Should You Remodel a Home Before You Move In?

Buying a house that needs work is one of the most common ways our projects start. A family closes on a home in Monument or Centennial because the location, the lot and the school are right. The kitchen, the flooring and the primary bath are twenty years out of date. The question that follows almost immediately is whether to do the work before moving in or to move in first and remodel later. Both are reasonable. The right answer depends on the size of the scope, what you are carrying on the old house and how long you can realistically wait.

The case for remodeling before you move in

An empty house is the easiest house to remodel. There is no furniture to move from room to room, no family routine to protect and no one living in a construction zone. Work can be sequenced across the whole floor instead of one area at a time, which is where the schedule advantage comes from. Flooring can run wall to wall without a single piece of furniture in the way, and the house is only disrupted once.

It also means you unpack once. Families who move in first and remodel later often end up packing part of the house back up when the kitchen or the main level comes apart.

The trade-off is cost of carrying. If you are still paying on the house you are leaving, or renting while you wait, every month of construction has a price that sits outside the remodel itself. That is the number to weigh against the convenience.

The case for moving in first

Moving in first has one real advantage: you learn the house. Families who live in a home for a few months often change their minds about what matters. The formal living room they planned to open up turns out to be the quiet room they use most. The wall they wanted gone turns out to carry the load of the floor above. Decisions made after living in the space tend to hold up better than decisions made from a listing and a walkthrough.

It also lets the budget recover from closing. A remodel planned six months after moving in, with a clear scope, is usually a better project than one rushed to beat a move-in date.

Where the timing gets tight

The most common mistake is planning a large remodel around a fixed move-in date. Construction is only one part of the schedule. Design, selections and permitting come first. Cabinet lead times alone typically run eight to twelve weeks. We often order cabinets after demolition is complete so the measurements are verified, which is the right call for the finished kitchen but means the cabinet clock starts after the old kitchen is out.

For reference, a mid-range kitchen remodel typically takes six to ten weeks of construction, and the complete journey from first design meeting to final walkthrough runs three to five months. A cosmetic whole-home refresh takes four to six months and a mid-range whole-home remodel five to eight. If you need to be in by a certain date, count backward from those numbers, not from the day you get the keys.

A middle path that works

Many buyers split the difference. The work that makes the house hard to live in, like flooring throughout, a kitchen that is coming out entirely or a layout change on the main level, gets done before the move. The work that can happen around daily life, like a basement finish or secondary bathrooms, waits until after. That approach gets the family into a finished main level and leaves the lower-risk work for later.

Whichever way you go, the planning is the same. Our team offers our own design knowledge and experience through the process, and if you would like to bring in an outside designer, we work hand-in-hand with them as well. We pull every permit, whether the home is in El Paso County or in Douglas County or surrounding municipalities in the Denver suburbs.

Frequently asked questions

Is it cheaper to remodel before moving in?

The construction itself can run more efficiently in an empty house. Whether it is cheaper overall depends on what you are paying to live elsewhere during the work.

How soon after closing can a remodel start?

Design and selections can begin as soon as you own the home. Construction starts after the design is final, the fixed bid is signed and the permit is issued.

Should I live in a house before remodeling it?

If the scope includes layout changes and you are not sure how you will use the space, living there first often leads to better decisions.

Schedule a free consultation

If you are buying a home that needs work, the best time to talk is before the move-in date is set. See more of our whole-home remodeling work or what we do for homeowners in Centennial. Call our Colorado Springs office at (719) 574-9676 or our Lone Tree office at (720) 835-2105 for a free in-home consultation. Alpine Contracting provides interior remodeling services for homeowners in Colorado Springs, Monument, Woodland Park and the Southern Denver suburbs including Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Parker and Castle Rock.