Get Moving: A Front Door Mat and an Ottawa Locksmith

Posted on February 13, 2008 
Filed Under Moving to Ottawa, Valerie Zinger

Between the time of buying your new house and getting possession, there are some things you can do to get organized and ready.

Door with welcome matNew Front Door Mat. Before moving, have some fun and buy new front and back door mats. You won’t have to worry about getting them to fit. Most door mats are small so that they fit in front of the doors. While sizes vary, they are about 3 feet wide. These are for you, the movers, your family and your friends to use. The movers will put drop cloths down inside the house but not outside the door. Moving day is about having a lot of people traipsing in and out of your house. On a dry warm day, this might not be a problem but not everyone moves on ideal days. Get some mats.

Locksmiths and alarm codes. On the day you get possession, the sellers are required to provide their lawyer a key to their house. Your lawyer will get the key and provide it to you, the buyer, when the paperwork is signed. Now the house is yours. While most sellers will try to scoop up all the extra keys to their house to give to you (sometimes leaving them on the kitchen counter), there is no guarantee that they have got all of them. People seem to give out their house keys and the alarm codes to family members, friends, neighbours, cleaning staff and other professionals that may need access to the house. I finally tossed keys from my house in Calgary, five moves later.  Call a locksmith to come out and rekey the lock. It would be good to do this within the first few days. The alarm codes and making these changes depends upon the company that has the system and whether or not you assumed the contract.

Sleep easy. It would be a terrible surprise to wake up in the middle of the night and hear someone unlocking the door. Find a locksmith and change the locks.

Photo credit:  Door with a welcome mat by:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/h3h/400307697/

Valerie Zinger ~ Ph: 613-723-5300 ~ vzinger@royallepage.ca

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