Cleveland OH to Manchester area

Hello,
Just wanted to introduce myself.

I recently accepted a job in Alderley Edge and my husband and I (both americans) will be moving from Cleveland OH to the Manchester area as soon as we get our visas.  My husband is a special education teacher, so he is hoping he will be able to find work once we move over.

The information on this board has been really helpful so far!

Right now we are debating on where to live and how much of our household to ship, so any comments on those two things would be appreciated!

We currently live in a one bedroom apartment, so we don't have a ton of stuff, but we do have a couch and dinning table and some other nice furniture that we've purchased.  My job contract is only for two years at the moment, but there could be opportunities after that which would extend our stay.  At this point we're thinking we should just go ahead and ship everything over in a 20ft container because even if we do end up moving back to the states we probably wont be moving back to OH, so keeping stuff in storage here, then moving it somewhere else would probably end up costing about as much as just shipping it back and forth.  We've started getting some quotes from moving/storage companies, so we'll be able to compare the numbers soon, but i'm just looking for input from others who have been in a similar situation.

We are thinking about living in Wilmslow or Macclesfield, but haven't visited the area yet, so don't know much about either place. I'll be coming out in a few months to scope rental places out, but i'd be interested to hear about what its like to live in either of these places!  Seems like Macclesfield has somewhat of a bad reputation, from the internet reading that i've done, but then again, so does Cleveland!

Thanks again for all of the helpful advice on these boards!

Molly

Welcome!!

I can't help much with the locations as we live in South Manchester (not too far from the airport).  We are both USC with 2 kids and one on the way.  We moved a lot of our smaller things but held off on the larger things because we also are on a fixed term visa and didn't know what to expect.  We did live in the UK for 3 years a while back so had an idea of the lifestyle to help us.  The first move we only came with what we could ship in suitcases because it was for a post doc position and stored stuff at our parents houses.  This move we did a massive clearout and sold/ gave away just about anything we weren't planning on moving or wasn't sentimental.  Alot of the stuff we moved was stuff we knew we could use here. 

Will you be able to visit before you have to move things?  we were lucky to find our rental before we had the mover pack so had a better idea of what sort of bigger furniture we needed.  A good place to start looking at houses is rightmove which you can look at photos etc in the areas you are thinking of.

As far as the Manchester area we really like it and feel settled after about a year and a half.  Sorry I can't be more help but feel free to ask if you have any questions.  One last thing- when we moved over the first time we found it tough because both being USC we had nobody but each other for a while and LOTS to learn so if you have questions about other stuff don't be afraid to ask!!!

If you're looking at a container to ship your belongings - and paying for it yourselves - compare that with the cost of buying new furniture over here. Room sizes are generally much smaller, and you may not be able to fit in everything you bring into a British home.

Honestly, you may be best off selling what you've got and shipping your personal belongings - buying new furniture here.

I'm also a Clevelander living in Manchester, but I'm closer to the city centre in Chorlton.

Alderley Edge is lovely! Wilmslow is also very nice. You will see a striking difference between those areas and Maccs, I think, but there are nice bits of both (and Wilmslow might be quite expensive).
For your husband, have him look up the paperwork to get his teaching license transferred over to the UK. It's a simple form, and it would be even easier to do if he was in the States (as you have to mail something off, then get something from your credentialing board and then mail something else).
Definitely take into account traffic in that area. It can be a nightmare, and it might be better to take a smaller place close by than an ideal place it will take you 45minutes+ to get to at the end of the day.
I live and work in the city centre, but I keep my horse in Wilmslow (and work in education), so I'd be happy to answer any questions as well!

Hi and welcome! I don't live in Manchester but we are considering a move to the general area.

I second what was said about selling items before you move. If you are not attached to it it may just be the way to go. We are not taking any furniture with us and very few possessions to start off with.

we were lucky to find our rental before we had the mover pack

I'm curious about this, tmfigy, how long in advance did you secure your rental before you move? Did you have to pay from when you decided which one you wanted or did they 'hold' it for a month or so or however long before moving you found it?
I keep finding great properties on rightmove but they are almost all available now and we are not moving until summer, so I don't know the right way to go about this. 

We knew we were moving over on a Tier 2 about 6 months in advance and got lots of quotes and stuff gathered from moving companies.  As soon as we got our passports back with our visas all done we came for a week to look at housing (about the end of Aug) and really just bombed every agency with what we needed and made appts for anything that remotely fit into something we might be interested in.  DH because of work stuff DH came a coupe days before me and when I arrived we looked at the stuff he narrowed down plus more.  This was over a bank holiday weekend too.

Anyway- we did get lucky and found a place we liked.  Put in the application etc as soon as we could and when I got approved paid the deposit.  The landlords were a little flexible and I know we moved in by Oct 1 but I'm thinking it was a week or 2 before that- probably whenever out visa started.  So the landlord delayed the start of the lease for maybe a month at most.  DH came first and I stayed back with the kids a few weeks to finish up stuff.  He literally got off the plan and took a taxi to collect the keys. 

Once we knew we had the house we knew what to tell the movers and had them come maybe mid Sept and out stuff arrived on Thanksgiving day.

We only moved stuff that would be covered under the expense account he was given and it's mostly stuff we would not move back if the move wasn't paid for.  If his employer would've been able to give us the cash we would've just bought stuff here.

We were told properties really wouldn't get held for us so just looked alot to get used to prices and locations then about 2 weeks before the visit contacted agencies to start the process.  We used right move and gumtree.

Thanks for all of the helpful suggestions!

We are planning on selling some of our furniture before we leave, but unfortunately don't have the option of storing things with parents, so we'll either have to pay for storage, or bring things with us.  As far as things not fitting into British homes... I guess I don't know much about this, but we live in a small 1 bedroom apartment right now, so we don't really have oversized furniture.  Our biggest items are a 3 seat couch and a loveseat in our living room (may decide to sell the 3 seat couch before the move),  a four seat dinning table and our bed (which is american queen size).  These are the largest items, but it doesn't seem to me that we'd have trouble finding a 2-3 bedroom apt./house in the Manchester area that would accommodate these items.  What do you all think?

I'm planning on moving out a few months before my husband, so i'll likely be staying in a bedsit or something for those months while looking for a more permanent rental.

For your husband, have him look up the paperwork to get his teaching license transferred over to the UK. It's a simple form, and it would be even easier to do if he was in the States (as you have to mail something off, then get something from your credentialing board and then mail something else).

Do you have any more info on this?  We found this site:
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/t/teaching%20agency%20%20%20application%20for%20qts%20%20%20non%20eea.pdf

But it seems to be the paperwork that he would need to fill out once we get to the UK.  What paperwork should he do while we are still in the US?

Do you have any more info on this?  We found this site:
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/t/teaching%20agency%20%20%20application%20for%20qts%20%20%20non%20eea.pdf

But it seems to be the paperwork that he would need to fill out once we get to the UK.  What paperwork should he do while we are still in the US?

The key part there is getting the letter from your state's DofE (I'm from CA, so I actually had to get it from our separate credentialing service). It ended up with me having to make a few phone calls and then wait with fingers crossed for a letter to cross over the ocean--I would rather have done it while still in CA and then posted it in the UK!)

Our biggest items are a 3 seat couch and a loveseat in our living room (may decide to sell the 3 seat couch before the move),  a four seat dinning table and our bed (which is american queen size).

I've found most people here will have a full size bed not an American size queen (things are labeled a little different) so some bedrooms the queen might be a bit tight.  We brought a full size bed over and had to cut the box spring in half so we could get up the stairs.  The mattress we could sort of bend.  Some adverts for rentals will give the floor plans of the rooms so maybe just have a look to get an idea of how the rooms might be configured.

The key part there is getting the letter from your state's DofE (I'm from CA, so I actually had to get it from our separate credentialing service). It ended up with me having to make a few phone calls and then wait with fingers crossed for a letter to cross over the ocean--I would rather have done it while still in CA and then posted it in the UK!)

That makes sense! Thanks!

Hello! I'm from about an hour west of Cleveland! I've been living in Staffordshire for almost six months on a student visa pursuing grad school here. I live with my long term boyfriend now, who's English. Before that, we were in a LDR with many Skype sessions, texts, and visits to and fro.
Don't know much about the Manchester area so I'm not much of a help in that department. Though when it comes to your furniture, perhaps you'd be better off selling it and buying new furniture over here in the UK. Ikea and Dunelm Mill (like Bed Bath and Beyond) are both good for furniture.
Good luck with the move!

Just saying hello really. I am from Akron,  but lived and worked in Cleveland for years.