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Lurker with a question
Here's my situation:
DH and I bought our current house in 2008 (at the time it was DH, myself and DS). It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home - appx 1500 square feet. We gutted it and remodeled it - and thought we would be here for a LONG time. Fast forward to March 2011 - we had twins! No surprise - but the day we brought them home - we had outgrown our home...right now they share a room.
My parents approached me shortly after the twins arrived that they are going to be building a new house - would we be interested in buying theirs? They have a 3000 square foot home 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath house that they built in 1980 while my mom was pregnant with me...so it was the house I grew up in. They will sell it to us at a greatly reduced price, so no doubt, we are going to buy it...
....now on to my question. They added on to the original house in 1992 when my younger brother was born - so that side of the house is fairly new, and they've done small renovations here and there over the years, so it is not totally out of date, but it does need some - just to make it my own. We haven't gone to the bank yet - parents are waiting on their plans from the architect before we get things moving. So, considering the updatiSog we would like to do, would you use some of the money that you make from the sell of current home to pay for renovations immediately or would you wait and do them once you are in the house. I realize it's hard to answer that without seeing pics, but I just worry that once we move in, it'll never get done!
Not to mention, I AM TERRIFIED at the thought of having to try to keep my current house clean, neat and organized while trying to sell it...I kinda wish we would move out of it first and sell it empty, but I know staging is always better...
Sorry for rambling, just don't know where to start!
Re: Lurker with a question
That's really great that your parents can help like that. Personally, I would move in and wait to change anything. See how it feels and how your furniture fits. See what the natural light is like.
RE: It will never get done issue: I think it will because you will be so excited to have the HUGE space to call your own that you will want to make your changes because you will be super excited about them.
RE: Selling your current home. I have a DS - toddler age and I'm pregnant. Our home has been on the market for awhile and we now have it under contract. But I won't lie, keeping it clean was tough. I think the best point I can give you is to keep the clutter down and to carve out some "hiding places." The places where you can toss stuff at a moment's notice to have a showing. Do your regular cleaning once a week so you only have to do a quickie clean before a showing.
If the renovations are "just to make it (your) own" and are not needed to make the home livable I say move in first. Even though you are familiar with the home you will want to get all your stuff in there first, live with it a while and then you will probably have better ideas for the renovation.
I wanted to do lots of work before our move in date, but DH has helped me calm my shopping nerves and wait. Instead I started a house "wish list" and will do the renovations over the next year or so.
IMO, it's good to live in a space for awhile and get a feel for how you use the area before you start renovating. That way, once you do, you'll know what works and doesn't for your day to day living and you can put your money towards things that are important to change and you won't want to change again down the road. Do some "facelifting" in the meantime if you want to make it your own.
Paint, change out the light fixtures or window treatments or what have you. You might feel it's more your own once you get your belongings in there, too.
Most things could probably wait, BUT I would think about anything really annoying or messy and try to do that before moving in. One example would be refinishing wood floors if that's needed.
Could you move some stuff to the new house while selling the other? I've seen three bedroom houses where five people live and it usually feels very small if they haven't taken some stuff out already.
Wait to do the renovations
I recommend starting to pack items you are not using to help show the house. This will also give you some extra space to store "kid clutter". Stack and store in the basement/garae/storeage unit
Closets and cabinets should only be 1/2 full.
Remove some furniture - keep it minimal/sparce
Looks like I have the minority opinion here, but we did renovations before we moved in. All the renovations we did were cosmetic/"things to make it our own" -- de-wallpapering, painting walls, and redoing floors. (I should add that we hired contractors to do all the work -- I can see where if you're going to DIY, it makes sense to live there first and do the work as you go.)
We did the things that it would be more difficult to do when furniture was down. Really, though, when we first saw the house I was already mentally replacing those things with what I wanted. But, we had earmarked part of our "house money" to doing renovations like that right away.
I think it depends on your decorating personality and how much upfront cash you have for renovations. I tend to keep the same decor for years and years. I knew instantly what I wanted the house to look like, and I wish I'd gone ahead and done everything before we moved in. (Now that we're in, I *still* haven't replaced the curtains or faucets that I thought I'd do after move-in). But for a lot of people, it does make sense to wait and see what you want to do with a room after you've lived in it a while.