I bought a new apartment with my boyfriend recently. Prior to our acquisition and renovation, the place is bare since TOP, which means it was not stayed in for about 6 months. We are not religious/superstitious people, so we didn't really bother about auspicious days to step into the new house, start renovation and end renovation (although technically we will be putting some kitchen/bathroom accessories so renovation has not ended, going by my research?). Somemore, I have already started moving our things into the new house. Thing is, my boyfriend's mother wants us to move in after chinese new year, saying she will invite a shifu to purify the house for us and do the stove ceremony and everything. She assured us that we can still entertain our friends at the new house. IMO, a shifu is not really necessary right? I see the other forummers can just do the ceremony themselves. That is if we even want to do it since it's weird that we have not done it previously but only starting now. Another thing is, is it true that I can entertain at the new house before we do the ceremony? By this I mean: (1) inviting friends to play mahjong (2) inviting friends to hang out there (3) inviting friends for dinner (4) us just hanging out there (5) cooking? is it allowed? i.e. can we use the stove, and if cannot, if we do steamboat and stuff without using the stove but using an electric pot, is that fine?