There is truly no better feeling than finally buying a home of your own. No more pesky landlords or nasty rents – plus, you get to redesign the house to your heart’s content! However, there’s another side to that coin. More often than not, you will have some home improvements to make before moving in. Even if you don’t consider the home a ‘fixer-upper’ when you buy it, there will be some kinks to iron out. With that in mind, take a look at our guide on the basic home improvements!
Smart Purchasing
As we’ve mentioned above, there will undoubtedly be some home improvements to make before moving in. But if you want to minimize the work required to make your home truly one of the best places to live and up to your standards; you will need to start working on that before you buy the house at all. Remember – getting a house of your own is definitely the single greatest investment you’ll make for a long while. With that in mind, you need to make sure that the house you’re buying doesn’t require extensive renovations.
Before signing on that fateful dotted line, be certain you’re buying the right property. The last thing you want is to find out about big repairs that you need to make after making the purchase. Sure, there will be some fixes – but in order to be certain there aren’t any big things you’ve missed, find a good property inspector and let them take a look.
Needed Precautions
After they’ve concluded a professional assessment, they will give you an official report, showing any hidden or masked faults that the property may have. Then, speak to a contractor and see how much the potential repairs would cost you. Only after you have all of that information should you actually buy the home! For instance, if you know that you will have to replace or fix the roof, you will be able to include this information in your cost calculations. If you need to choose the best material for your roof after buying a home, this could prove to be quite the pricy renovation; one that you would want to know about in advance.
General Home Improvements To Make
Of course, the specific home improvements that you need to think about differ from home to home; depending on the specific circumstances of your household. Keeping that in mind, though – there is a number of home improvements to make regardless of the specifics; things everyone must be on the lookout for. Mind you, these aren’t necessarily big and costly renovations – but they are definitely a good idea. With that in mind, we’ve got a few suggestions.
The Flooring
Think about it – what’s one of the first things to know about any home you set foot in, regardless of whether it’s yours? That’s correct – its floors. Regardless of how well the rest of the house is furnished, it won’t do much good if the floors aren’t up to snuff. Or, on the other hand, the home may simply lack the kind of flooring you prefer, even if it’s in good condition?
That’s why one of the first home improvements to make before moving in is giving your floors an upgrade. The nature of the upgrade will depend on your needs and tastes; for instance, there are people who like clear wooden floors. On the other hand, some may prefer covering the entirety of the house with carpeting. That’s a perfectly reasonable choice as well, especially if you’re worried about damaging the floors beneath. However, this is definitely something you want to do before you move all of your household possessions inside; it will be much faster if the house is still clear of any stuff.
The Walls
Moving on from the floors, we arrive at another basic staple of interior design – the look of the walls. More often than not, people feel some nostalgia for their old homes when they move into a new one. That’s because, in many ways, they feel like they haven’t left a mark on this brand new house; it doesn’t feel like home just yet. So, what’s one of the basic home improvements to make if you want to give the home some of your own personality? Painting the walls is definitely not a bad idea. Soon enough, this space will reflect your tastes just as much as your previous home did.
Plus, you can use color to open the place up and make it seem more spacious than it really is. The color of your walls is the canvas on which you will start applying your own interior design ideas; the basic building block of your style.
Installing New Locks
So far, we’ve only talked about the aesthetic home improvements to make before moving in; things that will alter the look and feel of your home. However, apart from that – there are also practicalities to think about here. For instance – one of the things we recommend doing as soon as you finish your moving day is installing new locks. Trust us; there is no telling who has the keys to the old locks, regardless of how much you trust the previous owners and the intermediaries like realtors. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
Electrics
Some people like to move into an older, fixer-upper home – and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, if that’s the case, you should let an electrician have a look at the local installations before you move in. There may be faulty electrical outlets and wiring to take care of before settling into the place!