We built our new home and we still personalized the house just before and just after we moved in. We closed on our new house about 5 weeks before we moved. In that time we painted many rooms (so much easier before furniture arrived), I installed some built-in furniture in our office to give us both a comfortable work space (we both work from home occasionally) then added the networking cables to allow me to have the router upstairs in the office instead of down at the access port in the basement. Our WiFi signal is stronger throughout the house with the router upstairs rather than downstairs. We took measurements and ordered some custom window treatments for some of the public spaces. I bought large storage racks and assembled them in the basement so that when we moved in, we had places to put a lot of things that were going into longer-term storage (e.g. staying packed in boxes) without completely clogging up the floor. Having better access to many boxes and a place to put the boxes that we were not unpacking helped making the place feel like home much faster.

We are moving into a new house next month and have thus far ripped out the carpet in the bedrooms and are refinishing the beautiful wood floors underneath. We want to paint but don't think we can knock that out before the move (in another state). Probably will aim to do that before we get truly moved in but after we are up there. Also want to get new toilet seats and hang the art as soon as possible. Plus the little things, like floor mats, rugs for the bathrooms, and so on. I'm looking forward to it!

Job transfer. No choice.

Anonymous wrote:I love this thread. This is the question thats keeping me up at night at the moment with an upcoming move. We have finally gotten our current home "Done" and we are moving *again* into new construction in a larger home with an even more open floor plan ~ all I can think about is all of the things that simply won't have a place, all of the paint I will have to choose again, all the window treatments I'm leaving behind etc etc etc. My stomach hurts.

Why are you moving?

Tear out carpet in bedrooms and replace with hardwood floors

Paint bedrooms

Paint kitchen, dining, and living rooms

Hang art

Tear out original closets and install closet organizers

We did plenty of practical things--fridge and stove had to be replaced, electrical outlets updated housewide, two new ceiling fans, replaced all the brass fixtures. The house had been painted beige and carpets ripped out and floors refinished for sale, which was great. One little thing that made me really happy was buying welcome mats.

The most expensive thing we did was have a patio installed in part of the yard that was all torn up, and my dad re-did the deck. It transformed the backyard. We have planted and planted too. Keeping an eye on our plants has brought us great joy.

Inside, the kids' rooms are the most "complete," painted fun colors and matching furniture, decorated. My parents very graciously paid for the guest room bed, and having that space at the ready also makes our house feel welcoming to me.

I love this thread. This is the question thats keeping me up at night at the moment with an upcoming move. We have finally gotten our current home "Done" and we are moving *again* into new construction in a larger home with an even more open floor plan ~ all I can think about is all of the things that simply won't have a place, all of the paint I will have to choose again, all the window treatments I'm leaving behind etc etc etc. My stomach hurts.

We bought a new house, but we still made changes -- lots of landscaping, replaced all builder installed light fixtures, added plantation shutters, garage storage system, created a chalkboard wall, repainted some of the rooms, added custom cabinets to the master closet.