Buy the upholstered things new (no bedbug worries). Sofa first, you need something to sit on. Dining table and chairs, craigslist. Moving sales and estate sales can have good buys.

Towels and bed linens from TJ Maxx or Target. Fortunately, there are lots of move-in package deals from department stores for back to school at this time of year.

Agree w/apple_pie_order: Buy any furniture w/fabric upholstry new ... w/one possible exception:

If you find dining chairs you especially like that have a cushion affixed to a plywood board attached to a chair and you are DIY inclined, go for it: ... If changing the cushion amounts to removing the board, removing/trashing all the fabric and cushion material from it, then adding a new firm cushion (or bed pillow) and covering it with fabric you can staple to the bottom of the plywood board, you can remove those cushions before you ever bring the chair in the house. You could even replace the plywood board if need be -- Lowes will usually cut them to size for you.

Buy a neutral sofa in a size that truly fits the scale of your room. Find a furniture sales person you trust to give you good advice. Many salespeople are only there to earn commission and will sell you anything you seem to show interest in!! Beware.

A headboard shouldn't be a priority. For now, you could just paint a vertical accent stripe on the wall at the head of your bed, the same width of your bed, and add art above it.

Appliances are probably going to be your priority furnishing purchases -- white or stainless. With just the two of you, even a dishwasher is not a necessity.

Even a sofa isn't a priority. You might buy a pair of his/her recliners and then consider dining room chairs that are comfortable wheeled office conference room chairs that could double as guest seating -- ditto that for any desk chairs.

Don't rush to fill your new home with stuff. Do discover the adventure of used stuff store shopping -- more looking than buying, buying only what you actually need.

Make "hiking" your new hobby, including hiking into the local Habitat for Humanity Restore Store, Salvation Army Family Store, GoodWill stores; local yard sales, local charity thrift stores, consignment shops, "antique and more" stores, etc, from time to time.

One item of furniture you might consider is a "stuff" cabinet -- a good used china cabinet with solid doors on the bottom and glass doors on the top can be an inexpensive and practical option for holding family treasures, hiding some while displaying others, without your needing to dust them regularly. (If dust does get in, usually some weather stripping around the top of the inside of the doors can stop that.) Behind the glass doors you can crowd the items onto the shelves, putting what you want displayed at any given time close to the doors and the rest in the back, including framed family photographs.

Well, I'm in dfw...and I adore craigslist. Tips for you...know your area and where the "posh" houses are. That's where you want to look (check the maps..what looks close is only close on the map in the metroplex!) Probably Plano, Park Cities area is good for you to look...Dining room furniture is amazingly affordable...people must not want their expensive sets. Also there are quite a few people who are here to work for a year or two and then get transferred back out (lots of new biz, here). Familiarize yourself with "good" furniture stores and brands and search using those search terms....No reason to buy a used Ashley dining room set if you can get Ethan Allen for the same price.

I wouldn't completely discount a used sofa...I got mine for 350 and, new, it was about 8000. It was used for three months and stored for 6.

Have fun. You have a house. Buy some champagne and make good use of that King size bed (by which I mean you can use it to watch tv while waiting for the sofa ;))

Any questions...ask. Congratulations!

Don't rush to buy things just to fill the space and don't settle for trendy items or something you don't love. When we bought our first house, it took me 2 years to find the perfect dining room table. It was pricey at the time, but it has stayed with us through several moves and I still love it 18 years later.

Congratulations! I enjoyed reading about your process and look forward to when you can post about specific design dilemmas. Exciting times ahead!

Take your time ESPECIALLY as it is your first home and you are still finding your design sense, as well as getting to “know” the house.

We just bought a new home and essentially furnished from scratch (excepting our own bed and mattress which we purchased a year or so ago) but this is not our first house, we had sold or gave away most of our furniture when we moved to this city several years ago now and “survived” with a small table and recliners for a few years until we settled in again, and since we picked all the finishings for our house we knew our selected furniture would work well with the aesthetic.

Like others said, it’s okay to go “temporary” for a while until you find things you love; you can save a lot of frustration and money that way in the end.

Congrats on your new home!

Do not rush into any major projects, structural changes or additions. Live with the home as it is for awhile. Many people find their priorities change over time. I agree with the other suggestions for furnishings. I have found incredible deals on Nextdoor, Facebook Marketplace and On-line Yard Sales. When people are moving or changing décor they just want it gone and will almost pay you to take it away.

I agree with everyone who says not to rush into purchasing everything at once. And a sofa should probably be your first major purchase. BUT try to have a furniture layout in mind before you buy. Have some sort of plan with measurements before you shop. This way you'll avoid having to answer the question "what size sofa/table,etc." on the fly when you are in the store. And realize that something unforeseen WILL happen that will put a crimp in your budget. So always have a contingency fund for those unexpected problems.

Everyone has made good points about taking your time. The other thing I'd add would be to avoid the home goods/kirklands/marshalls type of mass-produced decor just to fill up space. This is especially true of the "artwork" you find there.

Check your FB and look up sales listing for furniture, they even have sites for high end furniture. You won't believe what you find. Stick to the towns around you.

Join your online "Nextdoor" group for your neighborhood. I recently bought an entertainment center to fill a 20'long x 18' tall wall in our family room for $300. from my Nextdoor group. My daughter got a complete dining room set including a buffet for $350. These were quality purchases for pennies on the dollar. I am near the Frisco area so welcome to N. TX.

So, once I post photos and floor plans, what is the consensus on how to do that. Should I make a separate post for each room? Post all on the same day? What information can I provide to you all to make helping me easy?

I would start with coming up with some ideabooks.....

I can then throw things your way from craigslist that I think are a good buy that you might like (note: I tend to not shop for things that only "fair"...it has to really be a good value.) We can't do that without some idea of style...I'm guessing in a House in the metroplex, kind of transitional? But I would spend the next few days posting pics what you like in your ideabooks.

As far as paint color and whatnot---I'll leave that to others as paint online doesn't translate to me.

If you have anything specific to a room that's NOT decorating related, I would post in the individual room forums and cross post wherever it applies.

Just my 2c

It may help to put rooms sizes in your ideabooks too...

It's very generous of you to open yourself up to suggestions, Lindsey. I hope to be of some help in some small way.

Estate sales are another great place to find furniture!

Following

Love to hear of fellow Houzzers from N. Texas! I am in Plano.

******Waves Maniacally*****

Back atcha!

I think numbers are really important.

I would measure all your rooms dimensions, and try to figure out what size furniture would work (once you know what furniture you think you want.) You can do this by looking at different sizes of sofas, dining room tables, chairs, etc.

Then get butcher paper or craft paper and cut out the floor dimension of the space that piece of furniture will take up in your room and tape it down on the floor with painter's tape.

Also mark out a good 12 inch margin all around it because that is at least how much berth we normally give pieces of furniture.

Live with those pieces of paper taped to the floors of your rooms.

Then you will know what can really fit or not.

And be sure to go shopping with a retractable tape measure and your room plans on graph paper unless you are a modern gal and you have it on computer.

Groveraxle's lawn chair pic took me back to my first apartment. That was literally my only furniture when I first moved in; I didn't even have a bed and sacked out on the floor.

I think loobab has the right advice on figuring out what will fit. You don't want to be one of the many people who posts here trying to make the sectional they purchased work in their small, awkwardly laid out living room. Figure out what will fit, and how you want it laid out, before you buy.

Someone mentioned Target and TJ Maxx for towels and bed linens. I'd also throw in Ross for items like that. I still have towels and a bath rug, and some storage benches, and a mirror, that I got there after I divorced.

Here's some other things I forgot-

You need to know if what you buy will fit in your doorway and up your stairway and around the curve of your staircase!

I bet you thought you'll never need that middle school trigonometry again.

Ixnay my riend-fay!

Look here-

https://www.dummies.com/education/math/trigonometry/determining-if-a-long-object-will-fit-around-a-hallway-corner/

https://www.raymourflanigan.com/Themes/Default/Images/Measure-for-Delivery/MeasureForDelivery.pdf

You could have a grand piano hoisted into your second floor through a removed window, but do you really want to pay $$$$ that kind of money?

More realistically, a secretary often cannot get around the corner of a staircase or around the sharp corner of a corridor into a room, but a smart mover (and know you!) know that the top can be detached from the bottom drawer section. But it has to be done very, very carefully by someone who knows exactly what they are doing. The whole thing can break, and the curved glass and fret work (if that is what it has) is not easy (and is expensive) to replace. Really, I wouldn't advise taking apart a secretary of significant value, better keep it downstairs, assuming you can get it in the front door.

For whatever you buy, buy lots of clean, clean fabric moving pads and insist your furniture be wrapped in those pads to be moved, and stabilized to the truck to be moved, and don't let anyone put that awful tape directly on your furniture, only on the moving pads!

About sheets and towels.

Not to gainsay Target, but I have found that I have better luck buying higher quality sheets (higher thread count) and towels on sale than lesser quality ones. The better quality ones on sale, even if you get ones that are irregulars with almost imperceptible imperfections feel great and last a very long time and hold up well to many, many washings.

You may be able to find these at outlet stores and places like Tuesday Morning.

You can get high quality sheets and towels at Costco too, just read the labels

White sales are traditionally in January but Labor Day is coming up and you may find great sales on linens and towels coming soon. Macy's is having towel sales now.

Also, all the summer and beach things are on sale, and you may like the huge beach towels to use as bath sheets. A bath sheet is 35 x 60, a beach towel is 30-40 x 70. Some bath sheets are even bigger at 40 x 80.

Of course, if your husband refuses to wash his hands and wipes who knows what stains on light towels what is the point of buying quality? Buy him a cheap set and buy yourself the good stuff :)

Here's something else...(as if you're not already overwhelmed!!) Mooch around online among the solar screen websites to see if that's something worth considering...Texas sun is, as you know, brutal.

Porch or patio furnishings as a temporary idea ... okay; however, that lawn chair!!! with that aluminum tubing beneath the back of the legs just behind the knees... groveraxle ... nope. You can find better for about the same price or not much more that you might actually want to keep and use as lawn chairs later.

Try this kind of folding chair instead.

https://www.acehardware.com/search?query=folding+camping+chair

Even these are more comfortable -- and they have a higher back.

https://www.google.com/search?q=WalMart+folding+patio+chairs&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmx4utlencAhXjQ98KHc8eDX4Q_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=650#spd=14447754832417507089&spf=1534133698241

So what does "RTRM" mean? I googled, but the closest I could find was Real-Time Risk Management.

^So glad I'm not the only one that has no idea of what RTRM means. I did the same thing (google) and came up with Joe's answer. Please let us know :)

I read through this thread just to see if someone mentioned RTRM. No idea what that means!

Coming back to see if anyone can share what RTRM means.

@Lyndee Lee, I won't be scared of a bargain... I just don't want to spend.. say $300 on a "in between" sofa because 1. That's a good chunk of money to go to the desirable sofa 2. I don't want to get stuck with some weird/ugly/in between sofa when life does happen and all of a sudden I realize I have had the sofa for 10 years and I never REALLY like it. :D I... now if it's good qaulity and a deal and I like it enough to hold on to for a while - that's another story.

@Joe T, @ IdaClaire (cute name :D ) @Denita , @ Salonva ..... I thought In past posts I talked about "Tagging" my posts having to do with my house as RTRM or Road to Red Maple, which is a take on the original house's street address that started me on hozz. I guess I didn't.

I thought it would be nice for people who are interested to help out or see whats going on to see that in the subject and either jump in on the discussion OR scroll on by :D

Sorry guys! I'll be more clear with it towards the top of the post if I continue with it.

I'm swamped at work-- but during my breaks I am expanding my Houzz idea books, and I'll try to get my layouts done this week also.

Maybe it means Ready To ReModel? Headscratching on this one, too.

AH! Got it :D I'm on month 8 of living in our first home. I agree with everyone who says to pace yourself, give yourself time to kick the tires and let the house reveal to you what is a priority for attention. I would normally suggest, though, that you take advantage of the empty house if/when it's yours and have the rooms painted to spare yourself a bunch of hassle. Even if you go nice whites for now, it's worth just getting it done so you walk into a clean slate. But this is new construction, right?

Yes, pics, we want pics!!

:)

And do invite your neighbors for coffee even if they have to sit on a towel.

After one taste of your baked goods, they'll all be your best friends!

(I remember when we were young enough to to eat sitting on the floor at a coffee table, no one had any furniture, we all were limber and thought we were doing an "Asian" thing by sitting on the floor, the book shelves were boards on cinderblocks, the desk was a unfinished door on saw-horses.)

Here you go!!! Some pics on this post: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/rtrm-furniture-layout-for-mb-lr-dining-dsvw-vd~5439784 

We don't even have a coffee maker! HAHAHAHA. But I'll try to do a little something something :D Even if it's just saying hello with some ultra nutty pecan bars :D I'm hoping to buy some bar stools for the kitchen asap... ones that will go under the island as temp eating. We are also going to be getting one of those 6 or 8ft tables from costco with folding chairs for the mean time, if that's what we eat on for Thanksgiving, so be it. It will give us the "Remeber 35 years ago, our first thanksgiving in a new home and we ate on folding chairs and paper plates?" -- well we have plates. hehe. We figure that this type of table/chairs will ALWAYS come in handy during parties.

Also more links about our journey there.

:-) Get two of the four seat folding tables, easier to carry and multi use. My friend uses hers for card game parties.

Don't worry about future yet, temporary shades on windows where you need privacy. Home Goods for all small staff like towers and kitchen knifes, dishes and so on. Build your inspiration photos for living room and think about furniture placement. When you move in, start looking for sofa. But have idea how you want your room to look. For example my style change with time and house we live in. It used to be very contemporary and now it is more modern with beach flair. Please don't get placeholders it will be there forever or "good deals " that's not something you love.

Thanks @sofikbr :D Fortunately, there are already blinds in the house :D I'm a huge cook so I already have cooking things. DH has ugly dishes that I will have to live with for a while. Thanks for the advise! I am with you with not getting placeholders unless i am prepared to live with them for a long time!