How long until you moved into your house?

[ides]

So, we have a house in the works. Closing is in about a month as long as everything goes as expected. My question is, how long did you take to transition from closing on the property to moving in? We currently have a rental house and can leave it whenever we choose, though I do want to give our landlord 30 days notice. Since there are a couple of things I'd like to do before we move in I'm thinking of waiting about two weeks before moving. Specifically I want to clean the place, prime over a few black walls, maybe put in new bi-fold doors for the laundry area and install a new fridge. I asked dh and he said he's fine with whatever timeline I choose. I'm thinking two weeks. What sort of timeline have those of you in similar situations chosen? Should I give more time?

[GreyhoundsRUs]

We "moved in" a few days after closing. We had the carpet cleaners come out day of (Monday) and movers dropped our stuff off on Wednesday night. However, only DH was there for the first month. We also bought the place knowing there was minimal work (2 rooms painted, sink fixtures changed, new fan installed). I'd say to probably give yourself a full month if you can swing it. Or at least add a week onto your estimate. Also, are there any holidays that fall within that time? That will slow things down as it takes away from your "business days". So exciting!

[MrsK]

Really depends on what you want to have done in the new property, how long you have on your current lease, and how long you are willing to pay rent and a mortgage. When I bought my first place, I wanted to renovate a bathroom and have the new place cleaned after the renovation. That took a couple weeks. During that time, I did bring over some boxes and things but nothing that would be damaged by the renovation dust. It's much easier to get renovations/painting/cleaning done before you move in if you can carry both properties. When moving from one rental to another in the same town, we overlapped the leases by 2 weeks for cleaning/childproofing/repairs.

[MrsK]

BTW, don't delay celebrating until you are fully moved in. By the time you are fully moved it, you will feel like it's too late for a housewarming party. I had my friends over and we all sat on the floor drinking champaign among my unpacked boxes as soon as the renovations and cleaning were done (before my furniture arrived).

[SuzySunshine]

We gave ourselves two weeks because that gave us the time to get the things we felt were essential done before we moved in. We had some electrical work done and some painting done - we had the master suite painted after we moved in but we wanted the kids' rooms done before we moved in so they didn't have to deal with more changes.

[OrionGrad]

We moved our stuff gradually over the course of 2 or 3 weeks while we were having the floors refinished and some electrical work done.
Word to the wise, if you start bringing over boxes before you're fully moved in, make sure there isn't anything valuable in the boxes. I accidentally left a box with all my jewelry in it in the bathroom and it went "missing" sometime during those 2 or 3 weeks. We had so many workers in and out of our house during that time, it was impossible to ever pinpoint who was to blame.

[ides]

Thanks for the input. I'm now thinking that we'll keep the rental for a month with the plan to move btwn week two and three leaving me a week to clean the rental up and tie up loose ends before handing over the keys. I don't 'want' to pay xtra rent but we can manage it. During inspection is when I'm going to have a super close look around and plan any other things that need to be done. So far I'm planning on doing the painting and cleaning myself.

[oceanchild]

We moved in the day we closed!

We were coming from out of state and didn't have anywhere else to live. Having time to get your painting and stuff done first sounds like a great idea.

[Thirteen]

4 weeks. We were paying rent, and wanted to slowly move things on our time until my parents could help with "the big relocation."


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[GrayMatterWife]

4 months from closing. But we leased back to Sellers for first 30 days then put in some trim work, painted, put wood floors in the master bedroom, and had to buy furniture. We were not in a rush to move into that chaos, especially without a sofa and beds.

[BonBon]

For the house we bought when DS was a few months old, we had about 6 weeks in between the two closings. Even though I didn't have a lot I needed to do to prep it as it was only four years old, it gave me time to clean it out really well and get a bunch of stuff unpacked and organized. (ie out of season clothing, kitchen stuff we seldom used, houseplants, etc.) It made move in day a little less chaotic.

If you can get painting done before you move in that would be ideal! So much easier than working around your furniture.