Originally posted by: dullard
I just closed on my first house 1 month ago. Here are some things we did.
0) We went to the house and just had fun exploring. Relax and enjoy your new place.
1) We had carpet cleaners come in the next day. It is just so nice knowing you aren't rolling around in someone else's filth. Same day we scoured every surface in the house. Plus clean everything as you move it - no reason to move your filth with you.
2) We updated all of the addresses. This is really a pain as many companies goof (After four address changes at Wells Fargo, they still don't have it correct - this includes two seperate boxes of misprinted checks). Plus there are always companies you don't think about.
3) We left the locks for now - we want to add deadbolts and that'll probably be a major expense. I never understand why a house would be built without deadbolts.
4) We checked the gutters. We had a major downpoor and realised the garage needs a gutter installed that was never in place before and everyone had missed it.
5) We watered and took care of the plants and yard immediately. Don't want those dying right away. Do you have a yard? If so, do you have a lawn mower and gas can?
6) We never had gas before (always electric). I never thought about it, but the previous owners shut off the water heater gas (found out with a very cold shower). I had to buy long lighter to be able to light it and then wait quite some time for it to heat up. Then it required many adjustments to get the hot water temperature high enough to sanitize the dishes yet not to hot to cost a fortune and burn us in the shower.
7) Moved all of the utilites over - we waited until the last minute on the mail since you only get that forwarded for 2 months (we had the apartment and house overlapping for a few weeks - think about those 8 week rebates...). We also waited on garbage (heck we paid for the apartment, were going to get its services). While the are there connecting you up, it can be quite cheap for the phone company or cable company to install a new wall jack.
8) Updated driver's licences, votor registration, pet licenses, etc.
9) We bribed friends with pizza and a little beer to get free moving help.
10) We skipped the painting. Most rooms were professionally done and looked quite good. Plus half of our rooms are empty anyways as we don't have enough furnature. We will paint those later - just no reason to burden ourselves with so much labor all at once.
11) Adjust the appliances. They may have seriously messed up refridgerator settings for example. Milk should be cold but not crystallized in the fridge, ice cream should be hard in the freezer. Bake a batch of cookies. If they are burnt then you know the oven thermometer reads 25°F-50°F too cold (adjust all temperatures for all recipies colder than the recipe says). Or if the cookies are undercooked, you'll have to increase all recipe temperatures by 25°F-50°F. Set the thermostat to comfortable levels, check the water softener, etc.
12) Meet the neighbors.
13) I jotted down a list of everything we want done that costs money - furnature, house repairs, new appliances, etc. Then I prioritized them. We came up with $20k of stuff we want. Obviously after buying a house we don't have $20k sitting around. So we decided on the rough order of how we want to buy things.
