All I’ll say is to reiterate “do as much as you possibly can BEFORE you move in.” Removing carpets, taking down wallpaper (sucks!), painting, floor refinishing, etc. Once you move in and get settled, you’re not going to want to do any of that shit. I have a spot on the wall in the kitchen that I patched over a hole in the drywall. We moved in before I could repaint over it, and then never did. Eventually I just hung a painting over it and forgot about it.
Good advice, and better news, this varies by city and for most cities it is limited to things like driveway improvement, furnaces, water heaters, well and septic. You can usually check the township or city website for what requires a building permit and/or inspection.
Congratulations! I love buying houses.
But there’s one unwritten law about buying a house - sometime in the first 12 months, quite possibly within weeks of you moving in, some major appliance will go kaput for ever. Boiler usually, but could be the dishwasher, washing machine, a leaking shower… This will also happen at a really inopportune time (Christmas Eve was my favourite).
Have some funds put aside fore these emergency purchases you never had to worry about when you could just phone the landlord.
Thanks for all the responses! Lot of stuff that makes a ton of sense in here.
Our move date is 11/27 so we gotta get a move on some stuff. Sadly we are going to have to live with the carpet for a few years. That’s an expense too far right now. We are going to redo the kitchen floor though.
We have a one year home warranty that will, hopefully, keep us safe from a major breakdown for a little while and we do have several thousand dollars set aside for home repairs, but I swear it’s like every time I turn around someone is telling me I need to spend more money.
It’s honestly a little overwhelming this morning. But I have started making a list and we will start prioritizing things tonight. Get to work tomorrow.
- Does the house still have its original roof, or did the previous owner put on a new roof at some point, and if so, when?
You want to know this if you don’t already. Because if a 31 year old house is still on its first roof, it probably will need replacing in the next few years. And that’s a nontrivial expense.
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I second DCnDC on doing as much as you can before you move in.
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Also: before moving day, get some graph paper, and sketch the outlines of each room at whatever scale works best (but the same scale for all rooms). Show all doors and windows - outlets too, if you have the energy.
Then back at your current home, measure your furniture and make little cutouts of it from graph paper to the same scale. Then you can move furniture cutouts around on the graphs of each room to decide where stuff should go.
You may not be able to make every last decision this way - some calls of where some piece of furniture should go will come down to “how does it look there?” but this will quickly eliminate quite a few possibilities that won’t work because they won’t fit, or technically fit but you can see that that arrangement would be really crowded.
Then you’ll be able to tell the movers (or your friends who are helping you move, whichever) exactly where to put all the furniture. At least for now, but you won’t have to move things around much later.
- Rather than (or along with) getting the biggest refrigerator you can afford and fit in your kitchen, I’m a big fan of having a chest freezer in the basement. We’ve had one since the mid-1990s sometime, and I have no idea how we ever got along without one.
Winter is coming. Not knowing where you live, I’ll assume you have climate changes and suggest that you (or someone you hire) climb up and check your gutters for debris and get them cleaned out, if necessary. Also, if you have forced air heat, check your furnace filter and change it if necessary. Quite often, repairs will have been done to the place to spiff it up prior to sale, which generates dust that can clog your filter. Actually, it’s a given, since you say you have central air.
Another easy thing to take care of is to check your heat pump/compressor, which sits on a slab outside the house. The fins are probably caked with dust and crap from the summer. Take a garden hose with a good nozzle on it and clean the fins. You won’t hurt it and there is no danger to you. I would also consider calling a reputable HVAC company to come out and do a thorough check on your heating system. They’ll check things like the fan, the igniter and any stack gases. You don’t want your furnace to crap out during the winter.
A non-climate thing to check right off: the water heater. A lot of people crank them up to maximum, which shortens the life of the heater and creates a scalding hazard. Check to see if it’s set to 120 F. If the heater is over ten years old, keep a close eye on it for leaks in the coming years.
So when are you moving?
A sizable portion of the advice you just got revolves around maintenance. There are basically 2 ways that can go, depending on you’re attitude. If you are committed to it, love the location and intend to stay forever you will be more likely to do the maintenance, and be rewarded with higher re-sale value if you DO move. Renters and people in unstable situations tend to care less about their domicile generally speaking. I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons diminishing a person’s interest. It’s just a question of whether or not you view it as a valuable investment and act accordingly.
Yes indeed.
And in extreme cases they can order you to undo all the work:
“…the case of the millionaire who demolished a Grade II Georgian house in south Wales, worth £2million, without planning permission, to create a palace worthy of a footballer’s wife. He added a sizeable extension, covered the courtyard with a conservatory and added a six-car garage and swimming pool complex, whilst ripping out 18th-century features such as marble fireplaces and moulded architraves and gutting the adjoining 16th century cottage. He was subsequently ordered to spend a further £500,000 to undo the damage and fully restore the property.”
I live in the UK, so for any building work I need to check with my local Council Planning department.
I’ve happily made two changes (each cleared with the Council):
- removed an interior door to create a through archway
- removed an interior wall (replaced with an RSJ to create a larger room
What folks say about regular maintenance - including just plain cleaning. Over time, dirt can wear everything out faster than needed. So sweep/vacuum/wash regularly. And do other tasks seasonally - wash windows/sills, clean gutters, etc.
Sometimes it can be overwhelming to prioritize the many tasks facing you. One mindset my wife and I have is to always focus on improving whatever we consider the “ugliest” thing inside or out. What single thing bugs you the most, or will give you the greatest pleasure when it is improved. Once you address that, turn your attention to what is now the new ugliest thing. Over time, the ugliest thing will become more and more minor.
And don’t start multiple projects. In general, finish one project before starting another. Realize that prep time often takes as long - if not longer - than the specific task, and clean up is a necessary part of each task.
Another thing is, decide how long you expect to live there. Sure, things change, but if it is likely you will move in 3 years, you might not want to give in to your most extreme personal decorating/remodeling whims. If you expect a much longer residence, to hell with what people say increases “resale value.” Make it the house YOU want to come home to each evening.
Good luck - and enjoy!
Get yourself a Home Depot credit card now. You’ll thank me later. Once you figure out what filters you will be regularly replacing, keep a stock on hand. These include furnace, central air, refrigerator (if it has a water dispenser), etc. Relabel all your breakers in handwriting you can read. Know where all the shutoff valves are.
Actually watch out for Home Depot, like Walmart they carry a lot of inferior brands or got real brands to cheapen their products. Lowes materials are far more reliable if one is nearby.
The rest of the above advice is excellent though.
Keep a hose in your garage for draining the water heater. You can just run it out to the street (get one long enough) as it drains; dumping hot water in your yard might kill your plants. Drain it periodically, every 6 months if you have hard water. You’d be surprised at the amount of sediment that comes out. And all that stuff keeps your water heater from working as efficiently as it should.
Another plumbing related one: know where the whole-house shutoff valve is and how to turn it. Before you move in, turn off all the spigots in the house, go to the shutoff valve (the water meter is usually directly connected to it), and look at the meter. There’ll be some kind of “leak detection device” a on it, might be a spinny thing in the middle, might be off to the side. If your water’s off, that thing shouldn’t be moving at all. If everything is off and that thing is moving, you have a leak somewhere. Get it fixed, pronto.
Figure out where the air filters are, what size they are, and how to change them. Buy extras and store them nearby.
Replace every light bulb possible with LED bulbs. Your electric bill will thank you.
In an apartment, I’m betting you never had to do outdoor maintenance, beyond maybe sweeping a sidewalk. Unless you hire people to do all the yardwork, you’ll need to get some yard tools. Leaf rake, garden rake, at least two shovels, weed pullers, lawn mower, trimmer, edger, spreader, clippers, pruners, pruning saw, hatchet, stuff like that. Also get a wide-brimmed hat, you’ll be in the sun. I’m ambivalent about gloves, they’re up to you. Oh, and you want to get several of those 5-gallon buckets, they’re cheap and good for lots of things, even impromptu seating. They might not have much of a selection at the home improvement stores right now, as they move out the gardening supplies to move in the Christmas stuff, just get what you can and the rest can come later. And I want to be honest with you here: gardening is quite hard at times, but it’s really kinda fun to get your hands in the dirt and watch stuff you planted grow. By the same token, it sucks when stuff you spent a lot of money on dies, so go in with a “life is impermanent” attitude.
Calendar a date in about April or May to check if your central air is still in good working condition. You don’t want to turn on the air conditioning for the first time during summer’s first big heat wave and then find out that something broke during the winter months. During said big heat wave, everyone else in the area is also turning on their A/C for the first time, and many will find there is something that needs to be fixed. All the HVAC guys in your area will be overwhelmed simultaneously and it will be a pain to find someone to fit you in.
The most common repair on AC systems is the capacitor. This is an $8-20 part. To get it replaced can run, depending on the HVAC company, $150-400 Replacing it is relatively easy, but can be dangerous if you don’t know how to shut off power to the unit and how to discharge the capacitor. Learning how to do it could save you a lot of money. Incorrectly learning it could be lethal, so make sure you know what you are doing before you try it.
Also, figure every appliance will need to be replaced at 10 years, and hopefully be pleasantly surprised by one or two of them. So look at the replacement costs, add them all up, divide by 10. Put that aside every year. Roofs last about 30.
Cheap tools are fine for infrequent use. A $39 pancake compressor from Harbor Freight is fine to use to install baseboards and upholster a couple chairs. But cheap screwdrivers are a nightmare. Anything you will use lots (screwdrivers, pliers, utility knives etc) will benefit from paying for quality.
As has been mentioned, don’t skimp on tools. The quality of tools is generally proportional to their price. The better quality tools will last longer, be stronger, and have less sloppy movements. Here are some of the power tools you should consider (and it’s Christmas coming up!)
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Compound Miter Saw: This is a saw useful for cutting the ends off of wood, like 2x4’s and moulding. It’s a stationary tool where you set the wood on it and pull the blade down to cut the wood. The base will rotate so you can cut different angles. The compound version allows you to tilt the blade so it cuts at a slant, which can be useful for mouldings. There is a version which is also sliding, which allows you to slide the blade back and forth to cut wider wood, but it’s rare you would need that.
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Cordless drill and driver drill: Cordless drills are good for drilling holes. Driver drills are good for driving screws into things. If you’re doing a lot of decking, a driver drill is better because it will have more ability to twist the screw into the wood. They often have drill/driver combination packs where you get both tools and batteries together.
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Circular saw: A hand-held electric saw that is useful for cutting all kinds of stuff. I recommend a corded version instead of cordless for the power and because you don’t have to worry about the battery running out.
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Chainsaw: Trees always need to be trimmed. They also have polesaws with a small chainsaw at the end, which are useful for trimming high branches.
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Sawsall: Like a very powerful electric knife. You put a saw blade in the end and can cut through walls and such. Useful when you’re doing a lot of demolition. Optional
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Table saw: Mostly useful for furniture, but has some household use. Optional.
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Air compressor and nail gun: If you find yourself doing a lot of nailing (like putting up moulding), get a nail gun. It will make easy work and do it better than you can with a hammer.
If you get battery powered tools, consider staying with tools that use the same batteries. It’s a hassle having 5 tools and 5 different chargers.
You don’t have to get all these tools at once, but do consider getting them when the projects call for them. You’ll use them over and over, and the more tools you have, the easier it will be to tackle whatever projects come up.
Minor things:
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have spare batteries, lightbulbs (as Max Torque said, LED ones), fuses and toilet paper
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also echo Max Torque on knowing where your water shut-off valve is (I’ve only had one leak in 30 years, but it was still jolly good to turn off the water!)
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I personally prefer to hire folk rather than do DIY, so I have a list of reliable builders, electricians, plumbers and roofers. I also have a gardener and a cleaning lady.
Yard/garage/estate sales are great for this. Craigslist, too. You can often find sturdy, older tools for next to nothing.
If you live where it may snow, go buy a couple snow shovels this weekend.
Plant your spring flowers (tulips, crocus, daffodils) soon. The place will feel so much more yours when you see pretty results and it’s a quick and inexpensive thing to do.
Do yourself a favor and read through the limits and exemptions on that warranty. We found out the hard way that ours only covered things within the footprint of the foundation. So sewer, water, and gas lines in your yard are not covered. Guess where most issues arise? Ours also limited the amount of money they would spend on any one issue. They would spend up to $1000, after that we were on our own. If a water heater breaks you are probably good but an air conditioned, heater, or major gas or water problem will be coming out of your pocket.
They usually charge $50-100 to come out and look at the issue. It sucks to pay that only to have them tell you it isn’t covered.
This is a YMMV, but don’t use their contractors for out of warranty work. The plumber they sent to our house wanted $1200 to replace a 6" section of gas line. We got an independent contractor to do it for $150.
Don’t forget smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
Learn how to open and rebattery every smoke and CO detector before you have to do it at 3am. Thirding the LED advice. We redid the whole house in LEDs and it has really paid off on our electric bills.