What are some things for a new home owner to consider getting early on?
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Toilet plunger, basic cold medicine, first aid kit, fire extinguisher and fire blanket
This guy knows how to party!
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A smart water monitor/shutoff valve.
Some part of your plumbing breaking can cause your house to flood, ruining your possessions and costing you tens of thousands in repairs. Plus a huge headache to deal with even if insurance covers it all.
Smart water monitors will notice when water is pouring into your house and automatically shut the water off.
The water softener & filter in our house has built in monitoring & alerted me when one of our toilets wouldn’t stop running. Very helpful feature.
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I think there’s a lot of great ideas in here, but I’d start with the stuff that, when you need it, you need it now.
Something I didn’t see mentioned yet was a wrench to turn your water off at the line that goes into your house. If you’re on a well, then whatever tools you’d need to turn that valve off. If you spring a bad leak you want to shut that off asap
A few other things that seem like good things to have BEFORE you need them
- Plunger and drain snake (Good to have both, sometime the plunger won’t cut it, but it’s much easier to use a plunger if that’s all you need)
- First aid kit
- Fire extinguisher
- Carbon monoxide/smoke detectors
- Spare keys, give them to people you trust or hide them really well so you don’t have to break in if you get locked out
- A big bucket for leaks, mopping, etc
- ladder
- Generator if you can afford it
- Emergency bag with food, water, flashlight, spare batteries, cheap phone, list of numbers, map, first aid kit, etc
Those are the kinds of things I’d look to buying first since anything else you can just go get when you need it.
Also, a small wet/dry vac!
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Disagree, drill drivers are cheap these days. Don't lock yourself into an expensive battery platform yet.
Don't get anything more than a Ryobi drill and see if you need a good one, once it breaks, then you can decide what color you will use for the next 20 years.
I have Rigid stuff I inherited from my dad. Some of the lipo batteries are from 2011 and still kicking. And I fabricate and restore cars semi-professionally, before that my dad was a handyman and not gentle on them for the first 5-6 years he used them. We built a 30 foot porch, and installed a metal roof with those drivers for instance.
It’s mid grade between Ryobi and Milwaukee which I have a couple of. Besides some specialty tools, I think the red tools are just status, I don’t see a real difference in quality. And I think they all have flashlights in them now too. Some even have ring lights that are super handy.
Buy the kit when it’s on sale (Father’s Day, or Black Friday are good ones, but pretty much any holiday sale). It’ll usually get you a free battery or charger and having a separate drill and impact driver is pretty handy when installing shit around the house.
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For example, I think I'll need a ladder. I'm looking for any suggestions from tools to security cameras, or whatever else you can think of. What should every new home owner consider getting?
Edit: in Canada btw, somewhere that gets a lot of snow in the winter
I'd ask in [email protected] they're great for advice on tools, safety, home management etc.
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This is all so thoughtful, thank you for sharing!
I was thrilled when I bought my first home just a few years back and they had a single page hand written note explaining a couple of minor issues, some unusual plumbing, and an apology for a small hole in the wall done by accident during move out day. It was a relief just for some insight, since I didn't really know what to do with a house and was a bit scatterbrained already.
This would be above and beyond expectations in the best way possible. Thanks for the reminder for me to get this started.
I'm glad it helps. I originally got the idea when I renovated my first house. I had so many before and after pictures. I was single back then and completely transformed the whole house working every night and all weekend for the years. I was on the last room which just needed paint when I was layed off from work and had to sell it. Was a pretty big bummer because I never really got to just LIVE in it. How it goes better for you.
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I mentioned this elsewhere in the thread but I use a dedicated email for the house for this. It is worth doing - use the format that works but do it. I do like emailing this stuff to myself so that I can can access the paint color while I am at the hardware store when I inevitably forget to check that before I leave the house lol. And I just use it to communicate with contractors so I get all the notes and invoices saved at the same time. Anyway, not trying to debate the method as that matters WAY less than the idea of keeping track of this stuff.
OH, and one more thing I track - take photos anytime you have a wall open or a trench dug or whatever. Later if you need to come back to it you will know exactly what is behind the wall and where which will make it much easier to do whatever new things you are doing. This feels silly sometimes, surely I'll remember where I ran that wire, but the next time you need to get behind the wall could be 10 or 20 years from now.
Yeah, excellent idea. No reason not to use BOTH methods.
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Water softener.
If your climate is dry in the winter, a whole home humidifier.
LUXE Bidet NEO 185 Plus:
https://www.amazon.com/LUXE-Bidet-Plus-Next-Generation-Self-Cleaning/dp/B0B1H9W4D2There are plenty of places where the water is plenty soft.
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For example, I think I'll need a ladder. I'm looking for any suggestions from tools to security cameras, or whatever else you can think of. What should every new home owner consider getting?
Edit: in Canada btw, somewhere that gets a lot of snow in the winter
Plumbers tape. Electrical tape. Wood glue. Colored markers that match wood flooring. A fire extinguisher is a good thing to have on hand
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Subbed! Thanks for doing that
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except a quarter inch 18 volt impact is way more useful. I use mine almost daily. Impact drivers drive and remove screws much better.
If I only had to pick an impact or a drill, I’d actually choose the drill… Purely because impact drivers aren’t great for drilling. They’re better for driving screws, sure. But sometimes you just need to put a hole in something. And an impact driver will give you hell if you try to use it as a drill. A regular drill will be more versatile in that regard, because it can do both. So if I only had money for one, I’d choose the drill.
In fact get a complete set of decent 18 volt tools. You will use the shit out of them.
Yup, I agree completely. Even the cheap Ryobi stuff is fine for casual users. You only need the nice power tools if you’re in construction and plan on using them for 8 hours a day. Their One+ series of tools will be fine for 99% of homeowners. Ryobi had a really awful reputation for a long time, and they deserved it. But the brand got bought out, and now they’re manufactured in the same facilities that produce the (much more expensive) Milwaukee tools. Teardowns have shown that they use basically the same internals now (which makes sense, because no company wants to spend twice as much on two different types of components), just with a different plastic housing around them. The brand is still haunted by that old reputation, but these days their tools are actually fairly solid.
Get the big multipack of power tools, and maybe an extra battery if you plan on using them a lot. It’ll have 99% of what you’ll need, and the rest of your purchases will be focused on getting things to use with those tools; Bits, blades, sockets, etc…
Have to disagree about the versatility of the 1/4 inch impacts. The electricians who wired my house used impacts to drill holes. You can get a 1/4 inch drill chuck adapter for an impact too. A drill is a must have, but impacts drive screws better, hands down and loosen stubborn or rusty bolts that are impossible for ratchet wrenches. Also, if you spring for a complete set, get the brush-less tools - they are awesome.
