I wish I did earlier {Home Edition} |Pad Patter 2.11

Discussion in 'Chatty Pad' started by bestcee, Feb 11, 2021.

  1. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    I feel like I might jinx it by saying it out loud, but we close on a house tomorrow! Which made me wonder:

    What is the thing that you wish you did earlier in your home? It doesn't have to be a purchased home, just your home.

    When we moved to the last rental we had, I waited almost a year before I hung any photos. I was afraid to put holes in the wall and get dinged for it. But those photos really made it our home. So, when we moved here - I had photos up the first week!

    What about you?
     
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  2. BevG

    BevG If I can't remember it, it didn't happen

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    So excited you have a house in your new state!! How exciting!

    Make any changes - I tend to put things one way and leave them like that. Probably the most recent is to rearrange my living room furniture. I like the new layout much better. p.s. I moved things about 3 years ago, but they stayed the same before that for about 10.
     
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  3. Donitab

    Donitab If only the TV would yell back

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    We replaced our air conditioning/heater unit two years ago and got a bigger unit. Wow! It makes all the difference. Wish we had done it years ago!
     
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  4. Cherylndesigns

    Cherylndesigns All glasses should be bigger than 1.5 oz

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    That's awesome, Courtney!! I'm so happy for you! We just moved into our new home, on December 26th. The walls are so beautiful and new and I'm being real picky about what I hang. I did hang my wooden cross right by the front door and I hung my big horse picture, but that's about all I've done. I just don't want to mess my walls up. Haha
     
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  5. A-M

    A-M Not a lot of hustle in my hustle anymore

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    Courtney, hope all goes well with your new home.

    Needed to think about this question... possibly painted inside our home sooner as it was so cold looking in winter.... grey walls. Now our home is so bright and fresh looking and looks warmer in winter.
     
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  6. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

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    I'm so excited for y'all!

    Seeing as we moved in here in 1995, I'm really stretching my brain to remember. Honestly, we had been living in a trailer. It was a really nice and clean/new trailer, but the walls were so thin and we could hear so much of the neighborhood around us. I was SO ready to leave that place! I remember loving that it was so quiet in our new home.

    I do remember had window treatments (blinds, curtains) hung up as well as art on the walls the day we moved in to the new house. I was so excited! My dad and my hubby were not too excited about all the things I wanted on the walls.

    I'd say to make it feel like your home as soon as possible and get things out of boxes.
     
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  7. rach3975

    rach3975 Well-Known Member

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    For a long time after we moved into our house (in 2005), we only made needed fixes and inexpensive changes like painting. We had 1 toddler when we moved in and then 2 more babies who were born in the first few years we were there, so we didn't have the time and didn't feel like it was worth doing anything that might get messed up. When we moved in the entire main level had white tile and white carpet. So not us and not practical, but we stuck with it for way too long. Finally in 2018 we replaced it with luxury vinyl plank (looks like hard wood but is more durable). It made such a huge difference! We wish we'd done it earlier. So I guess I'm saying 2 things. The first is that if you can afford to make bigger changes and there's something you really want to do, don't wait--you'll love your house even more once you do it. And the second thing is that flooring can really change the look of a house for the better. That one change made our house look more modern and less worn out (like I said...3 young kids and white carpet!)--painting projects and new furniture were good when we did them, but nothing else had the immediate transformative effect that the flooring did. (YMMV depending on the state of your floors!)
     
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  8. littlekiwi

    littlekiwi I charge by the hour for anything before noon

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    Only thing I can think of is I wouldn’t have chosen to live next to a major highway (by the way I was in a bind and it was my only option at the time). The bedrooms were on the front of the house and the traffic noise was horrible even during the middle of the night. It was an absolute nightmare and that’s saying something considering I’m used to living near a major railway line with commuter and freight trains running on it.

    In terms of my actual house, I wouldn’t have when I was younger chosen to decorate my ceiling with glow in the dark stars.....20+ years later they’re still there.
     
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  9. Pachimac

    Pachimac Give me all the cliché Christmas movies

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    I wish we had paid extra for the floors from the beginning.

    congrats on the house!!!!!
     
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  10. janedee

    janedee Is a craft project ever really finished?

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    How exciting! Congrats on the new house!

    We've moved a few times over the years and every time, there's something I wished we had done sooner.

    The first house we built, we finished the basement barely six months before we moved. It would have been great to have that space for the kids earlier.
    Our 2nd house, was fifteen years old when we bought it and had a really dark narrow dingy kitchen but it was functional. We finally completely redid it and extended the kitchen over the garage not long before we put the house up for sale! I really loved that kitchen!
    In this house, we put hardwood in the main living area but carpet everywhere else. I wish we'd gone with hardwood all the way but the budget didn't allow for it at the time. We've finally ripped out all the carpet except in two of the bedrooms.
     
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  11. Nemla

    Nemla Stretching my skill set

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    This is going to sound stupid, but ...Unpack every single thing.....
    We moved 20 years ago, and the last box ( in storage in the spare bedroom ) was unpacked ( and the contents thrown out, because they were no longer needed or liked ) 2 years ago. I could frankly have done with the space the boxes of "unimportant stuff " took up over the years....
    As for big things, I agree with flooring and heating, because they are major jobs that makes a mess.
    Congrats on your new home, Enjoy.
     
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  12. HavaDrPepper

    HavaDrPepper Space. The final frontier

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    This house was turned over to me from my parents in the early 90's even though they both still lived here. So I never made any major changes as I still thought of it as their home. Mom's one request before she died in 1996 was that this house always be available for my dad to live in. Even after he moved to NC in 1999 I just couldn't make major changes. It took until 2003 before I removed the 1970's orange carpet. The laminate flooring served me well having 2 dogs at the time!

    In 2002 I did take over the larger "master" bedroom and painted before I did. I did paint several rooms in 2002, 2003 and 2005 to freshen things up. It was only after Dad passed away in 2016 that I really thought about making improvements to the house. I knew I needed to if I wanted to sell it for a good price and not a fixer upper. I did have to get new flooring when I remodeled the kitchen because of a change in cabinetry design and the previous laminate had areas that were popping up due to the dogs. Knowing I was getting another dog I chose a waterproof laminate this time. I also finally had the early 90's carpet removed from the bedrooms and had the same laminate put in.

    So in other words it took me about 25 years to really make the house my own! Now to enjoy it for hopefully another 25 years :)
     
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  13. Scrapping with Liz

    Scrapping with Liz Crafts for days.

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    We've been in our house about 5 years. We've moved a few times. Definitely agree with unpack things as quickly as possible and hang some picks on those walls. I would also recommend painting/fixing anything right away because if you wait it may not ever get done. Haha!
     
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  14. bonnenuit

    bonnenuit Why do I always have to be Captain?

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    Congrats on the new house!

    If there's something that needs fixing, especially if it's small, do it ASAP. When we moved in to our house in Memphis, the great room had a large window that had sections of approx. 6x8" windowpanes. One of those had obviously been broken and been replaced with a section of translucent plastic-like material. We lived in that house for 6 years with that windowpane piece. When we went to put our house on the market so we could move to Wisconsin, we needed to fix the window. My husband went to Home Depot and paid less than a buck (at the time) to get a piece of glass cut, came home and in about 15 minutes had it replaced. It looked so much better! And we kicked ourselves for not making the change when we first moved in!
     
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