Hello All

The house has now been purchased - a little adobe one in a very small plot in a national park village near Western border. The realisation is dawning that this dream is fast becoming a reality!

I used Christopher Keeling to help with purchase, land search, lawyer etc. It worked for me but I know there are lots of good folk to help with this including this forum.

Now comes the exciting and scary part - the actual move!

I've been finding the threads here on cars, taxes and maintaining adobe houses (mine has sadly lost some of the arcade due to an extension) are invaluable. I'm planning to move household goods over in August and have checked out the Anyvan website where small removal companies/man with van can bid for your job. Still researching this, so any suggestions would be most welcome.

Nervous but thrilled!

Starting_Out

We went down the same route as you are considering. We had 1260 sq feet approx half a large container full. We had quotes for weeks from the same web site to transit from Devon to SW Balaton. prices ranged from below £1000 to approx £2800.00, ranging from one man with a van (help with unloading at the destination) to a 2 man team who would pick up from the storage unit and leave straight away to the destination. Being an estimated 3 day there and back journey with all the paperwork/toll charges insurance for total loss on water etc etc some quotes were too cheap. Most replies described "first class service" etc etc etc but it all came down to trust in an unknown? which I was not prepared to do . I searched the internet for insurance cover whilst in transit and could not find any that was applicable, our own insurance did not cover such activities. Most never transited goods to Hungary, mostly France,Spain etc.
In the end we got Pickfords to do the job, a brand name, they were dearer than all other quotes but I will PM you if you want further info on Pickfords overseas haulage ( bearing in mind that they sub out the work and it is not a shiny Pickfords van). In our case with high insight it would have been more cost effective to sell all our large furniture and most of our stuff as you can buy anything over here and would have had the rest moved via a smaller van.
It all boils down to buyer beware and going for it????. Hope this helps.
Cheers

Also Starting-Out I am in the process of registering my right hand drive car to Hungarian plates so can PM you with the up to date process and costs which may give you a guide

We also use Pickfords 5 years ago as it was the only company including the rest of the big boys that actually came out and gave a structured quote. They were superb, they did come in a monster shiny Pickfords truck despite the fact that we told them that we lived on a dirt track and had access difficulties with for anything larger than a "luton" type van. The drivers took it in their stride and were an absolute pleasure

I have a pick-up and box van trailer which I used to move, one trip when I came to sign all the contracts etc, and a second trip 4 weeks later when the seller moved out.
All in total cost for the round trip and the one way run was approx £900.
This of course was purely actual costs, no wages etc so it gives some indication of the prices a reputable mover should be quoting.
And I used slave labour (friends) for the loading and unloading so no costs.

As long as you are methodical and take your time it is surprising how small a space quite a large amount of furniture will fit into! by loading cupboards then filling them with boxes etc, same with things like tables where the space underneath can be filled with various items.

Don't be in too much of a rush to discard things, it is amazing how much you will need when you are setting up home, and it can be a pain sometimes trying to find the item you want in Hungary, first you have to translate it, then try to work out which shop sells it, which is not always as obvious as you might think.

But....
Good Luck with the move I hope it all goes well and you will enjoy your new home.

I'm sure Starting-Out that you will decide what is best for you and different comments and views are always a help, and yes Pickfords service was excellent and they packed various items carefully with no breakages the other end.
By the way the delivery in Hungary by a Hungarian with a white truck (on time) and then a 3 man team arrived shortly afterwards to unload and check the inventory, no breakages reported. We moved August last year.

Yes, a £1000 quote is completely unrealistic as you just can't cover your costs at that price. I was going further as I moved from north east Scotland but I reckon each round trip in my LDV Convoy long wheelbase hightop cost me about £1000 and I did 3 trips.

Just to let you know - if you pack up your own furniture the insurance the movers have will not cover any damages - the company have to pack all the goods for them to be covered by the policy.

yes capricorn, Pickfords packaging fee was approx extra £500

I agree with all Duztee's comments. However price is not always a guarantee of good service. I think we paid around the 2k mark eventually (2 years ago) for a lorry and driver who also helped us unload. The only problem we had was that they were too efficient and on time...i.e. turned up early on both occasions. You can get cheap quotes because sometimes your load might be put with another container or the company are 'going that way' in any event. For example our guy was going to Serbia to pick up a load. We looked at Pickfords but to be fair I thought the prices they quoted were just laughable. If you can, its probably best to do it yourself.

The other thing which I think is important, as Duztee commented, is be careful what you discard. Bring tools and practical stuff, you will be suprised at what you need.

Good luck

Thank you for the useful advice! Apologies for delay in replying.

Well it seems I've my work cut out and I'll do some more research. I am going through stuff trying to reduce what I have but it seems sound advice to keep anything the slightest bit useful!

Richardmc I'll PM you regarding the car registration issue.

If there are any bit and pieces which are difficult to get hold of or expensive to buy, advice on this would be good. I've read food threads but I'm thinking lightbulbs, masking tape etc etc

Thanks again guys!

Starting_Out

Things like bulbs, tape etc are readily available in fact most things are readily available in local stores if you know what they are called Not sure where you are moving to but there are huge stores similar to B&Q called Praktika, OBI and a couple of others where you can get everything. Local stores (certainly out here in the east) are also well stocked but most things are behind the counter so you need to know what you want or you could be there for an eternity

In a DIY sense there was nothing that we could not have purchased over here, oddly enough with the exception of a jigsaw but they have appeared over the last 3-4 years.

In our experience bayonet light bulbs are difficult to find...might be the case in the UK no...don't know. Also bed linen...the beds here are different sizes.

If you plan to do any plumbing it can be worthwhile bringing the stuff with you as they don't have solder ring, compression or plastic push fit hot and cold water fittings. Water valves and a lot of other things have threaded joints needing PTFE tape where UK ones would have compression ends. I did my radiator plumbing with Hep2O 15mm pipe and fittings + radiator valves purchased in UK.

I had a good quote from Britannia, but it was on the basis that my goods would be a part load of a container, which would only ship when it was full, so no indication at all how long it might be waiting.

Light bulbs are usually screw thread here, since I didn't bring any UK lights I have not noticed if bayonet fittings are sold here.
Agree with Polgardi about tools, I know they are heavy, but so much easier if you have them than having to run out to buy different things every time you want to do a quick simple little job of which there will be hundreds!
I transported washing machine and tumble dryer because they were nearly new, but all other kitchen goods I bought here, slightly cheaper than UK net prices, but not vastly so.
TV !!! if your tv has built in freeview it will not work off the antenna here, you will need to feed it via the hdmi or scart from a Hungarian decoder, or use as a dvd screen. or use with a UK satellite receiver.

Paint and associated tools are widely available here, even familiar UK brands. Likewise floor and wall tiles, ceramic or wood, in fact almost anything wooden get here, they really do love their wood these Hungarians!

There are plenty of DIY stores, Baumax, Praktika, OBI all have extensive stocks. Just take plenty of money, you will go for one thing and usually leave with a trolley load of things you never realised you needed till you saw them.

Electric plugs are different of course, my local electric shop has a big box of converters, but others here have had difficulty locating them, other option is to cut off the plug and change it.
Third option if as I did you intend to re-do the kitchen is to bring sockets from the UK (Don't forget the mounting boxes!!!) and fit them along side the standard sockets, DO check your wiring, I completely rewired because house had a nightmare radial system of aluminium cable simply twisted together at the joints.

Others may correct me if I am wrong but.....
It's all a big adventure really! so enjoy it!