Ask Lemmy

Things I haven’t seen mentioned: Fire extinguisher. Socket set. Battery storage and fill it up. Shelving for backstock items like TP, paper towels, other things you tend to blow through. You don’t want to have to get out during some of those northern winter snow times.

Electronic programmable thermostat. Don’t need it to be WiFi connectable. But program it for different times of the day. It will save a ton of money for you.

Know how old your roof is and what the lifespan is.

Our house had a 20 year old roof with a 20 year lifespan. First thing we did was replace it with a 50 year roof.

When the mortgage is paid, the roof will still have 20 years left on it.

Weatherproofing to whatever degree needed. I check around exterior doors and windows, replace seals and sweeps, and put the cling wrap on windows if needed before it gets really cold.

Change all locks so prior occupants can't have access.

Snow scoop and salt since you mention the Canadian winter.

Door viewer for the front door. I am currently in a rental with a metal door I can't drill through and I HATE not being able to see who's at the door.

I skipped cameras and just went with door/window alarms. Easy to setup. Less expensive to buy and maintain. Also easy to move and install elsewhere once I find a place that works better. My threat model for home invasion is also quite low.

I haven’t seen much mentioned yet about emergency preparedness. If you’ve bought in an area you’re familiar with/already living you likely have some idea of what kind of emergencies are more likely. It’s still probably a good idea to check the website for whatever government agency handles emergency response for suggestions on what to be prepared for and what items to have. How likely is it you’ll lose electricity for a few days? Have some food and drinking water, enough for at least a couple days for everyone in your household, including any animals. Keep them in a separate area from your regular food supplies but that’s easy to access. Ideally get food and water you would use anyways and try to use them before they spoil so you’re not wasting your money or food. Be sure to check your supplies at least once a year to replace any food or medicine that’s expired, and make sure your batteries haven’t leaked all over everything.

Some of these things you should keep accessible where you can bring them with you if you have to evacuate, along with copies of important documents.

There are some great lists here. I am just going to add- put a whole home water filter on the cold water line of the kitchen sink. It has changed my life. I only need to replace the filter at most once a year, it is on the cold water line that is almost as good a fridge water dispenser would be, but with more pressure. And now when I make pasta, fill up the coffee pot, make tea, or whatever other random kitchen thing that needed water, it is filtered water. Not to mention the clean taste.

240V electric heater wired with a plug that fits the dryer socket. If the furnace craters, you can probably keep the house from freezing up, especially in the water line areas around and above the laundry.

Depends on the kind of home and how "handy" you feel yourself to be. There are a lot of minor things around the home which can save you boatloads of money (and be faster to deal with) if you do them yourself.

Tools:

• A multi-bit ratcheting screwdriver. It's my #1 go-to for assorted small fixes. Wirecutter recently recommended the Megapro 211R2C36RD, for what that's worth.
• Multi-tool. Another good "it's not the best at anything, but I use it for everything".
• Adjustable wrench and/or pliers. Good for tightening nuts, holding things tight, bending, and other small tasks.
• Sponge mop. One of the ones with a little handle to help squeeze it out. Great for cleaning floors without killing your back.
• Speaking of which, a good-quality hard plastic bucket. Look for something in the 10-15 liter range. Dirty water, clean water, road salt, supplies, anything which is easy to carry.
• If you are comfortable with power tools, a good quality cordless drill can be a huge help as well.
• If you're comfortable doing your own minor electrical repairs, one of those little outlet checker tools. Saves a ton of time.
• Good quality measuring tools, like a measuring tape and/or bubble level. These needn't kill the budget, but are handy to have.

Comfort:

• I am a firm believer in ceiling fans as a great room cooler. Put one up and be amazed as the room feels comfortable at a range of temperatures.
• Similarly, a small room air circulator or pedestal fan can really help, especially if you're doing some heavy work.
• If you don't have good chairs for the table, I'm a personal fan of Ikea's Bergmund.

Convenience:

• "Lazy susan" cabinet organizers. Game-changer for kitchen cabinets.
• Mr Clean abrasive cleaning pads. You can scrape off a lot of grime with these.

Lastly, for furniture and other things, unless you're in a really small area, check various community marketplace kinds of sites. You can find a lot of critical stuff for less than MSRP, and non-critical stuff at a point that won't break your budget.

Whatever you decide to do, do NOT skimp by buying cheap tools. Buy the best quality tools you can afford.

On the power tools front if you want to save money don't buy into the battery pack craze. The replacements are really expensive and for 99% of tasks corded works just fine.

You might need multiple ladders. An extension ladder if you think you'll every need to get up on the roof, clean out the gutters, etc. Definitely a full size step ladder. A really light short step ladder can be handy too.

I'd also suggest a painters tool. A couple of putty knives and a can of patching plaster.

A couple people have suggested power tools ... I'll add that whatever battery platform you wind up going with (I went with Ryobi ... good enough for my purposes), also pick up an adapter that'll use the battery and give you AC power as well. Having an adapter that'll power anything up to 150W has been a godsend.

I've also got a bunch of flashlights/lanterns that use the same batteries ... super convenient if we lose power and it's great when we go camping too.

I've got a "battery charging station" that's just a plastic shelf, when you come in from the garage and it's got the Ryobi batteries charging, but also our USB charging packs, rechargable AA/AAA/etc... batteries, and it's also where we keep a lot of the tools so it makes it easy to find things in an emergency.

-=-=-=- If your house has a sump pump but no battery backup (and I'd actually recommend the ones that are FULL replacements ... so, you'll basically have two pumps in the sump, one of which is connected to the battery system), I'd definitely recommend you getting one before you need it.

-=-=-=- For myself, my AC unit has two capacitors. One burned up the first weekend we were in the house and one burned out a couple of years later.

The first one, I didn't know anything at the time and it cost a bit more than $600 (we thought we were getting screwed [and we were], but, it was 110deg F with fans running, so, we weren't in a position to argue and the tech knew it). It's a $20 part if you just buy it online and many times it will physically deform when it breaks, so even with no knowledge you might even have a physical indication that it's broken. Go to your AC unit, give it a thorough cleaning (youtube the process) and then look up what capacitors your unit uses and buy a spare set and watch a quick video on how to replace them ... super easy. It's likely you'll pay < $40 for however many you need and you won't have to deal with a massive bill for a $20 part that you've just got to match up the ports and then move the blade terminals from one to the other AND you won't have to deal with a hot house while you wait for a replacement since you'll already have one and you'll just have to buy a replacement for your spare, but, even if that takes a month to ship, it won't be a worry.

-=-=-=- A GOOD tape measurer. I've got a great Milwaukee one that has a magnet on the tip and it also holds without bending for a decent distance and it's been glorious ... always sucks when you're trying to measure something and the tape is just flopping around not able to hold its shape.

-=-=-=- There are a lot of studfinders out there, but I've found the ones that work the best basically just have a magnet that finds the nails/screws that are holding the drywall on. Once you've found a nail, you've found the stud.