We were supposed to move in November. Then December. January, February, and now it’s mid-March. You’d think that, with all that time, I’d have tackled all of the sorts of things I knew I wanted to tackle. Right? WRONG!
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Now, with the move nearly complete, and boxes oozing out of the corners of every room, I realize the true scope of what it means to go from renting to owning.
Most of the inside doors don’t close properly. The issue seems to be with the strike plate clearance, which many online DIY help guides will instruct me how to fix.
The doors that one would want lockable, such as to the basement, don’t lock. And most are lever knobs instead of round knobs. Our toddler son can make quick work of lever-style door knobs, and there aren’t as many quick or inexpensive safety solutions as for round-style door knobs.
In one of the bedroom closets, there’s a massive cleanly cut rectangular hole. I don’t know if it was something the contractor cut out for some reason, or it’s something the previous owner did, such as for the installation of a since-removed wall safe that we were in the dark about.
Some of the freshly painted door frames have some peeled areas, where the doors stuck in the frames too soon after being painted. The painter was meticulous about preventing this from happening, so maybe the new 2nd floor heating zone changed the dynamic of how everything fit together, helping to cause this?
There’s a golf ball-sized hole in the hallway closet floor, where there’s an oversized hole for a gas line and electrical connection to go to the attic’s HVAC unit.
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We need rugs.
We need to figure out where mice came in from the outside (the blocked off basement window that went unused when the deck was built?).
The list goes on and on.
A mission for this week is to figure out if and where to retrofit the existing downlight with LED bulbs and trim kits.
Why is it so dark in the basement, and what should I replace the lights with?
Some of the light switches and outlets need to be replaced.
I finally figured out what I want to do about the basement floor to cover up the asbestos vinyl tile. I’m going to use a suitable underlayment (AirGuard or similar), and click-together Allure Ultra vinyl flooring. It’s thicker than the similar edge-glued Allure tiles, and the in-store samples at Home Depot looked decent.
So there’s what I want to do about the floor. And do I still want to paint over the wood-style wall paneling?
I want to install brand new smoke and CO monitors. As part of the home inspection, they had to verify that there were working alarms where there should be, but who knows how old or effective they are? I’ll put a smoke alarm in every bedroom, and maybe a combo unit in the hallway.
Some of these things can wait, some can’t. Securing the basement door from my son, for instance, is something that cannot wait. The same goes for installing a top-of-stairs barrier gate. He is FAST and relying on “oh I can stop him” instincts would be a mistake.
But hey, at least putting up temporary window shades is something I was able to knock off my to-do list.
Then there’s the of course it’s got to get done list, which includes unpacking, reassembling the work benches and desks, building a new workbench for the garage, finding a place for everything, building some shelves, and so forth.
Oh, and installing some ceiling lights in the garage and maybe the basement as well.
I think I might want a subpanel installed in the garage, for both more outlets, and a 220V line or two. That way I can run a heater in the winter, for year-round working. Maybe I should insulate the garage walls first. What about a mini split combination heating and cooling system? The current garage attic stairs are a little too short and should be replaced.
Oh boy, the list goes on.
But, more space means more projects, and potentially quicker progress. Eventually?
I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Nick
Toddlers and velociraptors love lever style doorknobs.
Welcome to home ownership!
Having all the tools to fix stuff certainly helps, so I imagine you’ll be pretty well prepared for most stuff.
Every time something needs fixed around my house it seems I have to go buy the tool first before I can even get started.
Wayne Ruffner
Toddlers & velociraptors? That seems like an unnecessary distinction but we don’t have either.
Patrick
Velociraptors are real. They are amongst the highest concerns a new homeowner should have. One shouldn’t underestimate those crafty bastards. As Nick said lever style doorknobs are their bread and butter.
tim
Still need a Facebook style like button for stuff like this.
Josh
If you’re running 220 in the garage, do yourself a favor and run at least two lines. Nothing worse than being stuck with 110 when your toys just need a little more power.
fred
I second the welcome to home ownership. You probably know – or will soon learn – that “a house is a hole in the ground to throw money.” The only thing worse is a boat – since it is “a hole in the ocean in which to throw money.” Seriously – take it slow and everything will fall into place. Anyway – even if you could do everything all instantaneously at once – it probably would not be wise to do so – since everything would start to age simultaneously – building in a future need to refurbish all at once again.
The prior owner in my place – seemed to be way ahead (considering that I moved in in the mid ’70’s) of his time. He wired the garage – ready for fast charging of an electric car. Actually his 220V circuits – #6 wire circuit was for an old stick welder, 2 #10 wire circuits for a big old commercial refrigerator and a big freezer – and a 12 wire for an air conditioner.
On the subject of lever style door handles – we have them (old Baldwin Hardware that I installed in the ’70’s ) throughout the house. The kids figured them out quickly as you say. Over the years, we had one dog who could operate them – but 2 others (all were retrievers) who never figured them out. My daughter’s most recent cat can operate them when they visit – he stretches himself out and gets a paw on the end.
Milwaukee tool Steve
Well I wish you happy days on your DIY projects hope everything gets fixed i’m pretty much in the same situation but ive been busy for years now so things that needed just a little attention now will need weeks of attention yeesh don’t get to busy stuart.
Justin
Ah but so much fun. We have a townhouse rental which we moved into right before our daughter arrived. It was a foreclosure in a prior life and our landlord did enough to keep it afloat but it was below where we wanted.
I started with smoke/CO alarms as we have gas everything and no CO alarms in the house. It has hardwired smoke which are as old as the home so I added some 10-year battery detectors.
I prefer handles to knobs but we actually have knobs. We use “door monkey” (you can google it) to keep our daughter out of areas and let the air circulate in the house. They’re probably as expensive as a new knob set though. The Munchkin easy open gates are our top of stairs barrier gate and we have cheaper Evenflo “deterrent” gates at the bottom as our daughter loves to climb stairs.
The bulb burnt out in the downlight over our shower so I put in a Cree downlight kit thing. It’s all in one and screws in like a lightbulb. It’s also wet rated which was important there. It also replaced the trim and everything so was very clean. I’d like to replace every BR30 in the house but … rental.
One bathroom door doesn’t latch so it looks like I’m going to be in the market for a metal file to fix that.
Enjoy your new home and the projects coming your way!
dll932
As a locksmith, I found that LOTS of people lose and forget keys and get locked out of things-houses, cars, file cabinets…when moving, pay special attention to where your keys are!
Also, changing locks on a new place is always a good idea. A friend bought a house in a very nice neighborhood. After taking possession, she discovered the old owners were coming in and taking fixtures!
Jer S.
My sister had one better. She didn’t change the locks for about a month in her new home and the old owner’s adult child (in their 40’s) didn’t know they moved and walked right it and started watching TV. After the shock from my sister they got a good laugh. Her locks were changed the next day.
Jerry
Before you relocate a strike plate on an existing door, be sure that the opening is square. We made that mistake on the door of our added on porch, only to find after while the door started to scrape the jamb. Turned out the opening was out of square due to settling of the added on part. Had we squared the opening we would have fixed it right rather than twice.
fred
dll932’s comments make me think about some of the delights and foibles associated with taking possession of a new house. I assume – you had a home inspector look at it before you closed – but even if you did its good to check some things out. Like plugging an outlet tester or GFI/AFCI tester into the outlets to see what’s what (looking for reversed hot/neutral, no ground etc.)
Going through the house and making a list (if their isn’t one) of what breakers work what is also useful.
Plumbing leaks are usually more readily apparent – or soon will be – but we’d often see issues when we were doing remodeling that had never been addressed: water heaters improperly vented (e.g. horizontal instead of upward flue), gas appliances without a local gas cock shutoff) , slow running sinks – because of improper venting etc. In older houses – bath and shower valves often did not have anti-scald features – so we might adjust the water heater down as a stopgap measure for new owners with children or disabled family members. We’d also be called in (usually the first cold winter) to fix dripping bathroom ceiling vents that had un-insulated ducting – with condensation happening in the attic.
Nathan
WOW – good luck. I’m sure running this site you have more crap to deal with than I do. and I hated moving too. Curious as to how moving with a new kid was? I have the same thing coming up for me soon.
+1 on setting up the 220 in the garage. While I can start off thinking of just 2 things I’d need it for – i’m sure I’d miss something. So I was planning on putting in a new panel dedicated for it – with some little expansion room.
SteveW
You said “I’ll put a smoke alarm in every bedroom, and maybe a combo unit in the hallway.”
Surely that should be the other way around, with the combo units in the bedrooms.
Chris
Ive been told combo units in every room might be overkill….the way CO mixes in the air, the chances are it will get to a central area as fast or faster than a bedroom (where it would have to make its way “through” ceiling drops, etc)
On the flipside, if you are already doing the work and dont mind the extra expense, combo units are great. Keep in mind, though, that fire alarm sensors and CO sensors are usually on a different replacement schedule, so you might be throwing away 3 years of a fire alarm sensor because the CO sensor needs to be replaced right now.
Nathan
I’m almost positive Code (at least in my area) requires a CO detector by the main air-return(s) and in the room of any fireplace.
Andrew Bacon
Wow! This makes me feel VERY comforted. We just moved from Texas to South Carolina last September from a newer home we own and have been living month to month in a rental with a lot of the owners items still in the house. It has been no fun to live in a strange environment for 8 months without the ability to improve it and make it our own. We actually just bought a home in the nearby town we are moving to, but the home was built in the 70’s. I have been concerned about that since my other home in Texas was built in 2006. My list of improvements, remodels and fixes is so long. Like really long. Everywhere I look I see a need and and update project. I am not only worried about all the time it is going to take, but all the costs involved. Buying it was necessary because we have to get into this town for my work and it is a solid option in general, just lots of aesthetic issues. … Reading your post was encouraging. Hang in there! I will try to do the same. I hope to make more blog posts about it and even bought the domain “fliponabudget.com” to see if I can turn the project into some income to offset the costs. Anyhow, thanks for sharing. I hope to read more about what you are improving and share what we are learning as well.
Chris
Welcome to owning a home!
We bought ours 15 years ago and its been a constant to-do list since then. Not a season goes by where I’m not working on some semi-major project of some sort.
The good thing about it is that I can justify all the tools that I buy! And Id rather do something myself the wrong way (and fix it) than PAY someone else to do it the wrong way. Way too much of that goes on IMHO.
Robert
My advice. When you buy something that needs to be replaced say like the AC capacitor because it blew on one hot summer day. BUY TWO. I had one blow out whenst it was 108 degrees one fine day in July only to have to scramble to find one quickly. Luckily I was able to wrangle one from a tech I saw servicing another property near by.
Now sure I could have had it replaced and paid the $120 service call plus probably another $50 for the part but being the DYI’er I am I always keep a two on hand for summers now. About $20 each.
Toolboxhero
Welcome to the most satisfying yet frustrating job you will ever have.
We bought a 30 year old house with a well. The system never had a filter and the sand from the well has wore out all the copper piping in the house. It seems like every other month I have to replace a section of pipe that has sprung a pin-hole leak.
Like Chris said, You get to buy tools!
Wayne Ruffner
We moved almost a year ago and used the 4″ LED light trims from Costco ($10 each) for the spread of cans in the kitchen and finished basement. They’re dimmable too (changed the old dimmers to LED versions).
Tossed an amazing number of incandescents…
If you’re changing switches, consider Occupancy Sensor switches. I put them in the laundry area, basement, powder room and garage. They’re all good but the one in the garage is almost life-changing.
Exhaust fan timers are nice too.
Loved getting rid of all that Ivory plastic too. Yuk.
RKA
Congratulations and good luck in the new home! The list…constantly evolving. Priorities and dependencies help separate the must do’s from the wish list. Set your yearly budget for home improvements and work off the list accordingly. It’s amazing how fast money disappears into a home, even if you DIY. But it’s satisfying to see what you’ve accomplished as well…you’ll learn a lot in the process. Enjoy the ride!
Derek
Good point. I should start doing that. We just fix/replace what we think needs to be fixed. We always forget about the small stuff that we fixed throughout the year. New outlets are cheap, but they add up quick when you replace a lot at the same time.
garrick
When it comes to lighting, I like to install lights when and where I want them. My shop has a lot of lighting, mostly LEDs now, but florescents where overhead space is restricted. I played around with different LEDs to get the best one for each location. Admittedly the ceiling is a patchwork of wires, but there is no place where I don’t have almost the exact light want.
mike aka Fazzman
Hehe Stu,thats just the beginning.
Once you get the basics there is always something it seems. we bought our first house nearly 1 1\2 years ago now and im still trying to get my wife to cleanup her clutter in the garage,I need to build a bunch of shelving which im hoping to start soon.
Our house was built in 1958,and is on a slab,the most major thing we’ve done so far is reroofing the house,that made a huge improvement. I also plan on doing some major electrical upgrades to the garage area since the garage is also the man cave around here.
Jim Felt
I bought my third house between marriages (and any real female advice) in 1985. Sadly during that particular recession I failed to sell my previous house for 8 rather long months.
The new to me one was designed by an architect who never met an easy to remodel or refurbish idea. It kept me up nights wondering how I’d/we’d pay for what needed to be done to maintain those very ideals.
But last spring after 30 years our effort kinda paid off when we sold it in 3 days after a bidding war.
You’ll do fine. Have patience. Do research. Develop an honest and trusted network of non-DIY pros. Which takes some trial and error. And a Fine Homebulding subscription!
What a great adventure! Good on you guys.
Derek
We bought our townhouse 4 years ago and I’m still doing things. Always something to update or fix, but prioritizing really helps.
I found the hardest thing to install was the baby gates. We don’t have a door blocking any of the stairs and the 40 year old walls and railings mean I had to install a board on the wall and/or railing to really secure the baby gates. Not wanting to look at a 2×4 nailed to the wall I stained a piece of wood, routed the edges and made it look like it’s supposed to be there.
It’s nice having the right tools to complete the jobs or saving so much money you can justify buying more tools to fix other things.
NCD
It’s just time and money, sometimes renting looks pretty good……eh? I’m sure you and yours will be just fine; oh BTW, do you have any tools to attack these repairs? Insert humour here!
John
I feel your pain. We moved in 2013 from a duplex built in 2006 (that we bought new) to a single family house built in 1997 on a half acre. We’ve just taken the approach that we are going to pick a new room or part of the yard that irritates us the most every year and tackle it. We started with the kitchen and laundry room just before moving in.
Don’t forget that you’ll get the random repairs that aren’t fun or glamorous to make but they’re now your responsibility. So far for me, it’s been a new sump pump (45 minutes before a monster thunderstorm that dumped 2″ of rain on us in an hour), A-Coil for the furnace (AC failed on a weekend at the peak of summer), and a something with the water heater but drawing a blank on that one.
Remodeling has been fun as go around the house.
2014 was a complete remodel of the living room including thin veneer stone around the fireplace and chimney, new cabinetry that I built, and some electrical including LED lighting in the cabinets, TV over the fireplace, and outlets to plug in AV gear.
2015 was a complete remodel of our 3 year old sons room including new trim, built-in bookcases, window seat, and a custom closet. A pregnant wife with non-stop morning sickness made that one drag out 3 times longer than it should have because I just couldn’t get more than 3-4 hours to work at a time.
2016 is going to be a nursery for our son that was born in February – another window seat and set of bookcases, new trim, painting, and so on.
Throw in other general cleaning and maintenance items like cleaning out the garage and shed, pressure washing sidewalks and patios on the north side of the house, re-screening the porch, replacing the garage door jambs, painting exterior doors & trim, baby-proofing the basement stairs and open railings on either side of them, and misc. yard work and this summer is already getting booked solid before we even hit April 1.
One thing that I can almost guarantee you needs to be done to your new house and I haven’t seen listed here yet is to thoroughly clean the dryer vent. You will be amazed at how much lint comes out of it. Moving in the winter, I wasn’t able to get to my dryer vent outlet on the roof (whoever thought putting it there was a good idea should be shot) until the following spring and wound up removing almost a full 2 gallon bucket of crap from 35 ft of duct – housefire waiting to happen. I now clean it every spring and fall. If you have that cheap plastic flex stuff, do yourself a favor and just replace it with straight metal duct since the plastic gets brittle and fails. Also can’t use a brush to clean the inside of it.
Good luck with your projects – I’m sure we’ll see some of them here on the site.
T
Having experienced four toddlers, round knobs are useless as well. Lol.
Nick S.
If you don’t want to replace the door knobs, try these out. They work pretty well. We have the lever style in our house and realized real quick that the little ones figure out how to open them without much trouble. Good luck with everything.
Door Monkey Door Lock and Pinch Guard https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ECJWK4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_Fgd8wbZV3B11E
Wayne Ruffner
When that first image popped up my WTF buzzer was going off. Got it figured out now tho…
Stuart
Thanks, ordered one to try out!
Cody
Congrats Stuart! What about painting the floor tiles in the basement with garage floor paint?
Jeff
When our little guy (he’s 5 now) started toddling about, we added the spinning-cover type covers over our round knobs, but we’d replace several doors and used lever handles on them. I don’t know if anyone has suggested them yet, but Safety 1st makes a lever handle door lock, and it’s impossible for a toddler to open. It was hard enough for my wife to open!
http://www.amazon.com/Safety-1st-Lever-Handle-Lock/dp/B0009EXOGE
(They also have a “Prograde” version, which we didn’t use).
It’s installed by removing the handle and cover plate from the outer side of the door, sliding the lock on, then reinstalling the cover and handle. Easy-peasy. Then slide the button to “Lock” and, unless he turns into the Hulk when he’s angry, your midget will have no chance of opening the door. 8^)
Szymon
We used these gates in our home. We had 2. Both worked great.
They are on the pricier side compared to your wal-mart choices but work a lot better.
Best thing is that they are hidden when not in use.
http://www.lascal.net/products/kiddyguard
Szymon
Oh
Congrats and welcome to home ownership.
The list never seems to have all items check off on it. lol
Nate 818
All the people that contribute to this website are ready for the challenge of home ownership. You being the webmaster is even more exciting! Good luck.
Mick
Hey Stu, can you hear it…..? “Where is ……..?” Boxes, boxes and more boxes. “Stuff”, just like bunnies, has a way of quickly multiplying. Hopefully many years down the road you’ll start thinking of downsizing. Trust me, you’ll be finding stuff that was lost and forgotten. Ya lose something and buy another eventually finding what was originally lost. Then end up having multiples which is convenient. In the mean time keep busy, make it yours and have fun
RKA
Heh, I spent 2 hours yesterday looking for a 2″ sparkling knife. Eventually I gave up and bought a new one today. Meanwhile I’ve got an extra 12″…any guesses how I came upon #2? 🙂
tim
Quite literally the same boat.
House in november with my 19 m/o son running around, two jobs here, all the stuff in the world to do and no time to do it.
Section off the house accordingly and wait to fully move into the sections that need the most/fastest solutions.
I let the wife take over and I’m pissed about it later as I have to move stuff to get to stuff to do stuff everytime I do anything.
From a flooring guy allure is a decent product, just make sure you follow all the instructions to the T which you probably will because you’re you.
Wayne Ruffner
“Quite literally the same boat.” That makes my brain hurt.
Ken
I saw a recommendation to check outlet wiring.
I just read about an issue that receptical testers have detecting what are called bootleg and reverse bootleg grounds.
Reverse bootleg looks really dangerous.
This video on You Tube shows the problem..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XfAPkJVYUpY
After watching the video I don’t think I’ll trust these testers. If anybody can find a tester that says it can test for these conditions then please share the info.
fred
I had suggested a more thorough check of outlets – so this is interesting.
I doing remodeling work – we needed to (and even DIY folks should) bring electrical circuits up to local code requirements. The most often issue we found was the lack of grounds – because old 2-wire circuits did not provide for a separate ground. Sometimes homeowners would replace an old 2-wire receptacle with a modern 3-wire outlet – leaving the ground off – or using the neutral for a ground. I guess that reversing hot and neutral – with a bootleg ground – as shown in the youtube video – would be the worst case scenario. We also sometimes found another issue where – as an example – a kitchen outlet had the old 2 wire setup – and then a 3rd wire was added clamped onto a nearby cold water pipe as a ground. Our electrician told us that having different impedance grounds in the house might appear to be OK – but that in the event of a lightning strike the homeowner might find out otherwise. Other problems we found when opening up walls were things like splices made outside of an electrical box , outlets wired off of a light’s switch leg (i.e. in series with the light), aluminum wiring into receptacles not designed for it, lampcord used as conductors, and 20 amp breakers installed on 14ga circuits
Stuart
Thank you everyone of the warm wishes!
I’m utterly exhausted right now (I was writing about Bondhus hex keys, and instead of saying they’re affordable, I somehow mentioned that they were incredibly waterproof?), but hope to have a chance for some more replies later.
I just wanted to add this bit about smoke and CO alarms: I’m probably going to follow general CDC or fire department recommendations. I believe it’s usually to have fire alarms in each bedroom. CO alarm in centralized places as well, but am not sure. Alarms in kitchen area as well, main hallways, and CO near places were it could be generated, such as near the water heater.
Chris
Not sure what fuel your heating equipment is, but if its oil you might want to use a rate-of-rise detector near the furnace, rather than an actual smoke.
Will prevent falses if the furnace happens to burp a little and for when a tech comes out to clean it and a little of the smoke gets loose.
I also used a rate-of-rise in our kitchen as well, dont need falses when the wife makes me cook and all we get is burnt stuff!
Daniel Lawson
Yeah I know the feeling my house was a foreclosure and I keep finding stuff all the time. Good ol new jersey lol I have a monitored alarm system for fire and burglar plus the combo smoke and CO alarms throughout the house. If I remember correctly Stu if your in NJ I’ll come help if I can, I have the lever style knows too but I bought guards at HD for them and so far work well.
Jon
Congrats on becoming a homeowner! Welcome to the madness.
cody
Check the back side of smokes and CO’S for a date to tell you when they should be replaced.
Crusty
Sound advice there. We built our house 10 years ago, and I just got through replacing each and every (hard wired) smoke and CO. Not cheap, but well worth the peace of mind..
BikerDad
Congrats to you Stuart, along with a bunch of envy. I would love to have my own place again. Nice little 1,000 sq. ft house with a 2,500 sq. foot shop. 😀
andrew
mix and pour self leveling compound over the asbestos tile, easy way to do it and it will level the floor for you and then you can put anything down.
its as easy as mixing it to the directiond theb pouring it on the floor and letting it set