Steps to Take When Moving into Your New Custom Home
Your custom home is ready! You’ve planned every detail of your home and have waited for months for it to be officially yours. Now, you’re at the final point in the home building process and getting prepared for move-in day. Congratulations! We’ve created a guide to help you navigate the unique process of moving into your brand-new home, so everything goes off without a hitch.
Schedule Your Moving Company
You’ll want to schedule with a professional moving company with a great reputation as soon as you know you’ll be moving. Give yourself at least three weeks in advance, because movers book up fast, particularly for moves taking place at the end of the month.
Pro Tip – a move done closer to the middle of the month and on a weekday, costs considerably less than a weekend move at the end of the month.
Get an estimate for how much you think the moving company will charge for transporting your items from point A to point B – there’s nothing worse than having an expensive shock when they arrive at your doorstep!
You’d also book your packing services at this point, if you’d like to have the company take care of packing and labelling items for you. This is a very convenient way to ensure that all items end up in the right rooms, making unpacking a breeze when you’re finally in your new home.
Declutter Your Existing Belongings
Whether your new custom home has a smaller or larger square footage, you’ll have things that don’t need to come along. Maybe they simply don’t fit the new interior design scheme, or it’s just extra clutter that it’s time to let go of anyways. Whatever it is, take advantage of this time spent packing to downsize your belongings to what you truly can’t live without. Arrange to have the rest donated, sold, or put into storage.
Pack Items You Don’t Need Right Away
Before you pack up your must-haves, pack up the items from rooms that are only used sparingly. The guest room is a key example. Go around the house and pack up seasonal items or items you know you won’t need for the next few weeks. This is a good time to pack decorative items, extra kitchenware you want to keep but won’t miss for a few weeks. This includes any specialized appliances like that ice cream maker you drag out every summer. With a custom home comes a brand new start, for your family and all of your belongings. Anything that you won’t miss having on a daily basis can be packed away.
Change Your Address before You Move into Your Custom Home
Also about three weeks before the move, you can purchase a mail forwarding service through Canada Post. This ensures that you’ll receive your mail to your new address. With Canada Post, one fee covers a permanent address change with no expiration date. Any mail sent to your previous address after the move will be automatically forwarded. Your new address information will need to be given to friends, family, utility companies and any other company that sends a bill on a regular basis. This ensures you’ll receive your mail in a timely manner.
Set Up the Utilities
The utilities can be set up once you’ve taken possession of your custom home. Contact the power company, phone company, and internet provider. Set up an appointment with them for when you’ll be ready to move into your new home. Depending on the needs of your family, you might want to change providers or upgrade your internet speed at this point as well. It may take longer to set up a brand-new account. If you’ve never used natural gas or if you’ve never used a specific cable provider, give yourself a bit of extra time to account for any potential slowdowns.
Pay Close Attention During the Final Inspection
At LIDA Construction, our award-winning team strives to create custom homes with impossibly high standards. During your final walkthrough, we’ll take you through every aspect of your brand-new home, ensuring that everything is in place and finished to perfection. During the Completion phase of your home’s building process, your project manager and other team members will walk you through your new home, room by room. We’re more than happy to address any concerns you may have. This will ensure that when you receive your keys for the first time, you’re completely satisfied and excited to move into your new custom house.
Set Up Homeowner’s Insurance
If this is your first home, you’ll need to have a homeowner’s insurance policy set up to cover your new custom home and belongings. This will cover you should anything bad happen. If you have pre-existing home insurance policies, you’ll just need to have it transferred to your new house and adjusted for the value of the home. Consider any additional items, like a security system, that can help lower your premiums.
Have the Appliances Selected for Your Custom Home Delivered and Installed
If you haven’t already, arrange delivery and installation of your appliances. They’ll be turned on and ready to go the day you move in. This way, you’ll have fresh ice for celebratory drinks and a crisper full of healthy foods to help you power through setting up your rooms just the way you like.
Cover the Flooring in Your Custom Home
You spent many hours deliberating between flooring options. The last thing you want is to have your gorgeous new floors marred in any way. You can arrange with your moving company to have the flooring covered with plastic, cardboard or butcher paper. You can even lay down old rugs to protect your floors from foot traffic and the busy-ness of moving.
Move in the Furniture First
The romantic notion of spending the first night in a sleeping bag on the living room floor looks good in movies. In real life, though, you want to make sure your major furniture is in place, so you can be comfortable and well-rested. A good nights’ sleep on your own bed in an otherwise empty house will help you power through moving everything else in and directing the moving company and decorators so they can do the most efficient job possible.
On move-in day, you’ll want to arrange to have your furniture moved in first. Beds, dressers, TV stands, bookshelves and any other large foundational pieces should be moved in before any boxes or cartons of goods. This makes it much easier to move other items in and unpack them in their proper places.
Dust and Vacuum
Brand new houses with no previous owners rarely need to be cleaned, but when you’ve had movers and helpers coming in and out, your home may need a little tidying. A quick vacuum and dusting will take care of any debris that may have snuck in during the moving process. Some clients like to hire professional cleaning companies to do a thorough once-over. This is particularly helpful if the newly built home has been sitting empty for more than a few weeks. You can book your own post-move in clean at the time you book your moving company.
Unpack and Enjoy!
All your utilities are on, your furniture and belongings are in. What’s more, your brand-new custom home is cleaned and requires zero maintenance. Now that’s a great feeling! It’s time to settle in and make it your own. Hang your photos on the wall, fill the refrigerator, host a housewarming party and enjoy. You’re home!
At LIDA Construction, our job is building trust. We put the utmost care into each of our custom-built homes and luxury custom homes. Trust that you will be taken care of from start to finish—from high-quality construction with attention to detail to ensuring timely completion. One project at a time, we’re redefining the way homeowners in Victoria think about their homes. To book your initial consultation, contact our helpful team today at 778-440-5432.