Just Moved Into An Empty House? Let's Turn It Into Your Comfortable Home

We all know moving house is a stressful thing, but when you’re moving into a totally empty property that you got at a great sale price, you’re going to have a few more tasks to do than most.

If the house has been empty for a long time, there’s every chance the systems have broken down, and there’s very little furniture or fixtures for you to benefit from. Some empty homes have had their kitchen units totally ripped out, and even if you were planning on getting your own fridge, you still have nowhere for your food to store for the time being!

As such, it feels like there’s going to be a big wait between moving in and actually being comfortable. You’ve got a lot of work to do, and you might not even know where to start. That’s what our guide is here to help with.

Because really, you can turn a house you’ve just moved to into your dream home in a manner of steps. From the first day you’re in the house, and you can’t head back to your old property to get a good night’s sleep, you need to focus on comfort over anything else. That’s the kind of thing the list below can really help with.

Inspect the Internal Systems

Try to get this done before you do anything else, although we know certain tasks (getting your bed in place, plugging in some entertainment you can put on in the background, etc.,) can take precedence here.

Internal systems will include the electricity, water, gas, and heating. Test these one by one to see if anything obvious is wrong. This could be anything from a weird smell coming out of the socket when you turn it on to hearing sloshing or dripping when you use a faucet.

Things like that usually indicate damage somewhere along the line or pipe. And if that turns out to be the case, switch it all back off and call out an expert to figure out what’s going on.

Be sure to turn things off at the source as well; you can’t be sure that other sockets or faucets in your new home are in good condition, and you wouldn’t want the problem to spread.

Check on the Insulation

Insulation is required in any and all homes, but when you’ve bought a totally empty home and want to ensure it’s going to be cozy, you need to check how much insulation is left. It can degrade over time, and even thin out when exposed to water, and there’s no saying what the property has been through until now.

Insulation will also exist in your home in various forms. The windows could be glazed, there could be floor and wall cavity fillings, and there could be simple layers stuck all over the attic.

You can check if insulation is in the wall by looking for drilling holes where it would have been laced through. If you’ve had a survey done, the results should also indicate where the insulation in your home lives.

Attic insulation is usually exposed in the first place, and you can easily measure how thick this is with a normal tape measure. Insulation thickness is assigned an ‘R’ value, and you can find out where your current amount falls and if anything needs adding on the DOE’s website.

Otherwise, you can do a very simple check to see if there are any insulation issues in your new home. The main indicator to be on the lookout for? The fact that the house feels cold! Also, if it feels colder in some areas than it does in others. Go round at different times of the day and see if you can find spots like these.

Change Exterior Locks

Once you’re in your new home and you’ve shut the door behind you, don’t set down tools and get comfy before you’ve called in a locksmith. You need to know the door you’ve just locked actually is locked, and no one but you can get in and out of it.

When the house has been empty for a long time, you can’t be sure who had access to it in the past. The estate agent may be able to clue you in to a certain degree, but really, who knows?

This can be an issue for any home you may buy in future, but with the kind of property you have bought, it’s rather a pressing one. So, eliminate this security concern right now and get a new set of locks and a new set of keys made.

Create a Dining Area

The first night in your new home is a special one, and even if the property comes pretty bare, you can set up a super cozy dining area. This is just a temporary measure to ensure you eat well before heading to bed, but it can also teach you a lot about using the space on offer effectively.

For example, if you find that the living room is big enough to separate into two, you might want to think about popping another wall in in the near future. Voila! Now you have a proper dining room as well, which can add some good value.

In the meantime, pop a blanket on the floor and order takeout. If you’ve got kids, this will be a very exciting way to spend the first night in their new home, and making this good memory can instantly warm you to the space. It also doubles as a home theater if you haven’t got a couch yet!

Make the Floor Nice to Walk on

Another great temporary idea to try until you decide what you really want to do! We all own a rug or two, so pop them down on the floor to ensure it’s warmer and soft enough to walk on. If the heating is on the fritz, this will help to insulate the property better until you can get it fixed.

Even if there’s smooth hardwood down already that you quite like, if the house is older, it could be chipped, scuffed, and even warped out of shape. Level the surface and add some life to the room all in one go.

Get the Bathroom Remodeled

Now this might be a job you want to leave until a couple weeks or so after you’ve first moved in, and we can understand that. However, the earlier the bathroom is remodeled, the nicer it is to use, and the more private and peaceful it will feel.

At the very least, you can plan out the remodel in the time you have now. This will ensure you’ve got a great plan to follow, and when you contact a bathroom remodeler, you’ll know exactly what you want from them, right down to the colors of the faucets you want on the sink.

Plus, a bathroom remodel instantly adds a lot more value to the property. If the home was an empty place before you bought it, and had been without residents for a while before that, its sale price had probably tanked. Bring it back up from the get go with a renovation like this, and also get a lot more comfortable use out of the room!

Paint Before Anything Else is Moved in

An empty house, while a little echoey and inconvenient, has one thing going for it: a lot of free space! That makes painting and decorating it a lot easier on you, so why not get this task out of the way immediately?

You can make the space feel so much fuller and more comfortable with just some fresh paint on the walls, and you won’t need to move anything out of the way to do it. You’ll also be able to get behind the kitchen cabinets a whole lot easier, seeing as the house doesn’t have a kitchen unit in it to begin with!

Put off your furniture and appliance shopping trip for a little longer and take a couple of days to paint, wallpaper, and even put flooring down. That’ll certainly save on the labor costs of getting professional decorators to move everything around too!

Your New Home Won’t Be Empty for Long!

Moving into a totally empty property is great for first time homeowners and anyone on a tight family budget, but it’s quite the unique living situation to be in. You’ll need to do a lot of DIY work to ensure the house is up to scratch in the first place, but you’ll also need a lot more furniture than the average mover.

It’s a delicate balance, but it’s one you can take on. And when you’ve got a few ideas on your side, about what to do right now and how to tackle it, you’ll pull the challenge off in no time. Move in, make sure there are no safety risks, set the temperature, and then focus on creating comfortable and cozy rooms.