When you complete on a house, it feels so surreal - at least it did for us. We weren’t able to collect the keys ourselves as we were both working, but I recommend you take completion day off as it’s too exciting. Go out buy some bubbles and invite your family over to celebrate and talk about what you can do with it now that it’s yours!
When you get to the new property have a look around and assess the situation, especially any niggling things that have been playing on your mind. Mine was the kitchen, yet when I got there on my own (after I finished blubbing and jumping around in excitement!) I look at the room in more detail. The majority of the units were solid wood with internal MDF which was much better than expected! Rather than replacing a kitchen if you feel happy with it, you can make small changes to personal it or epicycle what you have to get it in line with what you would love to have. Plus it’s way cheaper too!
Make a list of things to do when you get in; ideas and questions tend to pop up in the wait between exchange and completion so write them down and battle through the list. I even made a spreadsheet to organise all the information, with a chart to plot our time out - I’m a bit of a task master, sorry Steve! You can start by measuring up and getting to know your new place. Floor plans don’t always match up exactly, so it’s definitely worth checking over. Measuring up can also get you really looking around the room; note down anything that you immediately notice you want to change so you can build it into your renovation or decoration plans later. For me, this was in the form of new plug fascias as every plug was different and I felt new, clean, uniform ones would make a difference to the finish of the room.
Throw open the windows and doors to let the air in. It really makes such a difference, particular if the house has been empty for a while as the fresh air seems to rejuvenate the space. Remember to enjoy being still, listening to the new sounds and taking it all in! I immediately fell in love with the kitchen door being open as they light falling through was so beautiful, I could imagine sitting there at the weekend with a book. I am also obsessed with bird song, and just being still made me realise how loud the birds were around the house which made me really happy and satisfied with our choice of location.
Meeting your neighbours can be a bit of a daunting task, and I had no idea how to go about it or what the etiquette was. Luckily by throwing the doors open we got to meet them from seeing them walk past and taking the opportunity to introduce ourselves. Be transparent with the neighbours about any work you are planning. Most people are totally cool with it if you are honest, especially with noise and people going in and out of the property to do works.
Be ready to address the big renovation/updating issues your survey picked up, unless you are super lucky or in a new build there are likely to be a list of things to do. Ours was the damp work as our mortgage company had put a time limit on the repairs in order to get back our retention. This meant we had to move anything out of the way of the work which unfortunately meant flexing our priority list already!
Our boiler was enormous, practically taking up the entire utility room. Honestly, huge! We got in a friend who deals with heating systems and he even mentioned that the boiler was suitable to heat a block of flats with specially moulded pipes…it had to go. Don’t be afraid to replace the heating as early on as you can if you think it needs doing. It has made such a difference to the house, giving us more space through less radiators (they are more efficient smaller ones!) and moving the boiler to our understairs cupboard. Moving the boiler out of the utility room also means we could turn that room into a downstairs wet room at a later date. If you are able to, get advice from friends and family in the trade. We talked through our ideas and plans for the house with everyone we could and lots of people had fantastic ideas that we have been able to incorporate into the plan.
