we got confirmation of our PR.
Then we gave notice at OH's job (3 months but got it down to 2 months). Then we booked tickets, then removals, and the rest just fell into place after that.

just wanted to add that in our experience, a 3 months notice period seems totally foreign to a kiwi employer (mostly they seem to have one month).

[tim&em]

We made sure we had a couple of weeks after the house sale to properly tie up loose ends etc. I would have hated the obligatory arguing with utilities and power companies over the phone in the middle of the night from NZ!

We were lucky in that we could stay with friends and relatives until we left, and we took a mini tour of the UK to see as many people as possible. We sold the car the day before our flights - that was a close one.

In terms of flights, we booked 3/4 months in advance with Air New Zealand, thinking we'd get a better deal, but the price actually dropped just before we left. We even considered trying to get a refund and rebuying tickets but in the end we decided it was better having the flights booked than not as it gave us a target/focus and made it seem more real. Plus the admin fees would have made it not worth it. Most tickets can be changed (at a cost) if you need to move your dates if something unexpected comes up.

[Georgebulldog]

I remember thinking the same thing, we were lucky enough to have a job offer so had a date to work to but the whole sell the house & what if it sells too early & all that just puts extra pressure where you don't need it.
I think back now & it all just fell into place which was amazing, I'd say get your house sold first as that's a big thing that can hold you back & maybe plan to stay at reletives or a motel or caravan!
Good luck with all the planning

[sophiedb]

Thanks all, I hope ours falls into place too :)

And regards the notice period part, my employer (a local council) has a habit of taking forever to recruit replacements, so if the house sale fell apart I'd probs be able to hang on for a while anyway, heh. My parent live locally too, so while it would be a strain temper-wise (hubby and my dad don't always see eye to eye) I'm sure they'd deal with it for the extra time with their granddaughter in particular.

Hubby's current job was the only one we've ever encountered with a 3-month notice.. the redundancy has doubly blessed us on that one, as not only do we not have to worry about it any more, but they're going to pay out those 3 months without requiring him to work! So he'll be home tarting the place up for sale and being a housedad for a while :)