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"When you first move into a house dont make any improvements for at least 6 months."
I now see that its Terrible advice.
Haha, no.
When you first move in you see all the flaws that the previous owners got used to living with. Fix them while you're still motivated to.
Don't make any improvements is a crazy proposition. But I agree with living in the place 6 months before doing anything drastic unless it is obvious. I live in a very old house. It took us a while to see the reasoning behind some of the features in our house. We were tempted to scrap anything that wasn't typical in new constructions, but that would have been a waste of money.
I was happy saving up for a few months and observing the house to see where my money was best spent.
I would argue that, rather than 6 months, you should really wait until after you've spent a winter in it. Lots of things that might seem odd during warmer months suddenly make sense when everything is cold, icy, and freezing.
Exactly this! We did not understand how our house operated as a system until we experienced it in both the freezing cold and humid summer. Most modern homes were designed to circulate air efficiently, but with a 250 year old home, things work differently.
For example, the wood burning stove was put in that place for a reason, and although it might complicate the couch/tv placement, the benefits of a properly placed heat source outweigh the feng shui of the room.
This is very true on codebases as well. There’s always this instinct to underestimate the value of what’s already been built.
Why is it not good advice?
It's meant to stop you from spending $30k on a kitchen renovation because you hate the way the cabinet doors open, not to fix health and safety issues.
I sold cabinets for a while, and at the time I lived in a little studio apartment, basically paycheck to paycheck.
People would drop $10-50k to have slightly nicer cabinets. It seemed so trivial to me.
But then again, I would spend $20 on pizza or whatever sometimes so I didn’t have to cook. I’m sure to someone starving, that would seem like a ridiculous use of resources.
It’s a strange feeling interacting regularly with people more wealthy than myself.
Very many home improvement tasks cause a bit of mess and having to move furniture around. If you don't do them initially, it's way harder to motivate yourself to do it when you're fully moved in. Flooring/skirting/painting are the typical things you'll want to do up front.
On the other hand, being able to re-create momentum when it has completely drained away is an excellent life skill to have.