When the animals take over, they are at first afraid to enter the farmhouse, until Napoleon and Snowball butt open the door. The animals tour the farmhouse on tiptoe, awed by the luxury they see: feather mattresses on the beds, carpets, mirrors, a horsehair sofa, and a lithograph of Queen Victoria over the mantelpiece. They unanimously decide after touring the house to turn it into a museum. They agree that no animal will ever live there.

A little later, they remove some books so that they can study practical matters, and later they take cartridges for the gun that Farmer Jones left behind when he fled. They need the cartridges so that they can defend the farm.

Finally, the pigs find it "absolutely" necessary to move into the house so they have the quiet they need to think and plan. As time goes on, they start sleeping in the beds and enjoying all the human luxuries. Early on, the animals were promised that the windmill would bring heat and running water to the stables, but that never happens. The animals stay in their austere conditions, except for the pigs, who end up looking and acting exactly like the human masters they replaced.

Eventually the pigs used the house essentially as the humans did. At first, they are cautious about going into the house but little by little they make use of more and more of the accoutrements of the farmer’s life. At first there is a commandment prohibiting sleeping in beds, but overnight, that is changed to “beds with sheets.” By the end of the book, there is very little difference between the pigs and the humans.