I wish you well Dtech. Having lived here along the deep SE Coast now for many decades, I always had the dream of transferring up to the north end and eventually retiring there. I worked for FPL here for 25yrs before a health issue that knocked me out on disability and into retirement. Where I currently reside it was within 2mi from my old service center and a quiet little town that you can legally drive golf carts on the roads and within a stones throw from the bay.

I currently have a niece living in Tallahassee and she loves it. Having graduated from Gainesville she just stayed up there afterwards. I've had several of my peers from work move to the Live Oak area and say it was the best thing they ever did. I was just at the point of enough seniority to transfer up and life got in the way, as it so often does.

Currently, I could never make the trip and will punch my timecard out here. Certainly the demographics of this area have underwent many changes since moving into Miami in 54'. I am happy for you and wish you well in your new home and area. There are a lot of good folks up that way.

My last move was local. Move before that was from Ohio to NC.

I rented a 26 foot truck for both. UHaul has a labor service that I used with the last move. Smartest thing I ever did. I had the young strong guys move all the furniture and heavy stuff. The boxes can easily go on a dolly and be moved on your own if you are worried about the movers seeing it. the second move was 11 miles. I had the crew for 4 hours. They were able to load and unload the whole house in 4 hours. Total cost = $360 + lunch from Chick-Fil-A. I have 2700 Sq Ft House.

Thanks for the additional replies and well wishes everyone! We really appreciate it and this thread has been outstanding in helping us organize, discuss, and plan well in advance. Just to clarify, the new home is still under construction and won't likely be done until some time in April or even May. Once we close on it we will then need to get a few things done / delivered like window treatments, garage door opener, washer and dryer (other stainless steel appliances already included in our build), security system / home automation (currently looking into this as a DIY project), and the new safe so there will be some opportunity to make a trip or two with at least one of our vehicles before the main move date of the bulk items as well. Most things I would need/prefer to move at the time the bulk furniture items and boxes are moved up though. We also will not have every weekend free during that coming time-frame for a variety of reasons and while my work is allowing me to take whatever time off I need to accomplish the relocation, my wife's job is not necessarily as flexible.

My wife and I have been discussing it the past couple of days and since we've had our master bedroom set for quite a few years now, it is now decided that we will end up paring down the bulk furniture items further by donating everything in our master bedroom except our king mattress or putting the items out for bulk trash which is essentially the same as donating it as most bulk items in even decent condition are picked up by bulk trash pickers before the city truck even makes it by. We also have two other mismatching furniture pieces for elsewhere in the home we are not going to take either so we have decided we are going to rent a one way 26' U-haul truck for the remainder of the bedrooms, bulk items, boxes, and other items of concern so that we will be able to move everything up in the truck all at once and use our personal vehicles for anything else we need extra room for. This also helps resolve the privacy and security concerns of moving certain things. We've also been discussing our move plans with friends and family and they are insistent that they want to help so while I did not want to inconvenience anyone and was willing to pay for the help, it would appear that we will have all the help we need both here and up there given the folks that also want to tag along to help and see our new home. It has really been quite moving (pun not intended) at the offers of help and well wishes we have received. Again, I just did not want to impose on or risk injury to anyone but it seems as always, God is providing, and the offers insisting on helping have rolled in.

The cost savings from what I have priced out is substantial in using the rental truck even compared to PODS and such, so not only will we provide some nice thank you gifts / rewards to the folks helping us, we will be able to put the cost savings towards some new furniture that we had already budgeted for but will have a little more to apply towards them and the other items we need to do right away in the home. We will also have direct control of the packing and delivery date since we will control and drive the truck.

Having traveled extensively by car as a child (thanks Mom and Dad for this and for everything else!) and in later years as well as with my own family, we have had the opportunity to see and experience a majority of the States (and all of Florida) and the wondrous variety of towns, scenery, and people across the country and can greatly appreciate what we've seen and the differences in potential lifestyles that exist. That is one of the reasons we were confident that we would end up moving elsewhere from South Florida sooner or later. This home will truly be our "forever home" and what we've always dreamed of in virtually all respects including building a home of our choice and options on a nice piece of land that is a little over 3/4 acre rectangular lot with a nice treeline view and a large pond/small lake along the back of the property with plenty of yard between these features and the back of our home. The home will be a one story 4 bedroom plus a den, including a dedicated guest room, 3 full baths and a large two car garage with an additional six foot extension on top of that for a total of approximately 3600 sq/ft. all within a short approximately 5 mile back roads commute to my work. While there are certainly a lot of folks that we will miss being closer to, we are looking forward to having and being good neighbors, finding a new church, making new friends, and reconnecting with a couple of old friends in the Central Florida area. We are very humbled and grateful to God for including this incredible blessing in His plan and I even get a little moisture buildup in my eyes when I think about it at length or sit down to write something like this.

Thanks again for all the replies and well wishes and we wish all of you the best as well. This is also helping bring down the stress level several notches so it is much appreciated.

Sell everything that's not a family heirloom or brand new and expensive. Firearms, unless you have a tremendous collection, should be compact and easy to move yourself.
Once you're in your new home you'll wonder why you paid to move the rest because it didn't fit your new accommodations, for any number of reasons.
Take the money you got and the money you saved by not paying a to move it and buy what fits your needs.

I'm a few years away from hopefully retiring and I plan to move to Arizona.

I'm 62 and I'm looking at my current home and thinking I need to really thin things down.

I think I'll sell or give away most of my furniture. I'll buy furniture when I get moved that looks like it belongs in an Arizona home, sort of a rustic style.

I'll get things minimized so I just don't have to move so much.

It is HARD to pare down, but I've got a 2,000 sq ft home FULL of stuff.

I've got probably 3 to no more to 4 years to go, so it seems to me to be easier to start now. I've already starting taking things to Goodwill, etc, and donating other things to the needy.

It is hard to get rid of things I've had for many years, and some things I will keep and move with me, but most will just go away before that date arrives.

Something else to consider is that when we die, someone has to come in and clear out, dispose, handle in one way or another, one's possessions and stuff. I don't want to leave that for a family member to toil through, so I'm starting now, every week the house gets a little better.

Moved from 400 miles/6 hr drive from DC Metro area to Charlotte area 4+ years ago. Packed everything ourselves in U-Haul and Home Depot boxes. Broke down the beds, tables, etc. Took a cargo van load of odds and ends there myself and put in storage for a month (tools, guitars, amps, bicycle, fragile stuff, etc.). Let movers do the loading and unloading. We got rid of some furniture before we moved, and didn't have any fancy furniture to move. Lots of IKEA crap. They loaded up our stuff one day and met us at the new place the next day. I got quotes from several national moving chains and chose United. No problems at all and nothing damaged. It was a driver and 2-3 guys.

Well, the further North you go in Florida, the deeper south you will get

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
Well, the further North you go in Florida, the deeper south you will get

I'd agree. Most of my friends that transferred up to those really north Florida areas had a bit more "southern" tastes to begin with and it suited them well. Though they preferred to be a bit more isolated and definitely out of the south end city life and the changing demographics of the Miami area. It's beautiful in many of those areas up along the northern border. At one point I was aiming for just waiting out retirement and pulling the plug and moving into like the NW Georgia area of the lower Blue Ridge mtns, maybe the Helen area.

Anyway Dtech, please post a follow up whenever you finally get settled in and how you like it. I'm sure you'll enjoy the new home and area!

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
Anyway Dtech, please post a follow up whenever you finally get settled in and how you like it. I'm sure you'll enjoy the new home and area!

I most certainly will!

The great thing about where we're moving to is that while it will still get hot during the summers it will not last quite as long or be quite as bad as being in South Florida while the other months will be noticeably cooler and more comfortable for outdoor activities and just enjoying cooler weather. Also being more towards the middle of the State, hurricanes are a bit less of a concern but still also have plans to install a backup generator regardless. We'll be moving from the swamp to more of a forest quite literally. Having a four hour head-start to anywhere we might want to travel north of us to by car will be nice. You quickly realize how long Florida is when you decide to drive from South Florida up north somewhere!

Both our daughters will be attending UCF in the fall so we will be closer to them too for them to come home more frequently or us visiting them. One is transferring from FIU down here and the younger one will be graduating from High School just before we move. Since we will be in between Tampa and Orlando, we can easily visit and take advantage of the "big city" when we choose to while still having everything we need and lots to enjoy right in town since we'll be moreso in the Southwest quarter of Polk County. The parks are also a short drive away so I foresee annual passes being invested in to take advantage of them.

Financially, the move from South Florida to Central Florida, particularly the area we are moving to, is going to be a very positive one. You get A LOT more real estate / property for your money there than you do here, even when having one built. Had the move been reversed, it would have been financially more difficult. This doesn't mean a lower quality home either since Florida has had state wide improvements and requirement changes in the building codes across the state over the years and our builder is going above and beyond just meeting the requirements as well. The home with the features, specs, and lot size I mentioned above is costing us a good amount less than what we sold our 3 bedroom 2 bath, smaller lot but on a lake, 21 year old home here for. We will still have a mortgage mind you as we did have to pay off a mortgage when selling our house here, but a very affordable one that we should be able to pay down quickly. The cost for taxes and insurance will also be considerably lower and we will be able to transfer our "Save our homes" primary residence property tax percentage / ratio to the new home there helping us even more in that regard. Water will be cheaper (we will be on septic tank vs city sewer) and possibly electric as well, while cable / internet services will be pretty much a wash depending on what we chose to go with. Services are by Spectrum and Frontier so there is a benefit with going with Spectrum as they offer a good wireless plan price (Verizon network) if you get at least internet service with them. Because our area will have new infrastructure recently put in place to service our lot and the others in our development, high speed internet up to Gigabit speed will be available to us but even the less expensive option will give us up to 400Mbps speeds.

It is truly the best of all worlds for us in all respects. A more rural setting and feel for the home in a mid-size town, a family homestead for us to enjoy and others to visit, and with all the modern benefits in construction and services, along with other things we need or want close by! Again, we can't thank God enough for how this is working out for us as a family!