How to move household from CA to Alaska?

[Barkingowl]

Can't the house just be barged from CA?

[Swede in CA]

We are planning to move during June or July 2009. I guess roads would be OK. It shows that we have to drive from San Diego to Salt Lake City to Montana, and then, cross the border and drive to Alaska.

Could anyone tell how are the roads in that part of Canada?

I do have many questions, I would like to ask few. I understand not many lived in San Diego, but if you could say where is more expensive to live in San Diego or Anchorage? If I make 108,700 would be it enough to live there?
Where to buy winter clothes here or Alaska? What would you take from 48 lower?

We have passports ready, we traveled internationally a lot. We have relatives in Sweden and NZ. None of us has neither a criminal record nor DUI. Where better to rent? We are looking 3 bedroom apartment or a house in the area with good schools.

[JavaPhil]

I lived in San Diego, long ago. Food is more expensive here, housing is cheaper. No taxes, income or sales from the state of Alaska. Slightly higher gas and electric. Cheaper gasoline (normally, just not at this moment). Higher average salaries than California. Cleaner air, less traffic. Better living conditions as long as you don't expect 80 degree summers. You don't need air conditioning here.

[Swede in CA]

What kind of life would we have with my salary?

[Swede in CA]

My hubby is in Electronics. He is a specialist in access technology, alarms, DVR, video equipm. We did not look for job for him yet. Is it possible to find a job in his field and how much per hour is OK for that?

If we have 140K-160 K /salary together is it OK for Anchorage?

[JavaPhil]

Better than OK. No state income or sales tax. In Anchorage, no city sales tax. Comparable utilities. Slightly higher. Slightly higher incomes in Alaska. Decent schools. Clean air and no traffic jams like SanDiego.

[lellenn]

If you're making six figures you will do just fine up here, believe me.

[Crossfire600]

We had a four bedroom home loaded to the hilt with "stuff". Here is what we did..

We tossed two dumpsters of "stuff" before we ever got down to the stuff we thought we wanted to ship.

We put a pink posted note on the things we "wanted" to take.

The stuff that did not have a pink tag was looked over by family and friends. If they wanted something it was purple tagged with their name and they came and hauled it away.

What ever was left, with no tag, went into the dumpster.

We packed what was left which was about 1/4 of our stuff. By packing our stuff we avoided the fees that movers charge for packing it.

We leave Wednesday for Anchorage and without even stepping out the door we have around $4,000 just in getting ready and the Ferry reservation to Haines from Bellingham.

The movers came to do estimates.. we are guessing, somewhere around $16,000 to move one car and a living room size amount of boxes from Pa to Anchorage..

This does not include, gas, hotel, meals.. etc..

Estimated cost of the move.. with movers, fuel, meals, hotel and miscellaneous expenses is around $26,000-$30,000...

This includes using movers or taking ourselves:

#1. A 12X15 storage area size amount of boxes.
#2. No furniture
#3. Two vehicles

[Classic Satch]

Originally Posted by Crossfire600

We had a four bedroom home loaded to the hilt with "stuff". Here is what we did..

We tossed two dumpsters of "stuff" before we ever got down to the stuff we thought we wanted to ship.

We put a pink posted note on the things we "wanted" to take.

The stuff that did not have a pink tag was looked over by family and friends. If they wanted something it was purple tagged with their name and they came and hauled it away.

What ever was left, with no tag, went into the dumpster.

We packed what was left which was about 1/4 of our stuff. By packing our stuff we avoided the fees that movers charge for packing it.

We leave Wednesday for Anchorage and without even stepping out the door we have around $4,000 just in getting ready and the Ferry reservation to Haines from Bellingham.

The movers came to do estimates.. we are guessing, somewhere around $16,000 to move one car and a living room size amount of boxes from Pa to Anchorage..

This does not include, gas, hotel, meals.. etc..

Estimated cost of the move.. with movers, fuel, meals, hotel and miscellaneous expenses is around $26,000-$30,000...

This includes using movers or taking ourselves:

#1. A 12X15 storage area size amount of boxes.
#2. No furniture
#3. Two vehicles

Holy crap! I didn't realize how much it cost to move here. Walmart picked up the whole tab for us and I never did find out how much it was. It cost $2800 for my CR-V to be shipped, on Walmart's dime, but all of our household stuff must have been EXPENSIVE! No wonder they didn't give her a sign-on bonus, paying for the move was probably bigger anyway.

[prairiechicken]

My son moved to So Cal. last fall and it was 2500.00 to ship furniture and truck. the company brought the container and left it for a week so he did all the packing and the truck went on last. hope this helps.