Homeowners, what item did you not think about buying but ended up being useful?

[cnosil]

Most of what I read are nice to haves some of what I consider essentials are:

 

Don't know how handy you are but the basic tools are a necessity to do thing like hanging pictures, tightening a screw in a cabinet door , Changing out fixtures etc.

 

I would recommend programmable thermostats pretty inexpensive but can save you money in the long run. In you are high tech look into smart home ones that above adjusted via your phone. No sense hearing or cooling your house when you aren't there.

 

In addition to a lawn mower get garden tools like a rake, shovel, weed eater, actual snow shovel depending on climate. Come in handy to spread mulch or change out the landscaping.

 

Also find numbers of home repair people for those things that are beyond you ability. Get recommendations for plumbers, electricians, roof repair, etc Much better to have a list in advance instead of waiting for an emergency

 

 

Congrats on your first home!!

[alfriday101]

A Roomba.  Seriously.  A Roomba.  

 

Set it to run a couple of times a week while you and the SO are at work.  It's amazing how much stuff it picks up, even when you think the house is clean.  The SO will thank you and be very appreciative (if you know what I mean).  Happy SO, happy life.  

[MmmmmmBuddy]

A Killer Set of Tools. So you can fix it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cneCgNA9U

 

Seriously though, having the right tool for the job, and the knowledge to use it will save you thousands over the life of your house..

 

(I'm on house #2 amt..)

[Rspicer68]

Get a smaller plumbing snake. Can save big $$ if you can take care of clog without calling plumber. Make sure you know where the cleanout is as well.

 

 

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[downlowkey]

I don't know how I lived so long without a nice reel for the garden hose.

[MDGolfHacker]

I don't know how I lived so long without a nice reel for the garden hose.

If you do get one of these, get the water powered ones that self reel.

 

MDGolfHacker

[Dougsevier54]

Get yourself a good garden hose. Good being the key word here! I mean, it's just a hose right?! Shouldn't be that much of a drop-off in quality from the $25 one to the $55 one right?

 

Wrong.

 

Bought our home 11 years ago and after I went through 3 dry-rotted cheap ones in 2 years I decided to spring for an expensive ($75) one. It's still in commission after almost 9 years!

 

Congratulations on your 1st home!!

 

 

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[PlaidJacket]

A reliable yard man and a good housekeeper.

[TSauer]

Thanks everyone! There are a lot of essentials here that aren't on my list that I'm going to have to add, especially the beer fridge

[Kor.A.Door]

I saw it earlier, get a good ladder, spend the money on it. I have one of the collapsible ladders and it is really nice to have, if you have a tall roof, you may want a 40' ladder to be able to get up to the gutters on occasion. At any rate, some sort of ladder 8 to 10 feet is a must.

[Eseay32]

A lowes credit card...

 

 

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[TheWahoo]

Just prior to Hurricane Isabel, we had an automatic generator installed that cuts on when the power goes out.   Then and on other less lengthy instances, it sure made life a heck of a lot easier.  

 

At the minimum, if the house has a basement with a sunk pump, get a battery powered back-up for the pump.

 

Having gotten older and hating yard work, the wife and I have since sold the house and downsized into a condo.   When we sold the house, the realtor told us that the generator more than paid for itself.    The same cannot be said for many home improvements regarding the ease of sale and the offers made. 

[JudgeSmails]

as has been said before, get a good basic set of tools to start off with

when something breaks, try to fix it yourself, there are youtube videos for almost anything you can think of that can break

as you need more tools to do these jobs, they will accumulate over the years

[MDGolfHacker]

Just prior to Hurricane Isabel, we had an automatic generator installed that cuts on when the power goes out. Then and on other less lengthy instances, it sure made life a heck of a lot easier.

 

At the minimum, if the house has a basement with a sunk pump, get a battery powered back-up for the pump.

 

Having gotten older and hating yard work, the wife and I have since sold the house and downsized into a condo. When we sold the house, the realtor told us that the generator more than paid for itself. The same cannot be said for many home improvements regarding the ease of sale and the offers made.

Good ideas, especially the sump pump battery back up!

 

MDGolfHacker

[poprocksncoke]

We just moved into a new house last year.  The previous owners had a natural gas hookup installed where the BBQ goes.  Had to go out and get a bbq that would hook up to natural gas and love it.  Also helps not heating the house up on those warm days.

[HighFade]

I think most of mine have been said, but as far as buying stuff for the house, I always get the highest quality item. It sounds dumb, but every time I went cheap, I ended up at the same store 6 months later buying the nicer one cuz the first one broke. Buying stuff is expensive enough. Buying stuff twice sucks.

[GolfSpy_APH]

For our new place here it was a whipper snipper. We got one just as a temporary fix to doing some quick tidy up around the yard and now we use it for basically all our yard work. Edges, grass and more. Been such a great purchase and the fact it is battery powered is even better. 

[Jim Shaw]

snow shovel

[GolfSpy_APH]

Going back into the archives for some throwback threads and this one came up. 

We are moving to a new place and would like to know what all the newer spies have to say!

[Shrek74]

On 5/2/2017 at 7:37 PM, MDGolfHacker said:

Get the house painted before you move in. A lot less work without having to move the furniture around while painting.

This!! I moved into my current home last June and really wish I had done this. It's only 4 years old, but the paint isn't the best quality and there are a bunch of "fixes" on the walls you can really see with the older paint.

I live in my slow cooker. Rarely cook things in the oven these days and have a ton of recipes I use for the cooker. They're not pricey by any means and even the higher rated ones aren't badly priced, but man does it do the job.

Cabinets in the garage along with open shelving. Gotta keep the garage organized to get cars in it, but also when you need something once a year (like decorations), having it organized and easy to find is great.

[bens197]

Don’t buy a Dyson.  A Shark will do just as well and save you some extra $$$

Also if you like area rugs, ruggable is the best…easy to clean, especially if you have pets.  I could have saved thousands if I knew these existed sooner than I did.

Here I am saying I could have…my wife found them…she saved us the money! 

[Rob Person]

Top 3 simple things that get looked over after you've bought or moved in (at least for me) 

Shower heads! I can't tell you how many times I've replaced cheap ones after moving in! Buy a quality one that is easy to remove and clean out once a year! You would be surprised the amount of crap that gets in there and builds up!

Wall outlet/breaker tester! If you are a DIY person, these are the greatest thing in the world! I have one that one end plugs into the outlet and the other end is a pen wand you touch the breaker with to identify the circuit. Worth every penny it cost!

Caulking gun!  Caulk gets grimy, peels, wears out, etc. It's used everywhere in a house! Baseboards,  cabinets,  moldings, fixtures,  bathrooms, and so on and so on.

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Time for some more throwback threads

The automated lawn mower (when it works) has been awesome. Frees up a good portion of time and just helped make more time for family. 

[mynerds]

A weird and mildly gross rule of thumb for home ownership that hasn't disappointed yet - just buy new toilet lids and don't bother trying to clean what you inherit. I don't know what the manufacturing process is for toilet lids, but they invariably have some porous spots that soak up heaven-knows-what. No amount of scrubbing will make that stuff go away. Remove the old lid, clean the toilet before reinstall, and you will feel much better about your bathroom cleanliness!

[Swood1994]

I’m likely handier than most (not a brag but rather a detriment to my free time) but have to reiterate some of the older points about tools. It’s great to have an all in one hand tool set (variety of screwdrivers, wrenches, and a hammer), a drill, and a multi-tool aka an oscillating tool. This will cover 90% of the basic home fixes and save hundreds in labor costs from hiring a contractor. After all if we all can watch YouTube to “try” and fix our golf swing we can to the same for home repair

Edited Sunday at 07:20 PM by Swood1994

[Rob Person]

Probably mentioned,  but know where every breaker and gfi is. And make sure you know which outlets, lights, and switches are assigned by each breaker!!!

[stevehernes]

robot vacuum

[JonMUSC08]

39 minutes ago, stevehernes said:

robot vacuum

I got the Neato version instead of Roomba. The Neato works in a more uniform 'lawnmower' pattern as the Roomba is more sporadic.

Set a schedule for it to run at night or while at work a 3 days a week and nearly never vacuum myself again! just remember to empty the dust bin each time. AMAZING how much they pickup.