New house renovation, close date 1/15. What can I do *now*?

December 8, 2021 8:18 AM

I’m buying a house and have a close date of Jan 15. I’d like to do some renovations before I move in (bathroom remodel and interior painting are the most disruptive to moving in). I’m wondering what I can do now to speed up the process so that I can move in as soon as possible. Thoughts/suggestions?

Also, if anyone has unrelated but nonetheless important remodel-related wisdom to share, please feel free!

posted by sirion to Home & Garden (20 answers total)

Assuming you already own...
Do you have plans for a bathroom remodel, and the budget if it turns out wrong from a QOL perspective, since you haven't lived there yet.

Paint? Sure, walk the house and hire some contractors. Maybe countertops too. But I'd hold off on anything else until you live there because you just don't know yet. Also have the plumbing scoped, hot water heater etc checked before you move in. Having the water off for days to fix your pipes sucks.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:27 AM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Start talking with painters/contractors to see their availability (presuming you haven’t already). Are your plans already laid out? Materials, like a specific tile might take a while to come in.

If you’re even vaguely planning on redoing the floors in the future just do it now. We moved a few months ago and thought that the carpet was fine… and wish we had just replaced it.

You can probably set up utilities now and just enter the start date as your close date.
posted by raccoon409 at 8:33 AM on December 8, 2021 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: @the_vegetables: I know the main ideas of what I want to do for the bathroom remodel (replace bath with shower, replace toilet, add in-wall medicine cabinet, add fan), but the finer details still need to be ironed out. I don’t own yet; this is my first house and I won’t get the keys till Jan 15.
posted by sirion at 8:36 AM on December 8, 2021

How long of an overlap between your current lease and the closing date will you have?

If the house is old enough that the plumbing may be going, it is cheaper and easier to preemptively replace it before moving in than waiting for it to fail (ask me how I know).
posted by Candleman at 8:43 AM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

replace bath with shower


This is a big job, and probably would not be complete until after Jan 15 (contractors take holiday breaks too) but you should get started ASAP. Replacing a toilet/medicine cabinet/adding a fan (assuming your electrical is relatively modern) are 1 day jobs.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:46 AM on December 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Talk to the current owners about letting you & your prospective contractors in so the contractors can give you estimates. (Try to consolidate all your contractors into one visit to the house so as not to disrupt the owners while they're packing.) Once you have your estimates and agree to the scope of work, go ahead and pay your deposits so the contractors can put you on the schedule. They typically will not start work--much less agree on a start date--until you pay a deposit of something like 25% 33% or even 50% down.

The longer you wait to get on contractor schedules, the longer the delay will be before they start work.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 8:50 AM on December 8, 2021 [14 favorites]

Shopping. Intelligent shopping.

Can you get in to measure things? Shopping and selecting things, e.g. cabinets and faucets, can be very time consuming, plus it takes a while for things to arrive.

Doing due diligence on contractors, getting supplies together, getting the contract terms for contractors straight in your head, heck, just planning and design, can take a lot of time. Prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, THEN do.

You can also start studying the building codes for your area.

Also: learn about the neighbors and prepare some nice getting-acquainted ideas.

Also: It would be lovely if you could learn about the watershed around your new home.
posted by amtho at 8:50 AM on December 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: @candleman - Plumbing was totally redone in 2019 and inspector thought it was in really good shape, so I think we’re good on that front. My current lease is month to month but I do want to give my landlord as much of a heads up as I can.

@the_vegetables: I don’t own the house yet so I can’t do any work on the property until I get the
keys on Jan 15. Mostly J want to figure out how best to hit the ground running the day that happens.
posted by sirion at 8:50 AM on December 8, 2021

This might be location dependent, but around here, getting on a contractor's schedule would be the biggest delay. It would be near-impossible to find anyone reputable who could do a job like your bathroom on less than 3-6 months notice.
posted by juliapangolin at 9:28 AM on December 8, 2021 [12 favorites]

The one bit of advice that comes immediately to mind is don't rely on the inspectors report too much. Literally none of the issues we've had with our house were even minor concerns and in fact some of the things he said would absolutely be fine were not (two year old water heater, I'm looking at you). Budget for way more things in the remodel/revamping than you expect like updating electrical panels or things that aren't actually in bad shape, but need to be brought up to code or modernized in order to service the home properly. Those unexpected costs can build up fast.

Also, don't be utterly surprised if you don't close and get the keys on the date you expect. Delays are common.
posted by sm1tten at 10:28 AM on December 8, 2021 [5 favorites]

Research all the fittings and tiles/flooring etc that you want. Longlist contractors and see whether anyone has availability after closing and whether they'll commit before you own the house. Plan the space in detail in the bathroom, with measurements if you have them.
posted by plonkee at 11:09 AM on December 8, 2021

To echo what ImproviseOrDie said, when we bought a house we planned to do a lot of work on, we did arrange with the sellers to have a few walk-throughs with various contractors to get estimates and talk about options. I was hugely helpful, as we were able to schedule the first project to start work literally the day after closing. We already knew who we wanted to work with, they knew what needed to be done, the paperwork was signed, and the crew was scheduled (note that there is some risk in this, if the closing is delayed or falls through for any reason, but it worked out well for us). These days with contractor availability being what it is, you probably won't have anyone ready to start work on day 1, but at least you can accelerate it and start making some actual decisions.
posted by primethyme at 11:27 AM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

I’d keep an eye out for fixtures you like for the bathroom. They may go on a holiday sale of some sort. Ideally something you can return if the item won’t work in the end.

If there is anything you suspect might be back ordered, I’d order it now.

Nth having contractor meet you at location when doing a walk through (if you are).
posted by backwards guitar at 12:00 PM on December 8, 2021

Do you have a garage? Give it a fresh coat of white paint and epoxy the floor before you move in. It’s a easy and low cost improvement that will completely change how you use the garage and that will give you a clean staging area for the move and future projects. Bonus upgrade: add good LED canned lights to the garage if it doesn’t have bright lights already. You can get LEDs that feel just like incandescent lighting. Then, buy heavy duty shelving that keeps everything up off the floor. Search “industrial shelving”. This will quite literally add extra living space to your house.
posted by chuke at 12:13 PM on December 8, 2021 [3 favorites]

IANAL - _but_ until you close, you don't own the house. So, you'd be doing renovations to the seller's house. If for some reason they decided not to close, those renovations are going to be theirs, I think (and that's the part where a real lawyer familiar with local real estate law should provide advice for your situation)
posted by TimHare at 12:24 PM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

You need to know exactly what you want done, yesterday. You need to line up contractors and get on their calendars for mid-Jan. And most importantly, you need to order all of the supplies you need NOW because of the supply chain issues.

Depending on where you are and what you want done, you may not be able to do everything you want done before a practical move in date. Between the aforementioned supply chain disruptions and the pandemic surge in people wanting to improve their homes, some contractors are booking months out. You really need to act quickly to nail down your people and supplies as soon as possible.
posted by jessica fletcher did it at 12:28 PM on December 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Wait til you close to spend money!

Get measurements, take photos

Get home inspection

Test paint for lead
Test water for lead
Test flooring and stucco / popcorn finishes for asbestos

Before moving in, do the big messy things: paint, redo floors if needed, remove ceiling stucco if needed.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:50 PM on December 8, 2021

Y'all, I think the OP's order of operations is: stuff to prepare [this question] --> close on the house --> start renovations (which go faster and better because of preparations) --> move in some time after closing
posted by amtho at 1:14 PM on December 8, 2021 [5 favorites]

In a similar situation, after we had mutual acceptance, but before we closed, we arranged a visit with our realtor to take measurements, and we brought our contractor friend along. We were able to agree on the work we wanted to do before we closed. We couldn't start the work immediately because of schedule, but we could have if everybody had been available.
posted by pazazygeek at 4:39 PM on December 8, 2021

I am not a contractor, but my work is doing home remodels. Ways that clients make things move faster for our crew:

- making all the decisions they need to make ahead of time: tile choice, fixtures, cabinet styles, etc. You should pick a contractor first and start talking to them so they can tell you where they usually order these things from so you can shop at a business they already have a working relationship with.

-Be flexible about details. If something gets ordered wrong and it’s not perfect, just be prepared to accept and have it installed even if it isn’t perfect. Ditto if there are flaws with the paint job, drywall etc

- communicate with your contractor about your ideal timeline and what you can accept in terms of delays. If financially feasible for you, you can ask if paying overtime will make things move any faster.

Just keep in mind that a lot of supply chains are disrupted right now and there are likely going to be delays for materials that you and your contractor have now control over. An honest contractor will be upfront with you about this to temper your expectations instead of promising to finish at a specific date. In the area I live in, there is a major construction worker shortage and a lot of people who want work done on their houses. If you were trying to get this work done where I live and work, you would probably need to get in someone’s schedule to do work later in the year.
posted by Summers at 11:34 PM on December 8, 2021 [3 favorites]