Moving into a New House? Here are 21 Things You Need to Do ASAP
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Make a Prioritized List
The minute you walk in to your new home, your listen volition be racing with to-dos. Continue this overwhelming job list at bay by keeping a notebook in a fundamental location and write downwards every action detail y'all or your family thinks of throughout the day. After 24 hours cut the list off, and prioritize each item with a i, 2, or 3.
First priority should be items completed that week – such as safety concerns, cleaning, unpacking essentials, etc. Priority ii should exist tasks completed within the adjacent two months – related to system, maintenance and remaining unpacking. Priority three tasks should be non-essentials, but improvements and projects you'd like to complete inside the twelvemonth – renovations, landscaping, and large purchases.
Read this start-time homebuyer's guide to home maintenance to become started.
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Refinish Your Own Hardwood
Intimidated by this seemingly daunting project? Don't be. If you take the will and a whole day (or two) to yourself, y'all can refinish the hardwood floors in the major areas of your home. Yous don't necessarily need to sand, but if the floor is damaged enough to warrant buffing, check out your local hardware shop and rent the equipment for anywhere from 4-48 hours.
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Watch this video to larn what new homeowners should do first:
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Clean Fridge Coils
Refrigerator condenser coils are located on the dorsum of the refrigerator or across the bottom. When coils are clogged with dust, pet hair and cobwebs, they tin can't efficiently release estrus. The result is your compressor works harder and longer than information technology was designed to, using more energy and shortening the life of your fridge. Clean the coils with a coil-cleaning brush and vacuum. A gyre-cleaning castor, which is bendable to fit in tight areas, does a thorough job. Look for ane online or at apparatus stores.
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Clean Out the Lint
A clogged lint screen or dryer duct drastically reduces the efficiency of your dryer, whether it's gas or electric. Make clean the lint screen after each load and clean the exhaust duct once a year. The Linteater (shown) has an auger brush that attaches to a drill to clean out the ducts.
Electric dryers use nearly $85 of electricity annually. A dirty lint screen can cause the dryer to apply up to 30 pct more electricity, according to the Consumer Energy Eye. Lint buildup is also a common cause of fires.
Dry loads of laundry dorsum-to-back so the dryer doesn't cool down between loads (a warm dryer uses less energy). And only run the dryer until the clothes are dry. Overdrying amercement your dress and runs up your electrical bill. If yous're in the market for a new dryer and already have a gas line in the house, go with a gas dryer. A gas dryer is more than efficient.
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Install a Detachable Toilet Seat
It seems similar no matter how hard you effort, y'all can never go the hinges on the toilet seat clean. In that location's always a scrap of cleaning solution that seeps underneath and creeps out later. Installing a detachable toilet seat solves the trouble. This Bemis brand seat is easy to remove by but twisting two hinge caps virtually a quarter of a plough. Then you have easy access to clean under the hinges. Detachable seats price about $20. Installation is straightforward and simply requires a wrench. Are your bolts rusted and stuck? Learn how to remove rusted toilet seat bolts here.
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Know Your Firm
Live in your home for 12 to 18 months before undertaking any major renovations such equally additions or knocking down walls. What yous initially think y'all desire may change after y'all've lived in that location for a while. – reader Fran Carpentier
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Renew Wood with Mineral Spirits
If the finish on your furniture or woodwork is boring and murky, information technology may need refinishing. But before yous have on that project, take a tip from furniture restorers and make clean it with mineral spirits. Mineral spirits—sometimes labeled "paint thinner"—is a gentle solvent that dissolves years of grime and residue from cleaners or polishes without harming wood finishes. Become it at a home center or paint shop. Just soak a soft textile and go along rubbing until the fabric no longer picks upwards grime. Work in a well-ventilated area and call back that the fumes are flammable. Hang the cloth outdoors to dry before throwing information technology in the trash.
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Replace the Furnace Filter
One of the fastest means to create problems with a forced-air heating and cooling arrangement is to forget to supplant the filter. Locate the furnace filter and purchase replacements if the previous owners didn't leave you a stash. Replace the filter (and become in the habit of doing it every month). Hither's how!
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Clean Air Conditioner Condensers and Evaporators
A little sweat equity now will help both your wallet and your comfort level afterwards when summer's heat sets in. About of the job tin be done without the assistance of a professional, and past servicing and testing out your cooling system now, you will accept plenty of time to make an appointment with an air conditioning contractor if in that location'due south whatever unforeseen issues. After cut off the electricity to the unit, vacuum the outdoor condenser'south outside fins with a soft-bristled brush, and clear away bushes, weeds and overgrown grass within 2 feet of the unit. Indoors, supercede the furnace filter on the evaporator unit, vacuum the blower compartment, and clean the condensation drain. For the full guide to cleaning the air conditioner, click here.
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Locate Your Home's Main H2o Shutoff Valve
Know where you main h2o shutoff valve is in instance you need to shut off the water to your entire business firm. Near all homes have one principal shutoff valve straight before the water meter and some other directly after. Where the meter is located depends on the climate in your area. In cold climates, the meter and main shutoff valves are located inside, usually in a basement or other warm area to prevent freezing. In milder climates, the meter and its two shutoff valves may be attached to an exterior wall or nestled in an underground box with a removable lid. Between the water main in the street and the meter, there'due south also usually a buried curb stop valve (accessible only by city workers wielding special long-handled wrenches) and a corporation stop, where your firm h2o line hooks up to the water main. Your urban center absolutely doesn't want you messing around with these valves. Turn your water off or on using the main valve on the firm side of the meter. This valve will unremarkably be a gate-type valve, with a round knurled handle, requiring several total clockwise rotations to turn off. In newer homes, it could be a brawl valve. Discover out more about main water shutoff valves here.
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Locate the Electrical Console
Observe the electrical console and so you know where to shut of the power to you whole house or an individual excursion. You'll usually notice the main excursion billow console—a greyness, metal box—in a utility room, garage or basement. Don't worry about opening the panel's door. All the dangerous stuff is behind another steel cover. Behind the door is the main billow for the entire business firm (usually at the top of the panel) and 2 rows of other breakers below information technology, each controlling individual circuits. If you lot're lucky, there volition exist a guide that indicates which outlets and receptacles are served by each excursion. Acquire more about circuit breakers hither.
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Inspect Crawlspaces and the Attic
It's good to familiarize yourself with the farthest corners of your home. Cheque for leaks, bugs, mold and other issues that y'all should address sooner rather than later. If your crawlspace doesn't have a vapor barrier, learn how to install 1 hither.
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Make One Room a Sanctuary
You lot won't be able to make all of the dwelling house improvements you want to brand correct away and information technology's best to alive in your home for at least a couple of months before starting any major projects. Something that seems like a must-do when you first motion in may rapidly fall to the bottom of the wishlist after y'all've actually lived in your dwelling for awhile. And then, choose 1 room that doesn't require besides much piece of work and make that infinite your new-home getaway. You lot'll have a identify, in your colors and style, where you can relax and dream about the day when every room in your abode is just the style you want it. Like the wall panels shown here? Hither's how to create this expect in one weekend.
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Meet the Neighbors
It'southward wise to accomplish out and extend a friendly gesture to your neighbors equally soon every bit possible. You want to know those around you lot and so that everyone can wait out for each other. It's hard to know if a situation is suspicious if you lot don't know the people involved. Establishing yourself in your neighborhood can as well give yous admission to inside information, like who'southward the best plumber in the area and which roofing company to avert. Fifty-fifty if you're an inrovert, you'll be happiest if y'all're in good continuing with your neighbors. Want to replace your front door to make it more welcoming? Here'due south how to do it yourself.
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Check Smoke and CO Detector Dates and Supercede, as Needed
It'southward important that yous know where your fume and CO detectors are located and that y'all brand sure they are working. Fume alarms may be the cheapest, easiest and well-nigh effective means for protecting your family and your home from a fire, equally long as they're functioning. Learn where fume detectors should be located, how to maintain them, when to replace them and some cool new options available for homeowners here and here.
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Examination your sump pump earlier the beginning of the rainy flavour
Cascade h2o into it to brand certain it works. The most mutual time for a sump pump to fail is the first heavy rainfall after months of non beingness used. The submerged or partially submerged portions of bandage iron pumps can rust and seize. And they'll fire out when they switch on. Don't become defenseless with your pump down and the water ascension. After a long dry (unused) spell, cascade a bucket or two of water into the sump to make sure the pump kicks on. And practise you have sump pump backup? A good sump pump installation should include a fill-in organization for breakdowns and power outages. Acquire the pros and cons of four pump fill-in methods hither.
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If You Don't Have Keyless Entry, Hide a Key
If you don't accept keyless locks, exist sure to hide a house primal so y'all don't get locked out. Consider a location other than under the welcome mat, similar in a garden hose or under a flower pot. For hiding valuables inside your dwelling house, check out this drove of tips.
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Add Cheap Door and Window Alarms
Keeping doors and windows locked is your first line of defence. Make wireless alarms your 2d. Burglars hate noises, so even a small alarm normally sends them running. The alarms are bachelor at home centers. The alarms don't provide the aforementioned security as pro-installed monitored systems since the wireless devices are activated by doors or windows opening (not glass breaking). Use the alarms for doors and windows in 'hidden' areas of the house where you lot don't ordinarily gather and that are oftentimes night. Attach the alarm to the door or window (with a screw or double-sided tape) alongside the magnetic contact strip (they don't take to be touching, but within ane/2 in.). When the door or window opens, breaking magnetic contact, the warning shrieks (these little units accept a piercing alarm). The door warning has a delay feature, giving yous fourth dimension to set the alarm and get out, then open the door and conciliate the unit of measurement when you come dwelling, without setting information technology off. The window unit has an on/off switch. The alarms will work on whatever door or window, and the batteries concluding 2 to three years.
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Make a Homeowner'south Periodical
Buy a band folder and keep insurance papers, repair receipts and all other paperwork pertaining to the house in it. Storing all your house data in ane handy place makes life easier for the homeowner and can exist a sales 'plus' when selling the house later on. – reader Debora Emmert Paying as well much for your insurance? Learn how to save money on insurance here.
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Do This Inside the First Six Months:
Originally Published: July xviii, 2021
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/things-new-homeowners-should-do-in-the-first-year/
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