Author Topic: New House "Necessities"  (Read 9906 times)

TheCatWhisperer

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New House "Necessities"
« on: January 04, 2018, 02:47:28 PM »
What's the deal with people going bonkers spending when they move into a new house? One of my friends is currently buying a house and I can't believe all the things she HAS to buy-- Like a king sized bed because her current queen sized bed in "too small" for the master bedroom.

What are some other "necessities" you guys have heard of when buying or moving to a new house?



Travis

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2018, 04:00:33 PM »
Granite countertops, WiFi-enabled everything (thermostat, door locks, garage door, lights, appliances), fridge with built-in ice/water tap.  If they're not buying these things upon moving in, they're demanding them as a selling point in addition to requiring way more square footage than they could possibly need.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2018, 11:31:21 PM »
The only 'necessity' that I've heard of recently is installing double glazing before moving into an older house, which is a decent thing to do in terms of heat retention, noise reduction and bringing an older building up to what will soon enough be code in this part of the world. Pretty sure they bumped up the existing ceiling insulation at the same time. Seemed reasonable to me.

littlelykke

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2018, 12:20:15 AM »
The only 'necessity' that I've heard of recently is installing double glazing before moving into an older house, which is a decent thing to do in terms of heat retention, noise reduction and bringing an older building up to what will soon enough be code in this part of the world. Pretty sure they bumped up the existing ceiling insulation at the same time. Seemed reasonable to me.

That would be a very smart thing to do, indeed. Double glazing & upgrading your insulation helps big time, by keeping your gas bill small(er). Especially if I had the choice between upgrading the insulation or getting WiFi-everything in my house, I would definitely choose the former. Benefits start the moment you put it in & live there long enough & it has paid for itself.

Maenad

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2018, 07:25:55 AM »
I'm guessing it's partly the Diderot effect, partly just succumbing to b.s. advertising.

DH and I actually did something similar, though it was because we spent the first decade out of school living with cast-off furniture while we waited to "grow up" and determine our own style. Moving from our first house to our second was an opportunity to give away our free furniture and finally get stuff that worked for us. But I'm guessing that's not common.

jinga nation

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2018, 07:46:39 AM »
We didn't buy anything necessary for our house except a refrigerator (new house didn't come with modern ice box). Everything else was hand-me-downs from family and friends that we lugged through two rental apartments.

I think we bought a simple dining table and chairs a few months later, bedroom set a year and a half later, were given old Ethan Allen light pink leather sofa and couches by my uncle/aunt along with side tables. When my wife's relatives started visiting, we put beds in two other bedrooms. It was basically buy when the need arises. we still have most of this. When you have kids, there's no need to upgrade to fancy.

Our biggest expense was replacing all 30+ year aluminum frame single-pane windows with hurricane impact windows that were low-E, replacing all doors with fiberglass models, and making them all out-swing for hurricane-proofing. Even the door glass is low-E impact rated. All paid in cash. Didn't have to do a thing this year with Hurricane Irma coming our way. Wife finally glad that my thinking was right. Even the french doors survived unscathed.

I think spendypants fail to understand the meaning of "necessities". It's an education (and sometimes) a money problem.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2018, 07:53:51 AM by jinga nation »

Prairie Stash

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2018, 07:59:42 AM »
Be thankful for this, lots of great items end up on resale sites. Instead of shaking your head in dismay, you can likely get some great stuff and possibly resell it yourself for profit. People will give you 100 excuses and justifications, its all the same.

I scored $100 in an afternoon by selling a dining room table that was "too small." Lots of artwork, which is a great source of frames if the artwork isn't your taste, is also available and can be filled with printed photos (costco large prints for $1-2 and a free frame looks pretty nice). I have a very expensive (when new) china cabinet in my basement for holding yarn now, its a ridiculous item to hold crafting supplies. My daughters bedroom set was second hand, I love the diderot effect (on others).

I'm currently looking for a nice old entertainment unit, I want to turn it into a kids dress up closet. Some paint, a mirror and some restyling and I'll end up with a spectacular piece for nearly free.

Zamboni

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2018, 08:04:01 AM »
The weirdest one I've observed is purebred puppies . . . no joke. Just go live in a brand new neighborhood and watch people walking their puppies within a year of moving into their new house.

Megma

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2018, 08:14:42 AM »
The weirdest one I've observed is purebred puppies . . . no joke. Just go live in a brand new neighborhood and watch people walking their puppies within a year of moving into their new house.

This one actually makes more sense to me than most furniture "needs." If you were renting and just bought house, you were probably waiting to get a dog until you moved. So then you get the dog you've wanted but didn't have a place for before buying the house.

Now personally I don't think said dog needs to be purebred or even a puppy...

ketchup

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2018, 08:44:26 AM »
I've noticed the reverse situation with my house confusing people.  Our house was last updated in the 80s, but everything was functional and in great shape. 

The only major thing we've done since moving in (~2.5yrs ago) was remove all the old carpet and replace it with laminate wood flooring (about 700 square feet).  Old carpet was from 1988, with part of it from 1996.  Blech.  Plus we have dogs.  It's just cleaner, and easier to keep clean.  I did it myself, and it was kind of a pain logistically (75% of the house being unusable will do that), but not all that expensive or difficult.

Visitors seem surprised that our kitchen/bathroom still look very dated (old wallpaper, oldish appliances, not-trendy-anymore kitchen counters/bathroom vanity).  That or they assume we're broke.  Our shit works; we'll probably "update" some of it at some point, but I'm in no hurry.

Laura33

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2018, 08:53:40 AM »
Argh, my lovable idiot brother is doing this.  Again.  I remember when they bought their first house, they had to get all-new matching furniture for it -- because they had all this space, and they had to fill it!  They were not long out of school, and I know they weren't making a lot; I was honestly shocked, as it never occurred to me that you'd just go buy a whole new houseful of furniture to "match" your new house -- like, dude, wasn't the mortgage enough debt? 

And now they are moving again, and SIL is shopping for new furniture and talking about how her decorator is managing this and that.  And then in the same breath she's telling me she's worried about HS for the kids, because their current private only goes through 8th, and the local publics by the new place aren't very good, and the other privates are like $30K/yr, etc.  The thing is, they are not froofy people -- no country clubs or fancy clothes or other show-off-ey stuff.  They just seem to take it as a given that new house = all-new furniture and professional decorator to make everything perfect on Day 1.

I just cannot wrap my head around it.  Does. Not. Compute.

Dicey

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2018, 09:27:41 AM »
When DH and I got married, we each had fully furnished, long-time houses. Just weeks after we eloped, we learned his mom had ALZ and made the decision to move her in with us. Neither of our beloved houses would suit her needs. We sold each house and bought one to accomodate our new requirements. We found a deal on a new-ish, custom-built fancy-ass house on a short sale, just three blocks from DH's work (FTW!). It's a giant (to us), open floor plan, and very little of our existing, paid-for furniture worked in it, alas.

Our solution was to hold a giant Estate Sale. We then used that cash to buy cool stuff for the new house, like a 1-piece, eleven foot long dining table, custom made from reclaimed wood. Thing is, I found it at a Consignment Store. (It was custom made for Someone Else, just like the house.) DH has a homemade trailer hitch extension for his truck, so we paid no delivery fees either. We furnished the whole house via a large Consignment Store and Craigslist, except for a few linens from Home Goods. Alas, the awesome Consignment Store is gone now, but it was a treasure trove when we needed it. We ended up spending less to furnish the new house than we raised at the Estate Sale, for the win.

Truth is, I had more fun kitting out our new digs on a relative shoestring than if I was buying brand-new. Sure, there are a couple of compromises, but someday the perfect, used "X" will come along.

I want to add that it's different when it's your first house. But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers. There is such excess in our country that furnishing a house on a budget is easier now than it ever has been.

Travis

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2018, 10:24:24 AM »
In a few years we'll get to settle down and stop moving.  I was looking at homes in one of our candidate cities and found one in a good location within our price range and did a double take on the realtor notes.  It said something like "The perfect starter home! It has blah blah blah..."  The house we identified as a good candidate to put down roots the seller thinks is for a young couple who still plan on expanding later in life.  This was a 4 bedroom house!  I'll admit my eyes gravitate to newer exteriors, but the guts of the home are still critical.  The neighborhoods I've lived in or around also seem to be trending towards expensive interiors at the expense of absolutely no yard or privacy.  When I happen to be near a television with cable I'll turn on one of those house-hunting shows and have a good laugh at what people think are their non-negotiable requirements.

Laura33

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2018, 10:53:36 AM »
Truth is, I had more fun kitting out our new digs on a relative shoestring than if I was buying brand-new. Sure, there are a couple of compromises, but someday the perfect, used "X" will come along.

I want to add that it's different when it's your first house. But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers. There is such excess in our country that furnishing a house on a budget is easier now than it ever has been.

This, yes (although I dispute that things have to be different with your first house :-) -- the occasional Ikea bookshelf or couch works just fine for whatever you don't already have).  The thing is, I think normal, commercially-produced furniture is boring, so why spend money on a boring placeholder?  If you spend money, it should add value; if you just need a placeholder, it should be as cheap as possible. 

After 25+ years, my house certainly contains a number of awesome pieces that were far more expensive than necessary.  But that's because I fell in love with a carved/flamed metal pot rack at this one guy's shop, or my DH wanted to make a bookcase and solid cherry isn't cheap -- not because I had a space and needed to fill it with something and just had to make sure everything matched.  And those fancier things are still mixed in with a bunch of stuff from Ikea and from the local Resale store, which work just fine for our needs.  And best of all, the whole thing is *me* -- not some designer's vision of whatever version of neutral is in style this year.

So that's the other part of my resistance to the "new house, new furniture" attitude:  now that I am surrounded by things I love, I can't imagine just ditching it all for something else, just because it's all shiny and new or whatever.  Well, that, and the whole "I work hard, I deserve nice things" mindset.

Sibley

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2018, 10:55:26 AM »
All these people who need the house to be "perfect".... I ripped my carpet out and haven't replaced it yet. Because I needed to paint the walls. And the trim. and put tile down. And rip up the Pergo.

So, walls are mostly painted (need a painter for the rest, I'm not falling down the stairs).
Trim is BARELY started. But I can't finish it until I rework the return air vents. And pull up the Pergo.
Haven't pulled up the Pergo. Can't pull up the Pergo until I get help to move the table.
Can't paint right now because it's too cold out and I don't trust the paint will cure properly.
I've got the tile, but haven't installed it yet.

This is ONE area of the house. The whole house is like this. And then I can get completely side tracked by things like the pipes froze! (I'm careful to pace myself though cause I like to be lazy sometimes.)

Yeah, my house is essentially a work in progress, and it shows. I'd drive those people absolutely nuts. Then I'd put them to work :)

Though I did buy a couch when I moved in. I didn't have one otherwise.

AccountingForLife

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #15 on: January 05, 2018, 11:06:59 AM »
Spending thousands on hardwood flooring within 24 hours of closing, and then complaining about not being able to go to their 10-year H.S. Reunion because the $ 50 tickets were too expensive.

TheCatWhisperer

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #16 on: January 05, 2018, 02:12:01 PM »
I really hope everything works out for my friend and her new house, but she has dropped some serious cash just to move in. My guess is she has spent roughly 30k on making it "move in ready." And just to be clear, this house wasn't a fixer!


Lanthiriel

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #17 on: January 05, 2018, 02:27:39 PM »
Be thankful for this, lots of great items end up on resale sites. Instead of shaking your head in dismay, you can likely get some great stuff and possibly resell it yourself for profit. People will give you 100 excuses and justifications, its all the same.

I scored $100 in an afternoon by selling a dining room table that was "too small." Lots of artwork, which is a great source of frames if the artwork isn't your taste, is also available and can be filled with printed photos (costco large prints for $1-2 and a free frame looks pretty nice). I have a very expensive (when new) china cabinet in my basement for holding yarn now, its a ridiculous item to hold crafting supplies. My daughters bedroom set was second hand, I love the diderot effect (on others).

I'm currently looking for a nice old entertainment unit, I want to turn it into a kids dress up closet. Some paint, a mirror and some restyling and I'll end up with a spectacular piece for nearly free.

This. We recently bought a converted barn and had very little furniture for it. We've purchased a solid mahogany, trestle-style dining table and chairs for $300 (the man who sold it to us said he paid $4000 for it in the 60s when he bought it as a wedding present for his first wife). We also bought a 7-foot tall pantry from the 1890s with all of the original fixtures for $400. We recently bought an antique, hand-carved oak end table at a craft fair for $50 and a pie-safe style nightstand for $75. We keep a list of furniture needs and the size of the space it's for in a Google document so that we can consult the list when we find something we love. Turns out we looooove antiquing and are enjoying cultivating a warm, "arts and crafts" look for our home. Next up on the list, the perfect buffet to use as a TV stand...

MayDay

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #18 on: January 05, 2018, 03:49:42 PM »
I do agree it is ridiculous, but also we just did it.

For about 3 years we knew we would be buying a house and we knew we would be moving (ended up moving twice). There was a loooooong list of stuff we wanted that we were waiting to get until we were settled. Once we were finally settled, we basically went out and bought the whole long list to a total of probably 10k. And that was with us already having owned a home so we had a lot of the boring stuff like a lawnmower and snow shovels and rakes.

Was it mustacian? Eh, we could have just used our old stained hand me down couch forever. We could have used our old bed and told visiting relatives to sleep on the floor. We could have not gotten the pool table my husband wanted for the last 12 years.

It was less than 2% of out net worth and we are fine with the money spent.

My SIL otoh, is buying soon, and will no doubt do the same thing but on credit.

rosarugosa

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #19 on: January 05, 2018, 04:20:59 PM »
Someone close to me recently bought a condo/loft and it looked wonderful with the furnishings she already had.  There was a spot in the LR area that she said "just had to have something," so she bought a wicker chair for $100, that she is now trying to give away because she found something she actually likes for the spot (a $5.00 thrift find).  So the wicker chair was a $100 place holder of sorts.
I told her she could light her candles with a $100 bill and it would be pretty much the same thing financially.  A little delayed gratification goes a long way in building/preserving a stash.

AMandM

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #20 on: January 05, 2018, 06:22:29 PM »
I've noticed the reverse situation with my house confusing people.  Our house was last updated in the 80s, but everything was functional and in great shape. 

The only major thing we've done since moving in (~2.5yrs ago) was remove all the old carpet and replace it with laminate wood flooring (about 700 square feet).  Old carpet was from 1988, with part of it from 1996.  Blech.  Plus we have dogs.  It's just cleaner, and easier to keep clean.  I did it myself, and it was kind of a pain logistically (75% of the house being unusable will do that), but not all that expensive or difficult.

Visitors seem surprised that our kitchen/bathroom still look very dated (old wallpaper, oldish appliances, not-trendy-anymore kitchen counters/bathroom vanity).  That or they assume we're broke.  Our shit works; we'll probably "update" some of it at some point, but I'm in no hurry.

My daughter and son-in-law just bought a real fixer-upper (crumbling plaster walls, leaky windows, soggy insulation, nonfunctional kitchen, etc.).  During the walk-through the inspector said something about "When you update the bathroom," to which my daughter replied, "We're not doing anything to the bathroom!  It's the only room in the house that works!"

Dicey

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #21 on: January 05, 2018, 07:44:05 PM »
My daughter and son-in-law just bought a real fixer-upper (crumbling plaster walls, leaky windows, soggy insulation, nonfunctional kitchen, etc.).  During the walk-through the inspector said something about "When you update the bathroom," to which my daughter replied, "We're not doing anything to the bathroom!  It's the only room in the house that works!"

Love this!

Truth is, I had more fun kitting out our new digs on a relative shoestring than if I was buying brand-new. Sure, there are a couple of compromises, but someday the perfect, used "X" will come along.

I want to add that it's different when it's your first house. But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers. There is such excess in our country that furnishing a house on a budget is easier now than it ever has been.

This, yes (although I dispute that things have to be different with your first house :-) -- the occasional Ikea bookshelf or couch works just fine for whatever you don't already have).  The thing is, I think normal, commercially-produced furniture is boring, so why spend money on a boring placeholder?  If you spend money, it should add value; if you just need a placeholder, it should be as cheap as possible. 
The pieces I don't adore are the entry hall table and the coffee table. They're pretty obvious the moment you step in the door. They've been fine for five years, so I'm okay with the money I spent on them, because I bought them second hand. Someday, when I stumble across the perfect thing, I'll sell these for what I paid for them and be done (-ish).

And one more thing. I don't love IKEA stuff, except that everything they sell has a name, so its easy-peasy to search on CL. Virtually every IKEA thing I own is secondhand. If I see something IKEA that fills a need, I don't have to brave the mega-blue-box or worse, their parking lot, I turn to my pal google.

11ducks

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #22 on: January 07, 2018, 10:54:58 PM »
Haha, we just did this- I made my husband promise not to tell people we got new stuff because it makes us look exactly like you are explaining above!  We got a new fridge, mattress and a cupboard for DS when we bought a house last month- the fridge was replacing a broken, energy guzzler that wouldn't fit in the new kitchen, the mattress was super old (20yrs maybe) and awful for our backs, and DS had been using plastic containers as a cupboard for 2 years. We'd put off these purchases for ages but decided to buy the new ones so that we could collect them while we had the moving truck (saving $175 on delivery fees). Not even sorry.

penguintroopers

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #23 on: January 08, 2018, 05:46:45 AM »
I'm guessing it's partly the Diderot effect, partly just succumbing to b.s. advertising.

DH and I actually did something similar, though it was because we spent the first decade out of school living with cast-off furniture while we waited to "grow up" and determine our own style. Moving from our first house to our second was an opportunity to give away our free furniture and finally get stuff that worked for us. But I'm guessing that's not common.

Hearing this actually makes me feel pretty awesome, as my husband and I were doing basically the same thing. All of our furniture was either free or secondhand, and we had kinda just put up with all of it until we (hopefully) move at the end of this month. We're planning on selling the bedroom set and desk and buying a new ones, but otherwise we're keeping most of what we have until we're ready for the next round of we've-determined-our-style upgrades.

But we didn't make it 10 years, we only made it 1.5. Props to y'all, as I don't have that level of patience. Plus, we're looking at this place as a ~4 year home, so we want it to look as best as we can for as long as possible.

We also lucked out with a second bedroom that we weren't expecting, but its not going to be a guest room, because we *might* have guests 3x a year. Nope. We'd rather use it ourselves 355x year.

Just Joe

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #24 on: January 08, 2018, 10:04:51 AM »
All these people who need the house to be "perfect".... I ripped my carpet out and haven't replaced it yet. Because I needed to paint the walls. And the trim. and put tile down. And rip up the Pergo.

So, walls are mostly painted (need a painter for the rest, I'm not falling down the stairs).
Trim is BARELY started. But I can't finish it until I rework the return air vents. And pull up the Pergo.
Haven't pulled up the Pergo. Can't pull up the Pergo until I get help to move the table.
Can't paint right now because it's too cold out and I don't trust the paint will cure properly.
I've got the tile, but haven't installed it yet.

This is ONE area of the house. The whole house is like this. And then I can get completely side tracked by things like the pipes froze! (I'm careful to pace myself though cause I like to be lazy sometimes.)

Yeah, my house is essentially a work in progress, and it shows. I'd drive those people absolutely nuts. Then I'd put them to work :)

Though I did buy a couch when I moved in. I didn't have one otherwise.

That's our house too. You'll get it done someday. I figure we'll get it done as we move out...

Carless

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #25 on: January 08, 2018, 11:59:14 AM »
Through the grapevine I know people who bought a house but haven't moved in yet because it's not ready to their satisfaction yet.  They bought it 5 years ago.

TexasStash

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #26 on: January 08, 2018, 07:31:00 PM »
Through the grapevine I know people who bought a house but haven't moved in yet because it's not ready to their satisfaction yet.  They bought it 5 years ago.

This does not compute.

Sibley

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #27 on: January 12, 2018, 09:48:05 PM »
All these people who need the house to be "perfect".... I ripped my carpet out and haven't replaced it yet. Because I needed to paint the walls. And the trim. and put tile down. And rip up the Pergo.

So, walls are mostly painted (need a painter for the rest, I'm not falling down the stairs).
Trim is BARELY started. But I can't finish it until I rework the return air vents. And pull up the Pergo.
Haven't pulled up the Pergo. Can't pull up the Pergo until I get help to move the table.
Can't paint right now because it's too cold out and I don't trust the paint will cure properly.
I've got the tile, but haven't installed it yet.

This is ONE area of the house. The whole house is like this. And then I can get completely side tracked by things like the pipes froze! (I'm careful to pace myself though cause I like to be lazy sometimes.)

Yeah, my house is essentially a work in progress, and it shows. I'd drive those people absolutely nuts. Then I'd put them to work :)

Though I did buy a couch when I moved in. I didn't have one otherwise.

That's our house too. You'll get it done someday. I figure we'll get it done as we move out...

I'm having a blast. Though just figured out that I'll be taking windows apart to put in proper insulation at some point.... my windows are whistling.

SavinMaven

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #28 on: January 14, 2018, 07:38:05 PM »
But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers.

Serious question - does anyone ever worry about bedbugs when buying used furniture?

WhiteTrashCash

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #29 on: January 14, 2018, 08:06:58 PM »
When we got our house, the real estate lady said it was a great "starter home". Yeah, right. This is our final home in this HCOL area. It's just the two of us and our cats, so we don't need more than 1500 ft for any reason at all. If I could have gone smaller, I would have.

We did splurge on solar panels, though, because they are great for charging my wife's plug-in hybrid and providing all our household electricity. We also got new privacy fencing, because we really needed it.

Dicey

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #30 on: January 14, 2018, 10:26:00 PM »
But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers.

Serious question - does anyone ever worry about bedbugs when buying used furniture?
Personally? Nope, no worries. We bought a used foam mattress last year. It was encased in a plastic slipcover which we removed when we got home. It was fine. We also bought our LR sofa from a private party. In both cases, we viewed the item in place in the seller's home. If I was suspicious, I'd pass. If I wanted to be super safe, I'd wrap the item in plastic and keep it out in the garage for a week or so.

Raenia

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #31 on: January 15, 2018, 07:26:31 AM »
But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers.

Serious question - does anyone ever worry about bedbugs when buying used furniture?
Personally? Nope, no worries. We bought a used foam mattress last year. It was encased in a plastic slipcover which we removed when we got home. It was fine. We also bought our LR sofa from a private party. In both cases, we viewed the item in place in the seller's home. If I was suspicious, I'd pass. If I wanted to be super safe, I'd wrap the item in plastic and keep it out in the garage for a week or so.

Just FYI, it takes up to 2 years for bedbugs to die without access to food and air (they go dormant and wait until conditions improve).  If I ever got a used mattress, I'd buy a bedbug cover to put on it before bringing it into the house.  I've had bedbugs before, and they're the worst.

MgoSam

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #32 on: January 15, 2018, 10:05:43 AM »
WiFi-enabled everything (thermostat, door locks, garage door, lights, appliances)

I just put in a Nest thermostat and love it. I am seriously considering getting a smart deadbolt or door knob. I want to slowly improve things in my house and not go overboard.

faithless

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #33 on: January 15, 2018, 10:15:11 AM »

I just put in a Nest thermostat and love it. I am seriously considering getting a smart deadbolt or door knob. I want to slowly improve things in my house and not go overboard.

We're going to have to change our boiler soon, and I was thinking of maybe getting a smart thermostat. What do you like about it and any reservations?

Laura33

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #34 on: January 15, 2018, 02:48:46 PM »
WiFi-enabled everything (thermostat, door locks, garage door, lights, appliances)

I just put in a Nest thermostat and love it. I am seriously considering getting a smart deadbolt or door knob. I want to slowly improve things in my house and not go overboard.

FWIW, the keypad door lock was the best investment we ever made — with two kids who love to lose keys, I’m pretty sure I’ve already made my money back in saved replacement and re-keying costs. ;-)

MayDay

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #35 on: January 15, 2018, 08:06:55 PM »
But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers.

Serious question - does anyone ever worry about bedbugs when buying used furniture?

Yes. We don't buy upholstered furniture used unless we legitimately know the person we are buying from. The area we sued to live in was the bedbug capital of the US. Hard pass. Plus also we have more money than time and I'd rather buy furniture new and save myself the time of having to deal with bedbugs.

Imma

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #36 on: January 16, 2018, 08:36:16 AM »
Truth is, I had more fun kitting out our new digs on a relative shoestring than if I was buying brand-new. Sure, there are a couple of compromises, but someday the perfect, used "X" will come along.

I want to add that it's different when it's your first house. But there is plenty of time during escrow and after closing to search Estate Sales, CL, and put the word out to friends and co-workers. There is such excess in our country that furnishing a house on a budget is easier now than it ever has been.

This, yes (although I dispute that things have to be different with your first house :-) -- the occasional Ikea bookshelf or couch works just fine for whatever you don't already have).  The thing is, I think normal, commercially-produced furniture is boring, so why spend money on a boring placeholder?  If you spend money, it should add value; if you just need a placeholder, it should be as cheap as possible. 

I'm always surprised when I go to a friends' new house and see they've bought all new furniture for their new home. Most of the time it's cheap crap as well, but they don't mind because they can buy a completely new interior 5 years later.

When we bought our first home, we didn't buy anything except for one rug and one cupboard. We had a collection of old furniture from when we lived in cheap rented apartments as students, and we asked around for items we missed. Over the past 3 years we've replaced a lot of the ugly furniture (the pieces we only accepted because they were free and we were broke) with other items, generally still secondhand but good quality solid wood items. Our house doesn't look like it could be on pinterest, but there's definitely no doubt who lives there.

Candace

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #37 on: January 16, 2018, 09:00:43 AM »
When I bought my house, I spent a lot of money, but almost none of it was on things that would show. I had the HVAC system professionally cleaned (it was nasty and probably inefficient), removed a tree that had roots that were cracking my driveway, had three other trees removed that were sick and could have fallen on the house in a storm, had the front porch supports shored up since the house is on a slope and the porch was sagging -- it wasn't touching the supports that went between the porch and the part of the attic eave that is over the porch, had self-cleaning gutters installed and the behind the gutters changed to metal instead of wood so they won't need to be painted ever again, and installed new locks on all the doors with easy-to-rekey locks. I did have new carpet installed in the master, but the old carpet was the original builder's carpet and it was pretty nasty. The other carpeted rooms upstairs have simply remained nasty. I painted several rooms of the house myself and am still working on painting the rest. I would love to get nice blinds to replace the mini-blinds that are throughout the house, but can't bring myself to replace something that works. I would love to get decent carpet for the rest of the upstairs, but again, what's there works.

So, it's quite possible to spend a lot of money when you move, but it's not always spent too frivolously.

The only furniture I've bought after going from a two-bedroom apartment to my four-bedroom house is a bed and small dresser for the guest room, a couple of small tables, and a recliner I bought last Thanksgiving because my father cannot sleep in a regular bed, and a used love seat and bookcase for one of the downstairs rooms. Oh, and a couple of area rugs.

mm1970

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #38 on: January 16, 2018, 11:25:15 AM »
Just had this convo with a friend this weekend.  They replaced their old couch because it was sort of broken and uncomfortable, so nobody sat on it.  Then, they went and bought new rugs, because there was a sale!  But they didn't buy a sale one.

I've just made a list of things to "fix" before my MIL gets here.  But it's relatively small, like replacing the grout in the bathroom, replacing the shower curtain, scrubbing a few stained walls etc.

My spouse just stuffed the cushions on the back of the couch with more poly fil and it has made a HUGE difference!

I'd like new area rugs, as ours are old, worn, and dirty from kids spilling food.  Thing is, younger kid is 5, no point doing it now.

Fomerly known as something

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Re: New House "Necessities"
« Reply #39 on: January 16, 2018, 11:59:33 AM »

I just put in a Nest thermostat and love it. I am seriously considering getting a smart deadbolt or door knob. I want to slowly improve things in my house and not go overboard.

We're going to have to change our boiler soon, and I was thinking of maybe getting a smart thermostat. What do you like about it and any reservations?

I have an ecobee,  (syncs with Alexa I think).  It was free from my gas company.