You have just lived one full year in your new home. Congratulations! There have undoubtedly been some great memories already made, and a lot of joy and celebration that went into showing off and settling into your new home, and it is (hopefully!) everything that you imagined it would be.
Now that you have reached the one-year mark, there are some things that you should tackle in your new home so you can be sure that you have many more years of home happiness ahead of you.
When you look at your new home, it may be hard to imagine that anything about it can be better, but soon enough, you will start to see areas where your home can be improved or upgraded, and re-evaluate how well your new house is suiting your family’s needs one year in.
Get an Independent Home Inspection
When you purchased your new home, you had a professional inspector come and did a visual examination of your property from the foundation to your roof to let you know about any defects, repairs, and potentially costly issues that may crop up down the line in the house so that you can be an informed buyer.
Assuming that everything went well with the inspection, you should consider taking a second look at your home before you hit the one-year mark to certain that nothing was missed and that no new issues have occurred since.
Should a new inspection find some issues that a primary inspection should have caught, it is time to call the original inspector to see what his liability is. In Arizona, home inspectors are required to be insured for liability or errors and omissions.
Make a Renovation or Refresh List
Now that you have had time to live, work, and play in your new home for a year, you’re in a better position to see your home without the rose-colored glasses of new-home-euphoria.
When you move through your house, do you wish that a wall could be a different color or space could have better use if you removed a wall? Grab a notepad and a pen and take a room-by-room tour of your home, jotting down anything you think you may want to revamp or renovate.
Whether it’s a simple DIY project or purchase or changing the layout of a room, one year in is the perfect time to consider home improvements and house goals that you want to achieve in your second year of homeownership.
Re-assess Room Usage
Doing a room reassessment after a year in your home can help you maximize each rooms’ performance and strengthen the function and flow of the complete home.
When you first moved into your new home, you probably had envisioned some spaces working differently than they currently are. Maybe you thought a larger bedroom would suit one of your children best, but now it seems that another one needs more space than originally imagined.
Celebrate!
Is this the home of your dreams? Celebrate the anniversary with a bottle of champagne, a family dinner, or a by having your friends over for an anniversary barbecue. Buying a home is one of the most valuable and rewarding experiences of your life, so show off how far your home has come since you bought it and rejoiced in knowing that you have a beautiful home for your family to grow in for years to come.
