Tips on a new home

You might be wondering, why didn't Rob post in the past few weeks? Well, I've been busy. But not just a normal busy. I've been busy working on the biggest investment of my life....

My House.

But not just my house...our house. While I may have purchased this home by myself, I live in it with another.... a significant another: J-Love. (but that's a whole other post)

Today let's talk about some very important things when buying a home. These are just 5 random notes that you should keep in mind when moving.

1. Do all your initial improvements before you move in. I know that sounds like simple logic but you'll find yourself pressed for time and you need to make this a priority. We only had 2 things that we wanted to do before moving in: Paint the bedroom, and have the carpets cleaned. Well, we didn't really finish either of those things. We are still painting, and that means that we haven't unpacked anything upstairs because we don't have a bedroom yet. We had the carpets cleaned in time but not as well as we would have liked (see #2).

2. If you don't want to have pets in your house then don't get a place where pets were there before. The last owners had a dog. While the place didn't really smell when we were looking at it, once we moved in, we really noticed that all of the carpets had a strong dog smell to them. After getting the carpets cleaned, we still had to cover them with special pet odor removing powder and vacuum with a Dyson.... and we aren't sure how well that worked yet. the place smells better but I wouldn't be surprised if we wind up replacing all the carpets in the next year.

3. If you move into a neighborhood, find out about the deed restrictions on the house. These are rules about what you can/can't do with your house. Maybe you can't paint a certain color. Maybe you can't have a pool. In our new house that isn't a problem. I learned this lesson, though, in the house I rented previously (and am still renting). After signing the lease, I saw a small paragraph listing items you can't keep on the property. One of them was a motorcycle. I couldn't keep my motorcycle there. I was really pissed because that's why I wanted to rent the place... so I'd have a garage to keep my bike in.

4. Word of advice: You don't own the house until the END of the settlement. We thought we were all set when the owners accepted our offer. Then we thought we were all set once the mortgage was approved. Then we thought we were all set once the house inspection was completed. Then the Appraisal. Then a follow-up mortgage approval making sure your life hasn't changed since the original approval. Then the lawyers need to do a lot of stuff before settlement. Just don't count your chickens until the LAST paper is signed at the settlement.

5. Plan your moving day ahead of time. We moved all my stuff out of my old house, and all of J-Love's stuff out of her house, AND some of J-Love's stuff out of her parent's house, AND some of my stuff out of my parent's house. It was a LONG day. So we rented one big moving truck (make sure the truck can fit into your neighborhood and driveway) and called up all of our friends/family. There is no way we could have gotten through that day without them.

It'll be a few weeks before the house is really set up how we like it, but then we'll start inviting you all over.