*waves* Buying a house!

[audette]

Hi!  I normally spend most of my time here on a different board, but we're finally buying a house after living in rentals for decades.  So, we're a bit clueless about home ownership, and probably need all the advice we can get.   I figure I'll probably be popping in to this board more often as we get things figured out...


We're still in the process of closing - our inspections were earlier this week, so we still have a bit before we close.  We know we want to replace the carpet in the house - it's pretty tired and has some stains, and I have some allergies, so it's probably simplest to tackle that asap - ideally before we move anything in.  Otherwise, the house basically just needs a really good scrubbing, so we'll be pretty well set once that gets done.

(I'm now going to hunt further down to posts about flooring, because I feel clueless about it and want to be armed with info before we look at options this weekend.)

[Susie]

Congratulations!

We just bought/sold/moved in May/June of this year.  Our house had 1994 carpet in the living, dining, and family rooms downstairs, the hall and all 4 bedrooms upstairs, and on the stairs.  We ripped out almost all the carpet, padding, and tack strips, as well as the tile floor in the foyer, and put in hardwood floors before we moved in.  The stairs never fit into the timeline, so someday we may do those up beautifully in hardwood but for now I think we're just going to replace the carpet on them.  Fortunately stairs don't see a lot of the dropped food, pet accidents, and dirt/dander accumulating under furniture that motivated me to do away with carpet.

If you can time it right, the time between when you rip out the old carpet, and install the new flooring, is a great time to do any painting, especially baseboards, ceilings, and walls.  No drop cloths required!

[audette]

Good thinking! The paint is in pretty decent shape, and is generally, all colors we like. Maybe not exactly what we would have chosen, but they fall within what we're OK with. It's pretty neutral in most areas, except for two of the bedrooms, which were kids rooms.

[macmars45]

Congrats!
H and I bought flooring to replace the cheap carpet in our TH before selling it August 2020. We bought the flooring from Home Depot and had a handyman install it. HD required us to do an asbestos test on our TH built in 2002 before they'd install new flooring. It was ridiculous. We had an independent carpet installer put new carpet in the entire upstairs. He did a great job and the process was really smooth & easy. Our handyman connected us to him as they worked together often.
If by chance you're in the Seattle area I can give you both of their numbers.

[lessel]

Congrats!

For floors, I’d go hardwood or LVP flooring. We have hardwood downstairs and LVP in our upstairs and basement. They were all in the house before we bought.

In our previous house we installed oak hardwoods and it was a bit of a process. The wood had to sit in the house for a week or two to acclimate before it was laid. Then a few days of sanding, staining, repeating. So just a bit of a timeline to factor in if you go hardwoods.

[audette]

And, holy crap, sticker shock on flooring costs. Dang. We just went for a visit to a flooring company showroom, and, uh, holy choices. And does it ever add up fast...

Guh.

[sju]

Congratulations!

Looks like your house will not need much work. That’s great. One thing we did before moving in was to paint the closets. The original paint was flat white so we switched to semigloss. Painting white on white is kind of a pain but we can now wipe the walls if needed.

[sju]

Oct 1, 2021 19:07:14 GMT -5 audette said:

And, holy crap, sticker shock on flooring costs. Dang. We just went for a visit to a flooring company showroom, and, uh, holy choices. And does it ever add up fast...

Guh.

It’s crazy. All the big and small changes add up so quickly. Our first house together only needed “cosmetic changes”. Lol. We still ended up spending so much. We were shocked.

[RockNVoll]

Congrats and my sympathies on becoming a homeowner, LOL! The benefits do generally outweigh the downsides, though it will feel like you're spending money non-stop in the beginning. Hope you enjoy making the place yours!

[simpsongal]

Congrats!! And yes to getting floors done before you move in. We need to do our floors and the idea of unloading our house makes to loose sleep at night....DH just wants to live w/yellowed hardwoods w/missing floors sections from subsequent renovations...

[rubytue]

Oct 1, 2021 19:10:00 GMT -5 sju said:

Congratulations!

Looks like your house will not need much work. That’s great. One thing we did before moving in was to paint the closets. The original paint was flat white so we switched to semigloss. Painting white on white is kind of a pain but we can now wipe the walls if needed.

This is a great tip. Closets get overlooked for painting a lot. We’ve bought two 1968 homes, and I’m not sure the closets had been painted in either one since 1968. If it’s that old, it will soak up so much paint! Once you move your stuff it, the likelihood of pulling everything out to paint is slim to none. 

[audette]

Thanks for the tips!

We actually like most of the paint colors in the house, so we may not need to do much painting, thankfully. The master bedroom is a very rich brown color, though, and we keep leaning towards carpet with grey tones, so we may need to repaint that room. The rest of the home either works with grey, or the brown tone on the walls is pale enough to read as a fairly neutral beige that we should be able to get away with greys against.

Or we could try and change to carpet with more of a brown tone, and avoid doing it.