What are some things for a new home owner to consider getting early on?

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Beer fridge. Or you'll get no help with any of this.

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If you got a home inspection start there . it tells you all the potential problems. If something is a potential problem solve it as soon as you notice it so it doesn't become a big problem. I buy things I need as I go. Screwdriver and drill get the most use by far

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Great option

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A good notebook. Yup good old paper and pencil. I mean I suppose it could be digital but sometimes I think it's just easier going old school.

Anyway, the purpose is to write notes about your home ownership. In the front I put numbers of the tradesmen I use. Leave lots of room so you can note if they are good or if they suck so you don't accidentally use a bad service again if you forget.

In this book you put when you got new carpet, new countertops, AC fixed, literally every notable thing. Color swatches so you can get the correct touch-up paint. And especially before and after pics.

Most homeowners move within about 5-8 years (may be different now). The purpose of this book is to be set on the kitchen counter when you are selling your home. This is one of the reasons I like paper, you may not want to leave an electronic device in the house. Also, if there's just a pen sitting there you're more likely to make notes right away rather than going to your computer to crop a photo or whatever.

Anyway, this book will show potential buyers that you really had a pride of ownership and of course it will help them and you know exactly when things were done. How old is the roof? How long did that POS water heater last? What model was it? You might want to avoid it in the future. Whatever. I usually only enter significant stuff but I also enter anything I think will be helpful. For instance I bought way too much Halloween candy (I love Halloween) so I record how much I gave out each year, so I know how many bags to buy next year. This is important because I will eat what they don't and nobody wants to see that.

I think you get the idea.

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Start by planning for an emergency. Smoke detectors & a fire extinguisher. Tools to turn off the water main (find that valve before you need it). Get your neighbors' phone numbers. Get the after-hour/emergency contact numbers for all your utility providers - make sure you can contact the power company when there's no power.

After that, it's largely up to you. If you're handy, you probably already have most of the tools you need. If you're not, start asking around for good repairmen. Look around for any signs of neglect that the home inspector might have missed. My gutters were clogged full of leaves for example, wasn't obvious until it rained hard.

If you have a yard, decide now if you're going to maintain it yourself or if you're going to hire a service. If you decide to do it yourself, it's fall right now, those tools are about to be on clearance.

Make a journal for your house where you record everything you've done. I like to write down the date I replace anything, and also note the make & model numbers. So, for example I know that my last hot water heater lasted 10 years, because I have that in my notes. If you are handy, having the model numbers is super-useful. For example, I've learned to keep a replacement ignitor for my furnace - it's a 15 minute job once you know to do it.

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A quality hand truck and a couple furniture dollies come in handy much more often than you might think.

If you're the DIY type, make sure you buy a non-contact voltage tester pen ('beepstick'). It beeps when it is in proximity to electricity.

Edit: see the mic_check_one_two comment below. Apparently I'm lucky to not be a crispy critter.

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Drain snake, plunger, bidet, Hammock and most importantly a cool fridge magnet.

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Notably don’t put the sticker inside the fridge, it does make it cool but it’s apparently not what your supposed to do.

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Graphite lock lube. Just hit every doorknob in the house. Trust me, once you get used to properly lubricated doorknobs lock dials you'll notice when they aren't.

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First thing I installed when I moved into my current rental!

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Yeah! If you can find the manual for your microwave (can usually find a pdf one online) there should be instructions on how to do it. Usually a wacky sequence of buttons you gotta press and hold.

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I love not buying things that I don't need I think it's great

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Create an email address for the house and use it for everything house related. Contractors, mtg payments, instruction/owner's manuals for appliances, etc, all get sent here and it's very helpful. Also suggest doing a first look for manuals now. When you need to fix your water heater - even if you opt to pay a contractor - having read the manual first will put put you in a much better position to understand what needs to be done or what you are choosing to pay for.

Tool wise I'd include a couple pipe wrenches plus a 90° angle one for under sinks. The actual ones are probably less useful for plumbing inside the house but are just useful tools. A pickaxe is useful for small irrigation or electrical trenches. A pry bar for - you'll find a use. Someone else mentioned a hand truck which is really handy. Basic electrical tools, lineman plyers, wire strippers, an electrical tester. Some basic chemicals, acetone, alcohol, bleach, etc will come in handy for cleaning/prepping (don't store acids around tools/metal unless you put them in an airtight container as an acidic pH in the air causes rust). Other basic consumables are good too - a tube of caulk, electrical tape, couple boxes of screws and nails, plumbing tape, a small tube of epoxy, I tend to buy an extra of these kinds of things as I see them so that I have them when I need them. Once you have all this and other basic tools it's awesome to have a project and be able to do it without needing to go to the hardware store.

Not something you can just go buy but I keep an eye out for jars and drawers of junk at yardsales and thrift stores. Have bought a couple of little Grey boxes with the 30 tiny drawers full of odds and ends someone else collected - super handy. All kinds of oddball stuff, hinges, springs, rubber gaskets, cotter pins, that have saved me many trips to the store.

Outdoor bug lights - yellow bulbs that don't attract bugs. Not sure why I'd never heard of these but they make the patio more enjoyable. Not gonna keep bugs away but at least there isn't a swarm of them.

Good luck!

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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.

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I hope you have fire extinguishers and a plunger. I get your point and generally agree but with homeownership some amount of over preparedness grants peace of mind.

Edit: Waiting until you need something also eliminates the option of research and buying used. A lot of really good tools can be found for very cheap but if you wait till you need it your only option will be whatever the big box store has in stock today. I recently got stuck with a cheap chainsaw and while it has done everything I needed it to I could have bought a much better one for probably less money AND not given money to the hardware store if I'd have done it in advance.

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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.

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As I was always taught, I'd rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

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Take a bunch of pictures of everything. You'll probably want to look at them somewhere down the road and it's interesting to have empty photos everywhere.

TOOLS (none of this is yard stuff, I won't really go into that)

-Tape measure

-finishing (smooth face) hammer

-a drill kit. This can be pricey but I wouldn't recommend getting a really cheap one unless you must, but it's ok if you do to start and don't abuse it. Crap and decker is fine. You'll want a basic drill bit set that has Phillips, flat head, and a bit extension. You can get little bricks of cheap drill bits off Amazon, they work fine but they won't last if you strip them a bunch, which is fine because they're cheap.

-headlamp

-adjustable wrench. If you want to get a set of wrenches in standard/metric, go for it, they're cheap. An adjustable kind of sucks but it works most of the time but sometimes the bulk won't let you really turn it.

-Allen wrench set, metric and standard

-a basic screwdriver set for when your drill is too bulky or you don't want to put too much torque on stuff

-a tool bag. You can use anything but I like an electricians bag with a bunch of small pockets. REALLY handy.

-an extendable sliding ladder is great for in the house and stores easy. A step ladder will get you pretty much anywhere in the house though, and I wouldn't use an extendable one for outside. Recommend if you want something for outside you get an A frame ladder. Remember you can always rent stuff like that from home Depot or whatever so if you're only going to use it once a year you don't need to buy a 20' ladder.

-not necessary, but a torpedo level, hack saw (to cut weird metal and plastic stuff every now and then), a stud finder (you don't need to buy anything fancy, I use a little strong magnet with a strip of cloth that I drag across the wall, it sticks to nails on studs that are at the joints of Sheetrock), an an inexpensive multimeter, a set of wood drill bits and a socket set.

Anything else buy as you need.

OTHER STUFF (I'm leaving out basic stuff that you'll pick up naturally)

-FIRE EXTINGUISHERS. Recommend at least two, if not three. Kitchen, garage, upstairs at a minimum. And DON'T get some crappy 5 or 10 lb ones they will get you a couple seconds of spray. A fire blanket is good for the kitchen too if you like to deep deep fry or you're a crazy whirlwind cook.

-you mention cameras in your OP, I really hate recommending anything cloud based but it's what's available for most without effort. I think most important is a doorbell camera, helps mitigate porch pirates and helps with deliveries.

-if you get a lot of snow I'd recommend a snow blower. Also, depending on your roof you'll want to make sure you have some way to get snow off your roof when it piles up. A foot of snow across your roof is heavy and if it piles up more you risk roof damage.

Water intrusion and mold are now your greatest common enemies. Guard against them with extreme prejudice or risk major headaches and costs.

Thrift stores are good places for picture frames so you can start decorating. Make sure to hang stuff on studs if they're even just a bit heavy, drywall doesn't hold weight for shit. There's a ton of different types of drywall anchors, many require drilling but some don't. There's S shaped wire hook thingies that you can push through drywall and hang lighter stuff like bigger pictures off a stud without leaving a big hole.

People like floor rugs in the wintertime, I don't really care though and rugs can be surprisingly expensive and hard to clean. You can rent carpet cleaners, I recommend doing that instead of buying a crappy one for home, using them sucks and they do a shit job unless you get a REALLY good one which is stupid expensive, just rent them.

Don't wear shoes in the house! Fuck. Have a shoes off house, it keeps things clean and doesn't wear down carpet nearly as much. Wear slippers if you want but just don't, and ask guests to remove their shoes. Some people think it's weird but I don't care don't wear shoes in my house, take them off or fuck off. That being said it's really inconvenient for workers to wear them so I have a couple sets of heavy duty washable shoe covers to offer people that come to service my stuff.

Do NOT neglect maintenance. Set up a schedule in your phone calendar for AC/heating, water tank, septic if you have it, whatever. AC twice a year if you have it, furnace annually, water tank annually if you have normal hardness water or maybe 2x a year if you have really hard water, chimney inspection and cleaning if you have one (chimney fires bad). Also you'll want to clean your dryer duct every year or two (lint fires bad) and you can do it yourself if you have a drill and order one of the cleaning kits with the rods. A leaf blower can help also (from inside out, I hope that's obvious lol).

I personally have shifted to battery operated lawn tools like lawn mower and leaf blower. They're not as powerful but if you have a small yard they're a good trade off vs always trying to fuck with small engines.

Good luck!

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Get stuff from garage sales!! A rake, hoe, shovel, hoses etc all that stuff is like 1 dollar at a lot of garage sales. No reason to go to a store and pay many times more. I got a snowblower for 25 dollars once that ran fine. Used it a few years till it needed work and then sold it for 50.

Get a leaf blower for cleaning gutters, its worth it.

Get a bunch of wood screws and a drill. You'll need it for repairs. Wood filler too.

Drywall supplies are handy too, scrapers, sanders, a lot of this you can find at garage sales too.

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Know what needs filters or other consumables now - get and read the manuals. No one does all the 'required' maintenance but you should be making an informed choice to ignore them. Example, my water heater recommends a full flush every 6 months to prevent scale buildup - lol yeah right. Add up all these kinds of tasks and say goodbye to any free time you have. BUT now I know and if I am doing some other maintenance or have the water/power off for some other reason then maybe I'll tack on a flush of my water heater while I'm at it.

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What are some things for a new home owner to consider getting early on?