Shipping our house from Seattle to Anchorage (rent, movers)

[Gonorth9]

Well... It's been a lot of research but I think we've found our path to Anchorage.

I'll rent a 20' uhaul here in San Antonio and take 3 days to drive up to Seattle, WA.
Cost estimate = $3050
Then with help from a local moving company I will unload at the Northland Services docks into a 20'x8'x8' container that will then be shipped to Anchorage docks where local movers will help me load it into a uhaul day rental.
Cost estimate = $4600
I will fly to Anchorage from Seattle and await the arrival of my wife, 3 children, two dogs, and the barge.
Cost estimate = $2000


Total estimate - 1 week and $9650.

Door to door shipping of our house will cost about $12500 plus airfare.
My driving through Canada with our house will take 6-8 days and cost about $8000 plus airfare for the family.

I think this is our best option.

Any thought? What am I missing?

[warptman]

Sell everything and buy new/used when you get here.

[Gonorth9]

That is the plan. We have a 3300 sqft 5bdrm home now. I figure if we sell everything that is not heirloom furniture or personal items then we can get it all down to a 20' truck and then re-buy there.

[flyonpa]

Out of curiosity I did a U Pack (ABF Trucking company)

For 3br House 17' from San Antonio to ANC, there quote for 17' of 28 foot truck was $12,600 apx 11 biz days. ($729 for per foot if over 17')

Load Once, Unload Once, better than doing it 3x.

How are you getting your car(s) there? Might want to consider the ferry, to move your Car(s) north.

[AK76]

Yep, for $12,500 one could easily refurnish a house. My wife and I plan to move from Alaska to the PNW next year and will sell all that we can and start anew, it is the most cost effective method.

[Gonorth9]

@flyonpa We will be selling both 2wd vehicles and buying new once there.

We looked into the pods as well. I see it this way: $5000 for loading and unloading 4times. I'll do that! For less than $200 I will hire a pair of local movers to help. I think we could get it even smaller if we sold everything I wanted to sell. The 8 days we have in Anchorage waiting for our stuff to arrive will be full of shopping - the girls are looking forward to that!

@AK76 Who knows... maybe the timing will be right and we'll buy all your stuff! ;-)

[cocaseco]

Originally Posted by Gonorth9

That is the plan. We have a 3300 sqft 5bdrm home now. I figure if we sell everything that is not heirloom furniture or personal items then we can get it all down to a 20' truck and then re-buy there.

Thats a great plan. I just complete a cross country move and spent nearly $20K. In retrospect i wish I had done what you are doing. I could have bought a lot of nice new stuff with that.

[Gonorth9]

Agreed! I'm hoping to make a couple grand off all our stuff to combine with what we are saving by using the barge. Now the question is just how much do we have to sell to get everything down to a 20'x8'x8' shipping container.
BTW: it's only another $1500 to get 2000 lbs more space in another container.

[JasonAndJulie]

Let me tell you, a container that big is not as big as you think. I just sold one of those containers a couple months ago (long story) and for a family it is not much.

I live pretty simply and try not to be a consumer but considering things from a family perspective, it's going to be tough.

Also, think you also need to have a winter clothing plan. If you're like us you have a lightweight jacket and flip flops for winter gear. You are going to need so little in the way of shorts and t shirts that the budget is going to take a huge blow just from clothing. When we talked about getting up there we had planned on stopping at resale shops the farther north we got so we could get the basics like heavy jackets and snow bibs. Those big ticket items.

[akck]

Have you looked into buying a container and trucking it to Seattle? If we ever move out, that's our plan.