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The game plan is to buy the new house this spring, and then sell the old house about a year from now.
The good news is this gives us plenty of time to paint, fix up things, etc. However, we're wondering if it's too soon to get started?
For example, how soon is too soon to add a fresh coat of paint? I'd guess we should wait to paint the "major" rooms until after furniture is moved, but does it hurt to start repainting some of the "minor" rooms such as a basement bathroom?
How about minor things like adding new pulls to the cabinets, new light switches, etc. OK to do that now or should we wait?
Barring kids' fingerprints, a heavy smoker in the house or just messy habits, paint now. You get to enjoy it & paint doesn't fade. Same goes for other items to change out.
What are you worried about?
Better now than waiting. Paint easily stays looking fresh a year unless things scuff it up. I have the most problems if I smush a fly and it leaves a mark. I am trying to color match some of my walls and am having a really hard time. The tone I got is a shade darker and it's looking kind of blotchy, at least it did last time I tried and gave up. I just started again today, if it doesn't dry to a nice flat coat I think I'm going to have to paint it all white.
Location: Finally the house is done and we are in Port St. Lucie!
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You can start painting now. Keep a sample sized jar of paint you use for each room/rooms and label it. Then you will be able to do touch up when it is time to get it ready for selling.
I would actually use a canning jar and transfer enough paint to fill then seal it tight. It should keep like that until you are ready to use it, if needed.
Exactly what others have said. I'd even empty out rooms to de-clutter and as a rehearsal for what gets moved and what just goes. You never get to know your belongs so well as when you have to pick up each one and figure out where to put it.
For storing touch up paint - I love a product called Dipsy Dabber. It's about the size of a mason jar with a built in brush and it makes touch ups pretty slick. Dipsy Dabber | Paint Storage and Touchup Solution Then you can pitch the paint mess (used drop cloths, grungy brushes, partial cans, etc) before the bustle of moving.
Huh? Why are you waiting so long to sell the current house?
Dueling opportunities. After we decided to retire and move to Williamsburg, I signed up for a really cool program that requires me to be in residence by summer 2017. Fantastic way to kick off retirement. But after signing all the papers for it, my husband's employers asked if he could extend his retirement until spring 2018 to handle a situation. Also a good opportunity, and might even be wrapped up by November.
So, the good news is this upcoming year will be very exciting for both of us. The bad news is for a short time we need to have two households in two cities. We explored different ways to handle this, but after looking at the realities involved in getting a short term apartment rental in either of the cities we finally decided the best move was simply to own two houses for awhile. Although there's a possibility my husband might be able to house sit for a friend next fall, and if that happens (and if we know for sure when the job is wrapping up so we can make that commitment) we'll go ahead and put the house up for sale and he'll move into the friend's place.
Exactly what others have said. I'd even empty out rooms to de-clutter and as a rehearsal for what gets moved and what just goes. You never get to know your belongs so well as when you have to pick up each one and figure out where to put it.
For storing touch up paint - I love a product called Dipsy Dabber. It's about the size of a mason jar with a built in brush and it makes touch ups pretty slick. Dipsy Dabber | Paint Storage and Touchup Solution Then you can pitch the paint mess (used drop cloths, grungy brushes, partial cans, etc) before the bustle of moving.
Thanks for the great suggestion (and to the other posters who had similar suggestions). Great to hear we can get started on a lot of the projects. I'm not sure what I was worried about, just thought maybe homes sell these days only if they appear "almost virgin" or something like that. The HGTV effect, maybe.
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