Cosmic I feel for you. I am in a similar boat. If all goes well with my sale we'll be leaving our house soon as well, but we have made the decision that Lexy will stay with my sister during the move. She will go before we start packing, and she will be picked up after we have unpacked and removed boxes.
Having moved her into this house a week after we moved in a year ago, and then proceeded to move furniture, plaster the living room etc etc, redecorate and disturb her home essentially for a few months, she didn't settle well into the house as she could have. She still has nerves about going to the back of the house. She prefers the front of the house.
I would recommend the cats don't stay in the house. The plaster dust gets into everything, even in parts of the house where the plastering isn't happening. If Moomin has asthma then the dust particles will disturb her.
I know sometimes its not practical to do this, but if you can keep the cats out of the house, even a cattery, the moving process won't stress them as much as leaving them in the house when all the goings on are happening. It is very stressful for cats, even when you are moving things in the house, boxes everywhere. This is only my opinion of course, but I know which one I would choose.