1.) We'll have a month of being in both the apartment and the house, paying only the apartment rent because our first month's house payment isn't until August 1st! So, how would y'all recommend moving?
Should we:
a) do it all at once in one day so it's over (we can clean the apt. later) or
b) just move the stuff we need first to the house and then slowly go through the stuff we dont' need later at the apartment and get rid of stuff
2.) Our main living room which goes into the dining room has carpet. We'd like to eventually get hardwood floors in that area, but we also need a dining room table, patio furniture, ceiling fan, light fixture, window treatments...the list goes on.
Should we:
a) get hardwood floors down before moving and get furniture later or
b) just move everything in and focus on the furniture for right now (worry about wood floors later)
3.) We close on Thursday June 25th. I'm taking the Thursday, Friday and Monday off to get our house all of our utilities set up. I'd really like to get in the house and clean before we move anything in. Just to give it one good clean (especially in the bathrooms, kitchen, etc.) before we start living there. I'd also really like to paint our living room/dining room walls before we move our furniture in, but Ryan thinks we could wait.
Should we:
a) clean, paint, and get everything settled before moving our furniture in or
b) just clean, move all of our stuff in and then worry about painting later
4.) This is just a personal taste thing, but Ryan and I are disagreeing on what our kitchen should look like. First of all, this kitchen is a dream. It's so large, there are tons of windows looking out to the backyard, and there's SO much counter space and cabinets. However, Ryan and I are not satisfied with the cabinets. Ryan wants to stain them much darker for a rich look, and I want to paint them white for a fresh and open look. Check out the picture below for a good look. This is the only picture of the house's interior we'll show until we can move in.
P.S. That's linoleum that we'll change to ceramic tile eventually. It's just not super high on the list of priorities at the moment. And we'll get new appliances someday, too. And granite. And a new light fixture. And paint. What color paint? That's another question entirely. :)a) stain them darker for a rich look or
b) paint them white for a fresh and open look
Okay, that's all for today. Help! Thanks!
15 comments:
Oh my goodness, that kitchen is HUGE! Wonderful!! And the yard is stunning!
I am a do-it-all-first-then-move-things-in kind of girl. Not that I've ever owned a home! But I would much rather get all the painting, floors, etc. done before moving everything in. I would hate to have to move everything in then move it al right back out again! That just seems like more work! Plus it will all be finished and just the way you want it!
But again, this is coming from a girl that has never owned a home, so take it for what's it's worth! :-)
Hi Jenn!
I am coming out from my 'blog-stalking' to let you know I exist :) My husband and I were in your shoes last August after we bought our first house...very similar situation to yours!
We had our house for a month before we had to move in and I am so thankful because we ripped up all the floors and put hardwood floors down and did all the painting first. I would recommend that by leaps and bounds. I can't imagine having done that with furniture and living in the same place. Just my experience though :)
As for the kitchen, I love white cabinets but you may need some more color on the walls that way? I love the painted look over the stained, but I bet both would be pretty!!
This is so exciting..hope y'all enjoy it!
Jennifer
I'm with Tyly--I'd rather do it all, clean, install, paint, whatever... do it all and get it over with. Otherwise, it'll be a constant project, rather than separate little projects that are fun to tackle individually...
and I think I'm gonna have to go with you on this one. white cabinets all the way! :)
a. Get rid of things before you move them. Don't take the time and space to move things that you are going to trash. Perhaps start Craigs listing now?
b. Start the wood floors (if you can afford it) now. If you end up staining them, you will have to wait a day or two before you can walk around anyway so you can't use the house. Believe me, my parents did this recently.
c. White Cabinets all the way! I understand that Ryan wants the 'rich darker look' but white cabinets in that space would look really nice with the natural lighting (and white appliances for now). If you can, use a compression spray for painting.
Just my two cents.
OH.. and you can always wait to paint- not too much work, plus you might not like the colours with your furniture...
1). Trash everything you KNOW you don't want and that has no value (old papers, schoolbooks, etc). Then move everything, settle in the house, decide what doesn't fit/go/have a purpose and have a yardsale - you'll have a house to do it at AND make some money too...
2). I vote hardwoods now IF it doesn't stress you financially. If it stresses you at all, don't do it yet, you can always do it when the weather is cooler and you're settled into your house and have taken care of all little expenses - like in the fall.
3). Paint now. You've got at least 6 helpers that I know of (including me, duh :)
4). Either would look pretty...
We defititely painted EVERY ROOM before moving in, and it was the best! I highly recommend that you paint what you know you'll want to paint first.
1. b - definitely get rid of stuff first! I still have closets full of crap that I need to go through and I just can't ever seem to find the time!
2. I think it depends on how long you think you will wait before hardwoods. If it's only going to be a couple of months then I would go ahead and get started with those first instead of furniture. But if you think it will be more like 6 months to a year then I vote for the furniture now. My parents put in hardwoods a couple of years ago and it wasn't that bad!
3. b - I would paint later once you see your furniture/decoration.
4. Wentzel and I both love dark cabinets but ours our white and I have really grown to love them. It does make the kitchen seem more open and the right granite and backsplash can bring in a bit more richer look.
Okay we are totally in the process of moving into a house right now, though our house has a lot more to work on. Because we are in our apartment until the end of July. We decided to move nothing into the house, but fix everything we could afford to right off the bat. The 8,000 tax credit (which you can amend on your taxes from this year) is a huge help for that. We've bought new carpet, one room with wood floors ready to be put in as soon as we are done painting (we are currently in the process of priming wood paneling). Then back at the apt. I've slowly been packing things up. Decor first, moving from the least necessary to the most. We plan to move in over a full month, just because we can. I've also been making a garage sale pile from stuff we don't want, old fixtures from our house, etc. That way in the middle of the summer we can have a garage sale in order to buy new stuff for the house/pay for what we already bought! That's just what we are doing, but it is a lot less stressful than it could potentially be. Happy moving! Its super exciting!
1. a)
2. a) hardwood floors first so you dont have to move things later : )
3. a) for sure! We did all of our painting, ect before moving in and although exhausting, it was so nice to have everything done!
4 either would look good! Ours are white! : )
I only just moved to a bigger apartment, and not a house, but as a recent mover in general, my tips are:
1) Pack, pack, pack, and then move in one day. If you try to move slowly over time, you'll find it's much more stressfull trying to figure out exactly what you won't need over the next few weeks and what you will need. Plus, if you move something and realize later that you need it, it's an extra pain to either move it back or have to go to the new place to use it.
2) Move everything, get it where you want it, then get wood floors later. You'll be happy you did, and then you will just have to move the furniture back when it's in place.
3)DEFINATELY paint and clean before moving stuff in! If you move first, it's a tremendous pain to paint after that. If you paint first, it's done, then you bring in furniture,and you don't have to move it.
4) In such a big kitchen, you could go dark and it wouldn't be too overbearing. But if it's light and airy, the white paint would look perfect. Think about how you decorate the rest of the house, and consider the kitchen in it!:)
1. Go through everything first take everything to Goodwill or wherever, then move all the major stuff all at once.
2. I think that depends on which you can live w/ longer. Will you be happier in your living room w/ nice floors and empty dining room. Or vice versa. I'd personally go for the hard wood floors.
3. I'd clean and paint first, if you know what you want. If you're not sure what colors you want, I'd move stuff in then look at samples with furniture close by.
4. If you go with white cabinetry I'd change the wall and floor color to be a bigger contrast. Like a darker color or really bright n cheery, not the tan/cream family.
There's my random opinion, wish I was doing all this again. I miss doing all the house stuff!
Here is my accounting wisdom: You aren't used to a house and all the odds and ends of payments that will go with it naturally (property taxes, landscaping, etc.). So I would say if you know for 100% for sure you can afford it: do the floor and paint before you move (if not wait). Move gradually into your new space, that way it is not the stress of boxes, and you can go through stuff to throw it away as you are moving. As far as your long list of purchase wants: I would wait till you live in the house and see what bugs you the most when you are actually there on a day to day basis. What bugs you now may be overshadowed by somehting else a month from now. You could even wait to do a big project till tax refund time next year. (That is my logical answer, my giddy girl answer would be "HAVE FUN DECORATING!!")
Jenn, I've been stalking you while you've been talking about buying a house...Chris and I just bought our first home recently and have moved in slowly. Yes, it sucks living out of 2 houses, but it's so nice to not have BOXES all over the place (we've moved quite a bit and this has been a lot less stress!!!)
I say do the floors first...a lot of times you really can't move around on the floor right after it's installed, so it's really easy to do it before hand. Along with this, if you do that, I would suggest painting after you rip up the floors and before you put the new ones down.
And sorry Jen, but I think I agree with Ryan on staining the cabinets....
Amber Reineck-Satterwhite
I would do whatever you can get done prior to moving into the home. Our move when alot smoother when we put in our floors and painted the rooms of our home prior to moving in. It made it a lot easier when we moved in since all we had to do was unpack. I would definately put the floors in before furniture, it will be a good investment. It is much easier to paint a room prior to having to work around furniture. We moved somethings before the movers came for the boxes and stuff. I foudn it to be alot easier when we took our clothes and personal items to the home so that the movers moved the heavy stuff and they did not take so long...so we did pay them as much. Owning our home kinda freaked me out at first also but it has a wonderful and sometimes stress learning experience.
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