we just had a family housewarming bbq this weekend and another one the weekend before for friends :) and we are nowhere near complete with our house renovations!

my tip is just make sure the house is clean. people understand you won't be settled in within a few days, especially if you're doing renovations like us.

Agreed. The house wont be complete for months to come I'm sure but if its clean and "presentable" then thats good enough. I moved recently and have had a couple of overnight guests already! I've had success with simple meals-- baguette, brie and hummus and a bottle of wine is always easy to lay out on any countertop and you dont have to worry about a HUGE prep in a kitchen thats not fully unpacked or familiar. Afterall, the important part is that you're sharing your new diggs with the friends and family you care about.

The more work you have to do on a new place, the sooner you should entertain - it will actually be less stressful. Everyone will forgive the lack of fresh paint and decorating - and might even offer up some good suggestions! I wish I'd had more people over the first month, because now at the 1.5 year mark I feel like I should be so much further along! AND I feel guilty for not having had a housewarming party.

We have a tradition of holding a degustation (10 course) meal at our house on New Years eve each year. This year I had house guests arriving from Australia to make it even more special. It then happened that we found a house we loved the week before christmas and moved in, due to a myriad of reasons on the 28th Dec, with houseguests arriving on the 30th and a party for 14 on the 31st! Top it off with the fact that we had no furniture or kitchen equipment after living in fully furnished apartments (we had an unplanned, impromtu moved from Australia to Norway). It was great fun, I tell you. We had to let all the ideas of what it 'should' have been like go out the window and on christmas day we made a list of the easiest and simplest to prepare foods (which we still great) and then we started ringing people to bring their own chairs, etc. A mamoth shopping trip was in order on one of the days for the bare esentials (eg a dining room table and plates!) and then we had eveything delivered the day we moved in. Friends helped out, and were very excited to offer suggestions and discuss the new options. The party made it feel like everyone was involved with the moving in and has given the house a relaxed and welcoming feel to all our friends and family, right from the beginning, and it's exciting for them to come back as the months pass and see the changes that we make, and offer further advice!
I would say just embrace it and welcome them in, prepared or not, you might be surprised!

I agree with homebody. I wish I had entertained when the house was new to us and not torn apart. Now it has been almost a year, it is still torn apart, I feel a ton of pressure to hurry and get it done to feel comfortable having people over. It's stressful! Plus, after a year, nobody is going to give you a housewarming gift. Ha ha ha.

A week and a half after I move into my new place, I'm having a painting party to paint over my hideous salmon-colored walls--I'll supply the paint and supplies and dinner (plus beer post-painting), my friends will supply the labor, and we'll transform the place from the tired nursing home look to....well, something (anything!) else. Plus, there's no shame in still having boxes around if the whole point of the party is to help you settle in.

The last time I had a housewarming, we hadn't completely moved in. All that was there was a TV and stereo, AC units, borrowed bean bag chairs and air mattresses, and Guitar Hero. It was perfect! We had folks over, and sat around in the empty apartment for a while. Really, between myself and my former roommate, we had to do it that way because we're both packrats, and there just wasn't the space after we'd completely moved in.

My last big party was last summer, right around this time - I helped to throw a baby shower for my roommates. That was also nice - we'd all the way moved in and everything was in its place, but we had to move some of the furniture around for all the people (my sewing table did double-duty as a buffet!).

My mother invited herself, my grandma, and my aunt (who brought her four year-old son) to my apartment on moving day. Didn't call first, just showed up while we were unloading the truck. They wanted a tour, my cousin was trying to climb boxes, and my grandma started in on how disorganized everything was and lecturing about how we were doing things all wrong since we weren't doing them how she had suggested. I almost had a breakdown that day.

two weeks after the move, I had friends over. We sat in the backyard, ate wine and cheese served on a sturdy cardboard box and laughed until the sun went down...it was the best time.

"The ones that matter don't mind, and the ones that mind, don't matter.
(except in your case, rachelanne, lol)

And with that, I'm going to go ahead and send out invites to the housewarming party- even though (gasp!) the art hasn't been hung.

Larissa, just an FYI. Degustation means "a careful, appreciative tasting of foods". There is no set number of courses on a degustation menu.

I find there are few things so motivating as having plans to host a meal. We completely unpacked our last apartment in 3 days because we had plans to entertain the following weekend. It was amazing, and it made it feel like home so much sooner than in previous moves.

We had so much reno we didn't entertain. No money left for entertaining while remodeling.:(