(12) Moving to Sicily - Back in the UK Getting Ready to Move to Sicily

MOVING TO SICILY - Moving from the UK, emigrating to Sicily Italy, renovating an abandoned house that hasn’t been occupied for 35 plus years. Rotten Windows, grime, leaking Roof, no electrics or water ….. is where we are starting from.

We are Barbara & Milton, have two young girls aged 8 and 10. Please join our family as we embark on an exciting new journey. Moving from UK's bills and cold climate to sunny warm Sicily! I’m 56 and hopefully “Retiring” early. We plan to sell up and emigrate to the wonders of the warm Mediterranean Islands that make up Sicily, Italy. Becoming an Expat - join us as our adventures begin!

  / wearemovingtosicily  
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IN THIS VIDEO:
Back under the UK's clouds. Our home in the UK is now all packed up. Well mostly. Barbara and the girls have just flown back to Sicily ahead of my departure. The race is now on to pack what is left, leave a bit for me to live off of when I return in a few weeks for the second load of our belongings. Drive from the UK to Sicily and return for a second trip. Maybe a third. The house is mostly boxed and I want to take you around the house to give you an idea of what 172 boxes looks like. Who likes moving? We have an old stone town house, built in 1620. The house stands in the Cotswolds Oxfordshire. My good friend Garry has made himself available and I’ll pick him up on route to the Ferry. Paperwork is all in order, although apparently if your taking your own belongings you don’t need any customs paperwork. But there is such little information available online that I did the declaration paperwork anyway. I’ve purchased a truck for £5000 and will use that to transport everything. When I return, I’ll set it and hopefully get most of my money back. Movers wanted circa £16,000 to move us. So instead I hired a couple of guys to help with the load as I’m not Superman, and there is a lot of furniture to lift. When I get back, decoration on the UK house starts so that we can rent the house out. Don’t want to burn our bridges in case something does not work out, I.e. we run out of money. So makes sense to rent the UK house to cover the mortgage and Council Tax so that I have nothing to pay. Have a local estate agent to manage the property and find us someone to rent it from us. I’ve hired a garage in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily to store all of our things as will not be able to get the truck down the narrow streets of the Kasbah, so will do that in stages as and when we move in. So off to Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. How many trips... two maybe three?

00:00 SHORT INTRO TO THIS MOVING TO SICILY VIDEO
00:55 OPENING CLIPS FOR THE CHANNEL
01:23 WALK ABOUT THE NEAR EMPTY HOUSE - BOXED BELONGINGS
02:12 TOP FLOOR BEDROOMS
02:36 GROUND FLOOR ROOMS
03:02 BASEMENT
03:11 DECLUTTERED 2ND FLOOR OF HOUSE - MOVERS BOXES HAVE GONE
05:07 DOWN TO THE 1ST FLOOR
06:18 THE KITCHEN 1ST FLOOR
06:30 THE GROUND FLOOR
07:57 IN THE TRUCK DRIVING TO SICILY
08:30 ON THE 22 HOUR FERRY FROM GENOA TO PALERMO SICILY

THE MOVING TO SICILY CHANNEL:
In our Moving to Sicily Channel, we share our experiences of relocating to a new country, the challenges we face, and the beautiful life on this Mediterranean island. Whether you're curious about expat life or dreaming of a move to Italy yourself, come along for the ride as we explore new landscapes, culture, and a fresh start!

Not new to DIY but we need help and suggestions from you. Thank you for all the comments and advice to date! We would very much like to have more advice with regards the Moving to Sicily Channel's evolution, what you would like to see more of and less of - e.g. the area, way of life or more detail about how and why. Please fire more comments, advice and questions over!


ABOUT MOVING TO SICILY / US:
Im 56 years old. Waking up one day, exhausted as normal from shift work, and on that drive to work figured out that thanks to the Government extending retirement pension yet again, I had another 22 years of this. The Mortgage, Council Tax, heating costs going up 5%-10% a year. The radio spoke about increasing crime, inflation, tax….. I love my Country but it was now time for me to be selfish. Did I really want to do this for the next 22 years? I then realised that by giving up a £40k a year job wouldn’t be that bad. All I had to do was eliminate my biggest costs and reduce the other costs. Refinance our home to buy a cheap house in a cheaper country, somewhere that had low crime, easy living. Somewhere stuck in time that appreciate a work to live rather than live to work attitude. So, rent out our home to cover the biggest expense, the Mortgage and Council Tax payments, buy a “holiday” home somewhere in the World that was sleepy and cheap. YouTube research gave me places like The East / Orient, Mauritius - all very good options. We settled on Sicily Italy.