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make it yours! paint, get furniture, etc...
and if you can't afford furniture (like i couldn't at first!), eat dinner on the floor and just be happy that those floors are YOURS! :)
@qwerty1: YES!
If you have the ability I would suggest taking your time to move in. When we moved into our house we did it over the coarse of 3 or 4 days, the last day being the day we moved all the big stuff and moved in. It made it so much easier then just one big move. I also went and cleaned the entire house before anything, made it easier as well.
Definitely do paint and carpet before you move in (if it wasn't done very recently). That way it will feel very clean and new.
Don't be overly concerned with "filling up" your new place with furniture. Go slow, figure out what you really need before you go buy things.
The first thing you need is a BIG Target trip for all of the little things like sponges, a broom, ironing rack, vacuum, soap, trash can, laundry baskets... FUN!!!
We didn't do a darn thing after closing except go out for dinner. We are taking almost 2 months to move. But we are also building a barn for our animals before moving.
1) Warm up your wrist, you're going to be signing a million papers!!
2) Throw out/donate anything you haven't used or worn in over 1 year. If you move it into your new house, you will still never use it but you will probably also not get rid of it until the next time you move.
3) Don't make a ton of changes until you've lived there for a bit. It's amazing how much your priorities change and you realize what you can live with and what you can't. At each of my houses, I made a list when I moved in of all of the projects I wanted to do. Looking back at them years later, it's almost laughable. Sometimes I can't even remember why I wanted to change something. Also, something unexpected ALWAYS breaks and those projects quickly become the top priority and suddenly, the tile backsplash doesn't look so bad anymore!
If your house isn't brand new, I'd say the first thing you will want to do after closing is CLEAN! Unless it badly needs new paint or carpet, I'd wait until you've lived there for a while to make any changes, so you know what you really want. Also, I'd start a house emergency fund because something is always needing repair and it's nice to have that money just for those things.
Thanks all for commenting. I think the first project will be to paint, have the rugs cleaned and clean the WHOLE house.
Definitely agree with cleaning! I would go in and clean top to bottom (or even hire a service) and then paint. Painting is so much easier before all your stuff is in and it immediately makes it more "yours." Also you have a lot more energy for that stuff when you're still on a new-house high. We got our kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and lower level living room done within about 2 weeks of moving in... and haven't painted a damn thing since haha. Also make sure you have at least a couple hundred dollars set aside for all of the extra stuff you don't think about until your'e trying to clean and move in. Like trash cans, rugs, cleaning supplies, a zillion paper towels, a new mop, etc. The first thing we did after we closed was went to dinner. Then we went to target and spent $200 on odds and ends.
We also started with cleaning from top to bottom! B/c we didn't move in until a week or two after we closed, we had all of the rugs cleaned or replaced depending on their condition. We then did what someone else suggested and went on a big target trip to make sure we had all of the necessary items to do what we wanted! Painting was also a big thing that we wanted to get done in a few rooms, and it was great to do that with no furniture in there.
But enjoy your house most of all! Take one room at a time if you're feeling overwhelmed. We've been in our house for a hear and a half now and we've gotten a lot accomplished. We just keep moving from room to room and it seems to be working for us!
Lots of good advice above--especially about the Target trip!
1--Be prepared for something to go wrong right before closing. It almost always does. The good news is that you have time, so no panicking necessary.
2--When you first walk in the door, you'll think "I own this dump? What was I thinking?" It will eventually pass:)
3--It takes a while before it really feels like your own. Especially with my first house, I felt like I lived in someone else's house for a long time.
4--As a PP noted, be flexible with your priorties and make sure you have quite a bit of extra cash on hand. There's always something that the previous owners didn't fix or did a crappy job fixing.
5--Always have a buffer of cash, period. Sewers back up, trees knock down power lines, pipes leak. Regardless of the age of the house, these things happen. It sucks to spend your savings on them but better to have the savings.
6--Congratulations!! It is really cool to have your own home!
Get setup for things like utilites, phone, cable and internet. You'll have to get everything changed over to your name. And start changing your address with every account/membership you have!
@MissSawyer:Good Point! Call the Cable Company NOW to set up an appointment for before you move in to have the cable switched. There's nothing worse than calling them the day you move and hearing "our next appointment is in 3 weeks" and you have to spend that whole time without cable or internet!
@SoontobeMsL: Clean first, because you need to wash the walls before you paint.
We painted after we moved in, it wasn't that much of a pain but we did it over a few months. The day we closed to went to lunch, cleaned, cleaned clean cleaned, and then ate dinner on the floor around 10pm :) We had a new mattress delivered that day so we slept on that and the next day finished cleaning. We started moving small things in and then our big move in day was that day after that. SOOO much work. We had friends and family help but it still sucked. But we were soooo excited that we didnt care.
Definetly have money set aside for random things, cleaning supplies, etc. We rented a carpet cleaner for about 40 bucks and what a difference it made!
Congratulations!! We are closing on our first house next week, but we already live in it as renters. Our first order of business is getting rid of our roommate! LOL. We desperately need to give ours a deep cleaning but want to wait until our roommate moves out before we do too much, so he can't mess it back up. Oh I can't wait to paint and decorate and know it's not all a waste of effort on someone else's house because it will finally be OURS.
Have fun with your house and enjoy being homeowners!!
I totally agree about making an emergency fund. We will probably have to replace our HVAC right after we close b/c our landlord sucks and won't do it. Pretty sure we won't survive the summer without A/C in Oklahoma!
Make sure you ask your realtor to take you for a final walk through of the property the day before (or day of) closing. Final walk throughs are not inspections- so it is not the time to demand repairs from the seller. Final walk throughs are used to ensure the property is in the agreed upon condition before you sign on the dotted line.
We did have a home inspection, but forgot to ask for a final walk through. The previous owners left a huge pile of debris and garbage in the garage for us to deal with when we moved in. Six months later, it is pretty close to being clean but we still have to get rid of an ancient double oven that used to be in the kitchen they left behind.
Here is a list of items to check on a final walk-through:
Thank you bees for your import. I'm making a list. The close is 2 1/2 weeks away.
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After looking for homes for 1 year, FI and I finally found a home and we will be closing on May 31st.
Currently, FI and I are living at home so we could save money in order to make this purchase. I have never had my own apartment and neither has he.
What should I expect after we close? What are the first things I should do?
We probably will not move in until mid-summer.