Home Renovation Checklist: What to Do After Buying a House in Alpharetta
Short answer: A home renovation checklist for a house you just bought runs hidden problems first, cosmetic last. Start with water, electrical and anything your inspection flagged. Then find out whether the last owner's remodel was permitted. Then settle the layout before touching finishes, so nothing gets torn out later. The dated backsplash that bugs you every morning waits its turn.
Maybe you love the house, just not the basement finish or the bathroom the previous owner did. Here's what to do after buying a house, in the order we'd do it.
Month one: what to do after buying a house
Before you plan a single room, spend an afternoon on these:
Reread the inspection report. You read it once under deadline pressure. Read it again now that the problems are yours, and move anything involving water, wiring or structure to the top.
Check the water heater's age. The manufacture date is on the label or coded into the serial number. An old tank is cheaper to replace on your schedule than after it fails.
Walk the outside in the rain. See where the downspouts actually dump water. A lot of basement moisture starts at a gutter that empties right against the foundation.
Open the electrical panel cover and look for scorch marks, or labels nobody filled in. Anything odd goes to an electrician before any remodel adds load to it.
Go up into the attic with a flashlight. You're looking for stains on the roof deck and insulation that's been pushed around or is missing.
Was the last owner's work permitted?
If the previous owner finished the basement or redid a bathroom, ask the city for the permit history on your address. Our Alpharetta permit guide shows which office covers your street.
If the work was never permitted, a contractor opens a few small inspection points so the city can inspect after the fact. Pass, and the work goes on record. Fail, and it gets fixed properly before anything new goes on top.
Cosmetic work that never needed a permit can simply stay. What you shouldn't do is lay a new floor over an uninspected bathroom drain and hope.
The same goes for work someone else started for you. We finished a basement where the homeowner had already hired one company to frame it and another to wire part of it. She didn't trust what she was seeing, and she was right to get it checked.
Most of the framing had to be redone before the work could pass the city's inspection. Whether it was the last owner or a contractor you hired, check the work before you build on top of it. Before you hire the next one, here's how to find a good contractor.
What order should you renovate a house in?
Layout first, finishes last, both across the house and inside every room. This is where people pay twice. A new backsplash on a wall you knock down next year is money gone.
Inside any room, the order is the same:
Layout and framing
Plumbing, electrical and HVAC rough-in, then the inspection
Insulation and drywall
Cabinets, tile and flooring
Paint, fixtures and trim
Which room first?
Fix the room that's broken before the room that's only dated. A shower pan that leaks is a problem that grows. Oak cabinets from 2004 aren't.
If nothing's broken, start with the room you use most. For most families that's the kitchen or the primary bath. See what each tier includes for kitchens and bathrooms.
Where does the basement fit?
If the rest of the house is in decent shape, an unfinished basement is often the smartest next project. It's the one place you're adding living space instead of replacing a room that already works. Before anything gets framed, we check for moisture and look for a plumbing stub-out under the slab.
The stub-out decides whether a basement bathroom is simple or expensive. Our basement cost guide shows what that means in dollars, and the basement remodeling page covers the three tiers.
Your home renovation checklist, in order
Here's the whole renovation checklist on one page:
Reread the inspection report and move anything involving water, wiring or structure to the top.
Check the water heater, the gutters and downspouts, the electrical panel and the attic.
Ask the city for the permit history on any finished basement or remodeled bathroom.
Fix anything broken or leaking before anything that's only dated.
Settle the layout before you pick a single finish.
Remodel the room you use most, usually the kitchen or the primary bath.
Finish the basement once the rest of the house is sound.
Paint, light fixtures and trim go last.
Can you live in the house during the work?
Usually, with a plan. A kitchen remodel means no kitchen for the length of the job. Set up a temporary one in the dining room: a microwave, a coffee maker, an electric kettle and a folding table go further than you'd think.
A bathroom remodel is easy to live through if there's a second full bath. A basement barely touches daily life upstairs, apart from noise and dust.
If you haven't moved in yet, that's the easiest time for the messy work. Nobody's trying to cook in a kitchen with no counters.
If the last owner's work is what's bothering you, book a walkthrough. We'll look at what they did, tell you what needs fixing first, and price the rest.
Gregory "Caesar" Erving owns Husky Cara Fine Homes in Alpharetta, founded in 2016. The company has won Best of Houzz for Service six years running, 2021 through 2026, and is OSHA certified.
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