Our move so far...

Hi all,
We have a contract on a house! Hope everything goes well. If things go as planned, we will move in late January. The pictures on the website don't do it justice. It is a little too blue, but I am planning on painting the kitchen cabinets a more neutral color, like a light beige to coordinate with the floor tiles. Can't do anything about all the blue carpet though. Decorating style is also far from what we like..but it will look a lot different when we have our stuff in there. If you would like to check it out:
http://www.raywhite.com/cgi-bin/rsea...s=cntbry&t=res
Julie

Hey Julie ... lovely house! You must be so excited. [smiley=smiley20.gif]

I think the colours are great throughout the house, and the blue kitchen units are just perfect as they are (very Kiwi!). I would, myself, hope they don't leave those shocking pink curtains in the living area.

:)

Agree with Glenda on this. ?I could easily live there as it is ?The blue kitchen units could do with a little toning down (IMO ?;)) but I even like the pink curtains although perhaps not with the blue furnishings and carpet.

Hope you'll be very happy in the house, Julie. ?It looks great. ?

We just got word that our container will be arriving at Lyttleton port on December 1st! Yesterday, we went to MAF and Customs to get our paperwork done. Those of you who got a professional to move you "door to door" probably don't have to go through all this! We also made arrangements for a company to go and pick up the container and move it to a storage place in Christchurch.
We were told that we had an extra $750+ shipping charges we had to pay....we were told by our original shipper that there would be some fees around $250 from the port, but not this much! Any of you guys out there had a similar problem?

Julie, did they give you a breakdown of the extra charges? I'd have thought if it was just for shipping the shippers should have given you a firm price before you agreed to go with them.

I know some folks have been hit with a hefty charge by companies like NZ Van Lines who collect and deal with the container in NZ and deliver it to you. There's a big scam going on with them where they name their own fees for clearing the shipment whereas, if you deal with MAF directly you pay a much lower fee. There can be extra fees for inspecting your boxes if you have suspect items like wood and other natural elements that might harbour sneaky pests, but that sounds like a very serious extra amount of money you're having to find.

I'm sure things will be different when you self-ship, but I think I'd be asking them to explain and justify the $750 rather than just hand it over to them without question. Look closely into what they tell you in case someone's trying to pull a fast one.

Good luck. Hope you can sort something out with them.

Hi MB,
These charges are on top of what MAF is charging us to inspect our stuff (we have already been told the amount). The shipper in Miami had transferred our container from one ship to the next (we don't know how many) and the ship it is on now is the one that is billing us this amount. We understand (we were told by our initial shipper) we would have to pay around $250 for port charges, but not $750. It almost seems like these people know how to scam poor ignorant migrants, whose container they can hold hostage unless you pay their fees. As it is we are also paying other companies to come pick up the container to take it to the storage facility.
Sometimes, I wonder if it would have been a better choice to have paid the professional to do this...could have saved a few years of our lives! One thing we know for sure (I will update) is that we probably wouldn't have anything broken!

[pianist1]

Hi all,
Sorry for being "silent" for so long!!! We have not had internet access "at home" until just a couple of weeks ago. I have had to use the internet cafe to do my emailing...but if you type as slow as me, it would cost a fortune to send emails, so I have kept it to just business.
Since my last post, lots have happened. We made offers on 2 houses but the sales fell through (great disappointments, after getting our hopes up so high)...not to say also spending a small fortune on home inspectors and appraisers. The third one was a charm...we found it on Trademe of all places! It is 3 years old and has just about everything we were looking for, including a master bedroom large enough to hold our king-size bedroom suite! It has double-glazed windows, 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms. It, however has no heating...but we are getting heat pumps installed next week. We moved into our new house on February 24th and had all our stuff moved from the storage warehouse. Packing and shipping our own things ensured that almost everything was intact...a couple of chairs had broken legs that were easily fixed and one wine glass broke...but that was about it. Some candles also melted a little, although the rest were fine!? We are happy with the location and the house itself.
After almost four months of sitting at home unemployed, I almost lost my mind and was terribly homesick. If anyone offered me a chance to move back to the US, I wouldn't have hesitated at all...please don't get me wrong....we did NOT move here to get away from anyone or anything in the USA. I love the US and will always be an American. The move was about finding employment for my husband who is in a very narrow field that had no jobs open for him when his last one ended.
Anyways, in the middle of January, I received 2 job offers - from Southern Ballet (the largest ballet school in Chch) to work as a pianist; and from St. Margaret's - a private girls' school - to be an itinerant piano teacher. I am now currently making almost as much as I used to back in the US....but the cost of living is a lot higher here. These jobs did not simply arrive at my doorstep - I had sent out numerous CVs to schools and called lots of places for leads. I also networked and joined the local association of music teachers. I know it is difficult breaking into the community here - I have been told by several locals that it is more about who you know rather than how good you are, that will get you jobs here. Regardless, I had prayed long and hard for these jobs. I feel very fortunate that just 5 months after we got here that I have these jobs - which I really enjoy. The people I work with are also very nice and professional - it means so much to work with people I can get along with.
We have had a number of hurdles and challenges, but things are finally becoming more settled and I feel so much better in our new home, not living out of suitcases anymore! Our cat Felix, has also adapted well and seems happy.
Anyone thinking of moving from the US with questions...fell free to write me! Happy Easter ya'll!

[MotherBear]

Hey Julie ,

So pleased to have an update of your news, especially as everything's come good at last. Good karma to you for having stuck it out, as we know you've had a fair few problems since arriving downunder. Looks like everything's finally fallen into place for you and about time too.

The new house sounds great and so do your jobs. Hope this is the start of many good times now. Thanks for looking in on us again and keeping us up to date.

[Glenda]

Hi Julie,

Sooooo glad you now feel more settled and are enjoying your work. You have certainly been busy! Amazing that you found a house on TradeMe!

I hope life continues to get better for you.

:)

[kokopeli]

Hi Julie,

We're also in Chch and expecting our container any day. I'd be interested to hear how you got on with the shipping charges you mentioned in your earlier post. Did you end up paying the $750? We had a massive row with a local company over fees, so have ended up doing it all ourselves.....

We're in Halswell if you fancy a coffee - and waiting for my saxophones to arrive if you ever fancy a jam!:D