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Have a contract on our first house. It is in good shape, home inspection is on Thursday so we will really see. House was built in 2005, but hey we can make this a post for anyone moving into a house.
But what items a do you want to do on day one.
Me...
-Thermostats, might upgrade to programable or even WiFi ones.
-dog fence. Full yard is fenced we have a little wiener dog, planning to section part just for him. We have a little kid and want to give him some freedom seperate from the dog part of the yard.
-caulking/sealing. Try to knock any and everything out. Check all doors for drafts, same with Windows.
On the first day, you sit on the floor and eat pizza. It's the law.
Then you decide what to do next. The first thing I did was clean the bathroom. The first room we painted, and then cleaned to within an inch of its life, was the kitchen, and unpacked all the dishes, etc. We painted three more rooms before the furniture arrived, had the carpets steam cleaned, and scrubbed and washed everything that was standing still.
The thermostat, the dog fence ... Those are things you can do after you've moved in. They are trivial. Think about the things you need to do before you actually live there, before the furniture arrives and makes it more difficult to clean, paint, repair, etc.
I spent a week cleaning our house after we bought it. We also demo-ed the entire bathroom and redid it. We had the time because our apartment lease wasn't up yet. Clean, clean, clean. That's always #1 for me!
I'll assume there is a garage...
design the layout- storage cabinets, work benches, toolboxes all the other crap that doesn't belong in a garage that has "her" name on it.
And which side the Camaro(?) will go on!
But, in reality the garage will always be the last on the list
I'll assume there is a garage...
design the layout- storage cabinets, work benches, toolboxes all the other crap that doesn't belong in a garage that has "her" name on it.
And which side the Camaro(?) will go on!
But, in reality the garage will always be the last on the list
LOL you are obviously not married to my DH!
He was in the garage organizing everything, while I was in the house, directing the movers - "That's upstairs - that's kitchen - that's the living room"....
It helps if, when packing up the old place, you clearly mark not only what is in it but what room it is going to. This way the LR lamps don't end up in the spare BR. Already have in your head what will be placed where. And don't put anything on a shelf, in a cabinet, or on a rod that you haven't wiped down first. Even if it is brand-new, there may still be sawdust, scraps, whatever. So have a bucket and cloths and cleaning sprays in your car, at the ready.
Clean, clean, clean...everything! We cleaned top to bottom every room. Its really one of the few opportunities you will get to easily clean without furniture, curtains, rugs in the way. Each room was cleaned top to bottom including the insides of the baseboard heaters, every window, light fixture and closet. Same as Ohiogirl above we did bathrooms, followed by kitchen which included all the insides of the cabinets and all the appliances. We easily spent a week if not longer cleaning. Once most of the cleaning was done, we painted the kitchen and I started my demo work on the half bath and family room. Since we had a month before we moved in, it gave us a little time to do demo before all of our stuff was there.
We also did the mandatory pizza while sitting on the floor on the first day :-)
I'd focus most on anything that will be more difficult to do later. If the hardwood floors need refinishing or carpet needs to be replaced, do that now, as it'll be harder when the rooms are full of furniture. If you're planning to paint, do that now as well (though it's not as difficult to do later as flooring).
The first thing I do any time I move into a new place is clean. Before I even start to unpack I bring in all of my cleaning supplies and give the house a good scrub down.
Before I do anything after the movers have left, I make sure there is a clear path to the coffee maker, the shower, my bed and at least one working TV (for company while unpacking). Only then do I start the cleaning and settling in.
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