COLD DARK ROOM

[Momof4]

I’ve been spending as much time as possible trying to improve our house to put it on the market. We’ve always wanted land and not just for my tortoises, although my husband accuses me of that. My four year old keeps busy playing pretend all day with whatever she can get her hands on. Today it was my garden statues. They are her babies. It’s better than her baby the day before, a ball of socks.

Any tips to get my house sold quickly?

I do! We have sold about 4 homes in 20 yrs.
So, I suggest purging! Then rent a Pod that goes in the driveway and load it up with toys, clothes, all family pics on walls and junk!
Our house didn’t even look like kids lived there. We only had a bed, dresser and a couple of toys. Clean out the garage to bare minimum.
Same with any closets! Only leave a few pairs of pants and a handful of shirts & shoes.
Stage your furniture even if it’s now comfy. We sold a huge sectional and bought a love seat and two chairs.

Clean out your kitchen too. People want to see space not clutter.

Paint all walls to all neutral color like a off white or light gray.

Make the house smell good too!

You have to spend a little money but it’s worth it.

Stage bathroom with cute towels and neutral shower curtains.

Good luck!!

 

[Momof4]

That’s what I mean by giving people a fright.
My sore throat got better, and now worse again. No singing in the showers of the CDR for me after all.
How are you, Wifey, and Tidgy?

Poor thing. Do you think it’s strep?

 

[Momof4]

View attachment 264240 View attachment 264241

Babies are so cute!!!

Hope you get some rest today.

 

[Momof4]

Our 5 days of rain are done but man it’s cold!! It’s 33 and my Chihuahua takes forever to find a spot to potty as he’s shivering.

Our gardener broke a gas line on Sunday evening and my husband took 2 trips to Lowe’s for parts and fixed it but today our plumber is coming to put in another shut off and fix the pipe the proper way.
It was just a pipe that goes to our bbq, so we capped it and turned the main on.
It was so scary! We haven’t messed around with gas lines.

 

[Yvonne G]

Woke up this a.m. to seeing everything outside covered in white. The temperature overnight dipped down past freezing and there's frost on everything. Hoses are frozen solid. We went from many days of spring-like weather to dead of winter in one fell swoop!

 

[TriciaStringer]

For a moment I thought the darker ones were real live baby tortoises. [emoji23]

Here is my complete set. I love them! My hubby did a good job this Christmas.

 

[TriciaStringer]

Woke up this a.m. to seeing everything outside covered in white. The temperature overnight dipped down past freezing and there's frost on everything. Hoses are frozen solid. We went from many days of spring-like weather to dead of winter in one fell swoop!

It’s 71° outside with 89% humidity. Such a dreary day of cloud coverage.

 

[Yvonne G]

It’s 71° outside with 89% humidity. Such a dreary day of cloud coverage.

If it weren't for your bad humidity in the hot weather, I'd like to live there. But I don't like the humidity.

 

[TriciaStringer]

I do! We have sold about 4 homes in 20 yrs.
So, I suggest purging! Then rent a Pod that goes in the driveway and load it up with toys, clothes, all family pics on walls and junk!
Our house didn’t even look like kids lived there. We only had a bed, dresser and a couple of toys. Clean out the garage to bare minimum.
Same with any closets! Only leave a few pairs of pants and a handful of shirts & shoes.
Stage your furniture even if it’s now comfy. We sold a huge sectional and bought a love seat and two chairs.

Clean out your kitchen too. People want to see space not clutter.

Paint all walls to all neutral color like a off white or light gray.

Make the house smell good too!

You have to spend a little money but it’s worth it.

Stage bathroom with cute towels and neutral shower curtains.

Good luck!!

We have all walls but my bathroom and one bedroom painted grey. We already anticipate getting a storage unit for most of our garage items and lots of closet stuff. I’ve already been purging cabinets in the bathrooms and the linen closet. We are in the process of finishing building a second hall closet. Our dog dug into the wall and revealed a lot of dead space. We have a bit of fixing to do because of him. He chewed the facing of two doors as well. We are replacing those. We still have so much to do.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll be boxing up lots of clothes to make the closets look bigger.

 

[TriciaStringer]

If it weren't for your bad humidity in the hot weather, I'd like to live there. But I don't like the humidity.

We don’t like it either but moving away from all our family just seems scary.

 

[Momof4]

We have all walls but my bathroom and one bedroom painted grey. We already anticipate getting a storage unit for most of our garage items and lots of closet stuff. I’ve already been purging cabinets in the bathrooms and the linen closet. We are in the process of finishing building a second hall closet. Our dog dug into the wall and revealed a lot of dead space. We have a bit of fixing to do because of him. He chewed the facing of two doors as well. We are replacing those. We still have so much to do.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll be boxing up lots of clothes to make the closets look bigger.

You are on a roll!! I bet it will sell fast!!

I don’t know if you have a quiet dog but I had to load up two toddlers and 3 crazy labs when someone wanted to see the house.
I would just drive around and my dogs would drive me crazy!!

 

[Maro2Bear]

I do! We have sold about 4 homes in 20 yrs.
So, I suggest purging! Then rent a Pod that goes in the driveway and load it up with toys, clothes, all family pics on walls and junk!
Our house didn’t even look like kids lived there. We only had a bed, dresser and a couple of toys. Clean out the garage to bare minimum.
Same with any closets! Only leave a few pairs of pants and a handful of shirts & shoes.
Stage your furniture even if it’s now comfy. We sold a huge sectional and bought a love seat and two chairs.

Clean out your kitchen too. People want to see space not clutter.

Paint all walls to all neutral color like a off white or light gray.

Make the house smell good too!

You have to spend a little money but it’s worth it.

Stage bathroom with cute towels and neutral shower curtains.

Good luck!!

Very good/great tips. We are looking to sell (soon) and move on down to Florida where i can kayak daily and not get ripped off by Uncle Sam and taxation (here in Md).

Every “garbage day” my goal is to have our bins full and over flowing. Our problem is that we have lived overseas in lots of places/locations and acquired “things”. Throw in a passion for gardening, kayaking, a 70 lb Sully, wood working “junk” and tons of Iranian, Caucasian woven carpets....and we have a menagerie.

Anyone need two, yes two 15 foot hand-crafted real bamboo ladders from the Black Sea Coast....or, a nice old Russian Samovar or some ancient tiles from Libya or a decorative box from Saudi Arabia or a rosewood/teak & brass Indian trunk or two, yes two old steamer trunks? Let me know.

Craig’s list is your friend.....as is the Trash/Bin man.

 

[Yvonne G]

Very good/great tips. We are looking to sell (soon) and move on down to Florida where i can kayak daily and not get ripped off by Uncle Sam and taxation (here in Md).

Every “garbage day” my goal is to have our bins full and over flowing. Our problem is that we have lived overseas in lots of places/locations and acquired “things”. Throw in a passion for gardening, kayaking, a 70 lb Sully, wood working “junk” and tons of Iranian, Caucasian woven carpets....and we have a menagerie.

Anyone need two, yes two 15 foot hand-crafted real bamboo ladders from the Black Sea Coast....or, a nice old Russian Samovar or some ancient tiles from Libya or a decorative box from Saudi Arabia or a rosewood/teak & brass Indian trunk or two, yes two old steamer trunks? Let me know.

Craig’s list is your friend.....as is the Trash/Bin man.

It would be hard to get rid of things like that. I'm a 'collector' too, and I don't think I'd be able to toss any of my 'junk.'

 

[Momof4]

It is hard but you can’t take it with you. We have been updating our Trust/Will from 13yrs ago and the stuff we were leaving the older kids are kinda funny.
Like our sofa and dining room table, pics on the wall. We don’t even own Half the stuff. And the kids were about 14 at the time now they’re almost 30 so they don’t need any of the stuff from our house.
We left our patio furniture to my sister in law. So funny.

 

[Yvonne G]

It is hard but you can’t take it with you. We have been updating our Trust/Will from 13yrs ago and the stuff we were leaving the older kids are kinda funny.
Like our sofa and dining room table, pics on the wall. We don’t even own Half the stuff. And the kids were about 14 at the time now they’re almost 30 so they don’t need any of the stuff from our house.
We left our patio furniture to my sister in law. So funny.

No, not funny. Having a precise will like that helps to keep in-fighting to a minimum.

 

[Maro2Bear]

You are on a roll!! I bet it will sell fast!!

I don’t know if you have a quiet dog but I had to load up two toddlers and 3 crazy labs when someone wanted to see the house.
I would just drive around and my dogs would drive me crazy!!

Thats another good tip. Pets. For as much as you LOVE your cute dog or cat, the prospective buyer might not. We recently looked at some houses....and the smell from dog or cats was over powering. Birds too, Hair about....cat litter boxes, food bowls, holes dug in about the yard. And tons of poop in the front and back gardens. Warning - you are entering into a no step zone.

Bottom Line - need to spotlessly clean up pet smell, poop, waste, hair.....

 

[Maro2Bear]

Back from a quick shopping trip.....mostly for Sully. Three nice bags of fresh dandelion greens, two bags of Romaine, and 5 nice plump opuntia cactus pads.

Sun is still hanging in there along with our warmish temps. Not as hot as yesterday. Partly sunny. We’re going to do some perennial garden maintenance. Trim some roses, rake and tidy about the house.

On selling/buying - “Curb Appeal” is big too. I know we have booked to see houses,,,,but not even gone inside based on exterior “things”.

 

[AZtortMom]

Happy Hump Day everyone [emoji41]

 

[TriciaStringer]

You are on a roll!! I bet it will sell fast!!

I don’t know if you have a quiet dog but I had to load up two toddlers and 3 crazy labs when someone wanted to see the house.
I would just drive around and my dogs would drive me crazy!!

He’s a Great Dane. I’ll probably walk down to a friends house to wait.

 

[TriciaStringer]

Thats another good tip. Pets. For as much as you LOVE your cute dog or cat, the prospective buyer might not. We recently looked at some houses....and the smell from dog or cats was over powering. Birds too, Hair about....cat litter boxes, food bowls, holes dug in about the yard. And tons of poop in the front and back gardens. Warning - you are entering into a no step zone.

Bottom Line - need to spotlessly clean up pet smell, poop, waste, hair.....

I scoop poop every day. We do have to clean the carpet in our bedroom bc that is where our dog sleeps. I plan on changing out his mattress cover before each showing so it is clean.

We do have an enormous closed chamber in my daughter’s bedroom. Tibby is 2 now, 6 lbs and ten inches. I’ll probably move her outside full time by the time we can start showing. So that will be gone. I’m crossing my fingers that the kennel seal was effective and it isn’t ruining the carpet underneath. I hope Puxatawny Phil was correct and spring is almost here. I’m kicking Tibby out!