How soon after moving in to a new house

[BrilliantBetty]

How soon after moving in do you make changes?
I.e new flooring, painting, doors etc?

If these things want doing because they are not to your style & are a bit shabby but technically don't have to be done immediately.

My DH thinks we ought to wait a year before doing anything. In order to really get a feel for the house and think about exactly what to do / what order.

He hasn't quite achieved that because I have had a new toilet put in the main bathroom and have painted the living room.

Getting bored of waiting amongst the ugly decor the previous residents chose.

We’re in the process of buying our first house. We’re planning to have a month overlap with our current rental, to give us time to completely make over the key rooms. Didn’t occur to me we should wait!

I would do small things - redecorations - as soon as I had the energy for them.

Larger things, like replacement kitchens/garden landscaping/extensions/bathrooms etc I agree with your DH. It's much easier to make the decision on how it should go once you've lived with it for a while and you know how you use the space, and even things like where the light falls in the room.

I had the decorator in literally the day after we moved. I didn't want to put all furniture etc in to then move it all out again to decorate.

We had a month where we had the keys but still had our rental where we stripped walls and ripped out carpets. This was a house desperate for renovation. Hadn't had much done to it in years.

We are waiting a bit for a new kitchen but that's only because we need to save up for one.

I would definitely do painting and things as soon as I had time/money. Why wouldn't you? Fair enough about working out where you want big pieces of furniture etc to go. However you probably know fairly early on that that giant floral wallpaper isn't for you.

We have lived here for 4 years, apart from painting, we are only now planning to change the kitchen.
My DH is happy as long as he can open a cupboard or put something on the worktop, they are fit for purpose.
I have planned it alone. It’s only been the past week or so that he has expressed any interest

Depends.

Redecorating I wouldn't wait if I had the time/money to get on with it.

Bathroom I'd do sharpish if it was bothering me.

Kitchen/knocking the through walls etc. I'd leave a year if it wasn't too dire as I think you get a better idea of the layout the works.

But unless you're planning on major wirk, then I can't see the point in waiting if you have the time & money.

It all takes time and money and also whether you settle. I really wish I had done nothing to our last house and put it straight back on the market the day after moving in!

Do what is immediately obviously needing done. As it sounds like you have.

What is your husband waiting for ? Getting a feel of the place will happen as you make it yours.

After the upheaval of moving he just wants to chill for a bit.

I had a friend who's husband preferred to save rather than spend the money on D.I.Y. OK, very laudable. Until she realised it was also a good excuse to get out of D.I.Y chores !

We do it all before we move in!

I don’t think you need to set a hard deadline but I do think you need to live someplace for a while to make decisions. We did things when we just moved in and I got it wrong, we’ve been renovating for seven years, do one big thing a year, and have just completed. Some of the decisions we made at the beginning I’d now not have made as it’s taken time for the whole thing to evolve.

We painted one room, it was every shade of pink, ds wasn’t keen so we decorated before moving him into that room. We then waited a year to redecorate the rest, may have been sooner but the ceiling in the kitchen fell through (shower leak) so our plans of a house that just needed painting went out the window.

we just bought a house and luckily as was in rented had a few weeks overlap.

We painted every room (except the hall/stairs which we are in the middle of stripping wallpaper etc)
took up carpet in lounge and hall and replaced with wood effect laminate
had the condemned log burner ripped out, enlarged the firplace, had the chimney lined, replaced the hearth and a new log burner fitted
new boiler (not planned but it packed in on day 2!!)
replaced the downstairs doors as they were splitting

no way would i have wanted to live in it as it was for a year!! we want to replace upstairs bathroom but will have to wait until saved some money towards it.

Huh 🤔 as soon as finances allow / research done. You’ve bought the house - enjoy it.

@Chillychili

We had a ceiling cave in too. It's such a pain isn't it. A horrible unexpected cost

I had a few days overlap between getting the keys for my new place and moving out of my old rental so started painting those days before some of the furniture got moved in. I ripped carpet out of the bathrooms the first time I walked in!
Painted all rooms within a few weeks of moving in.
First big job was replacing the kitchen after a couple of years.

We did quite a few things before we moved in (as had an overlap with rental). No way were we going to live with the dark green walls in the bedroom, threadbare carpet in one of the bedrooms or snot colour green paint in the living room. And a few other things!

The only place I'd wait a year before doing anything would be the garden; you need to see it in each season to know what you've got.

If it's shabby and you really dislike it i would be decorating as soon as i could.
I'm super impatient so i'd also be replacing things i disliked as soon as i had money/time.

I would definitely do painting and things as soon as I had time/money. Why wouldn't you?

I would wait a few weeks to see how the light looked at different times of day to see what tone if colour I should go for.
I made the mistake once if buying wall paper immediately once because I loved the colour and pattern. It ended up looking washed out and insipid. It had to come down after 6 weeks as I couldn't stand it any more.
I've learned patience is the key in a new house when it comes to decorating!

As much as possible before moving in. Factor in the cost to storage furniture and stay in a hotel if affordable.

We did as much as we had time and money for straight away as it's a do-er upper. We stripped carpets, laid wooden floor upstairs, stripped wallpaper, re-plastered and painted walls. The bedrooms were all done by the time we moved in 6 weeks later. We still have to do the bathrooms and part of the kitchen and we've now been here 3 years! That's due to lack of money as we don't want to pay on cards/loan and having a baby in that time. It will be completed this year and I'm so excited for it!

I'd neutralise any disliked decor (bad murals, colours I really dislike) then get to know how the light is in the house and how things flow.

Things like do the stairs creak, is there a creaky floorboard somewhere, do you need blackout blinds because the direction of the light puts a sunbeam in your eyes at 5am.

We thought our kitchen walls needed to be a green shade to match/tone with the le green units and the existing battleship grey and chocolate feature wall definitely needed to go so we painted it in plain white. Which was actually the right colour for the room!

I would get samples and paint them on boards you can move around the rooms but in an ideal world would want 9 months of experience to judge if a shade would work.

No rush. I'd rather take my time and wait for inspiration.
In one (remote rural) house it was 10 years before we had any curtains at all.