Southwest Montana Real Estate Blog

Six “To-Do” Tasks for Your New Home…

Moving into your first home is exciting! But it also means you’ve got work to do.

When we bought our first house (even though it wasn’t in Bozeman), our timing couldn’t have been better: The house closing was two weeks before the lease was up on our current house. That meant we could take our time packing and moving, and we could get to know the new place before moving in.

We recruited friends to help move (in exchange for a beer-and-pizza picnic on the floor) and, as a bonus, we got to pick their brains about what first-time homeowners should know. 

Their help was one of the best housewarming presents we could have gotten. And thanks to their expertise and a little research, here’s what I learned about what to do before moving in.

1. Change the locks. You really don’t know who else has keys to your home, so change the locks. That ensures you’re the only person who has access. Install new deadbolts yourself for as little as $10 per lock, or call a locksmith — if you supply the new locks, they typically charge about $20 to $30 per lock for labor.

2. Check for plumbing leaks. Your home inspector should do this for you before closing, but it never hurts to double-check. I didn’t have any leaks to fix, but when checking my kitchen sink, I did discover the sink sprayer was broken. I replaced it for under $20.

Keep an eye out for dripping faucets and running toilets, and check your water heater for signs of a leak. 

Here’s a neat trick: Check your water meter at the beginning and end of a two-hour window in which no water is being used in your house. If the reading is different, you have a leak.

3. Steam clean carpets. Do this before you move your furniture in, and your new home life will be off to a fresh start. You can pay a professional carpet cleaning service — you’ll pay about $50 per room; most services require a minimum of about $100 before they’ll come out — or you can rent a steam cleaner for about $30 per day and do the work yourself. We were able to save some money by borrowing a steam cleaner from a friend.  

4. Wipe out your cabinets. Another no-brainer before you move in your dishes and bathroom supplies. Make sure to wipe inside and out, preferably with a non-toxic cleaner, and replace contact paper if necessary. 

When we cleaned our kitchen cabinets, we found an unpleasant surprise: Mouse droppings. Which leads to the next tip … 

5. Give critters the heave-ho. That includes mice, rats, bats, termites, roaches, and any other uninvited guests. There are any number of DIY ways to get rid of pests, but if you need to bring out the big guns, an initial visit from a pest removal service will run you $100 to $300, followed by monthly or quarterly visits at about $50 each time.

For mousy enemies, we strategically placed poison packets around the kitchen, and we haven’t found any carcasses or any more poop, so the droppings we found must have been old.

 6. Introduce yourself to your circuit breaker box and main water valve. My first experience with electrical wiring was replacing a broken light fixture in a bathroom. After locating the breaker box, which is in the garage, I turned off the power to that bathroom so I wouldn’t electrocute myself. 

It’s a good idea to figure out which fuses control what parts of your house and label them accordingly. This will take two people: One to stand in the room where the power is supposed to go off, the other to trip the fuses and yell, “Did that work? How about now?”

You’ll want to know how to turn off your main water valve if you have a plumbing emergency, if a storm is headed your way, or if you’re going out of town. Just locate the valve — it could be inside or outside your house — and turn the knob until it’s off. Test it by turning on any faucet in the house; no water should come out.

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• Buying a Home (4)
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