I've been busy since we got back from vacation. I've also been trying to keep in mind the wisdom in my DIL's statement: "I don't understand why you are so stressed out over something that is a year away." She is right so I am focusing on small tasks.
This represents about 8 hours of work as my husband helped too by moving furniture around.
1. I agreed to a contract with a designer for the main floor bathroom. I will have an initial meeting with her on this Tuesday.
2. Arranged a delivery date and target installation date for the 2 replacement windows for the sun porch.
3. Settled on how to clean painted walls, trim & doors so as to minimize repainting. Magic eraser for scuff and other marks. One cup white vinegar in a bucket of water with a microfiber cloth to wash walls and old hand towel to dry them.
4. The hallway walls are washed and they just need a tiny touch up. The ceiling needs a drywall tape crack fixed in one place. Let's not talk about all the nicks in the baseboard and the lower edges of the doors.
5. We moved the bookshelves & excess chair out of the guest room and into the study. I will advertised them as available.
6. Washed the 3 neutral walls in the guest room - no need to repaint! The feature wall will have to be painted.
7. Washed the guest room curtains and rehung covering as little of the windows as possible. Moved the extra dresser that was in the study into the guest room as suggested by the stager.
Next I need to decide what kind of bedding to get if any, what to hang on the wall over the dresser and whether or not to include a small rattan chair in the guest room. I also have to wash and paint the feature wall the same color as the rest of the walls. The windows and closet also need attention. My goal is to be done with this room before the end of June.
But first, I need to get ready for house guests over Memorial Day weekend!
Oh my, you are so stressed I have to say I don't think this is good. Did a realtor tell you to do all this, perhaps the stager? You are going to be totally frazzled if you don't lighten up on yourself. I was working the year we sold our house in Texas and moved to Oregon. It can be stressful but our house sold with no problem and we never took house preparation to the level of perfection you seem to think is required. I urge you to see if there's not a less stressful way to do this. You'll be so worn out you won't have the energy needed for your new home.
ReplyDeleteI don't know you. Perhaps you are a perfectionist. If so, are you going to be looking for perfection in the home you're going to be purchasing? That may be very frustrating for you.
It's just the difference in real estate markets Linda. What sells at good prices and quickly here is houses that are move in ready with neutral walls and pared down furnishings. The expectation is that the house will be spotless too. I am trying for one room a month. I have never washed the walls and they definitely need it and look much better. It is also reducing the potential interior painting required thank goodness.
DeleteI should add that in my neighborhood there are either very large & expensive new homes, tear downs or houses like mine that were built in the early 1940s. We are trying to get the best price we can and not have it sit on the market. 10 months to go.
DeleteI'm going to agree with your files. You are putting too much pressure on yourself. Live your life, and do what you have time to do after that. Most people don't decide to sell their homes until a month or so before doing so.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your concern but doing this work is not keeping me from living my life. Since vacation I've also been to Pilates, out to dinner, done some volunteer work, lunch with a friend and all the usual day to day stuff. The stress is mostly about where we are going to live in CA and how to pull that off.
DeleteI understand why some of your readers have expressed concern that you are doing too much. However, having been through two home sales in three years, I think you are smart to take these remodeling and staging steps. With our first sale we had a stager and also painted several rooms and did a lot of decluttering. With the second one we did not use a stager but decluttered drastically and did a lot of sprucing up indoors and out. We did a fair amount of work in both cases, but ended up with very quick sales. The up-front effort saved us a lot of stress since we didn't have to go through months of showings. It sounds like you are balancing your work on your house with fun activities. You don't have to get everything done at once - you have a year - but you're wise to get started well in advance of your target listing date.
ReplyDeleteI agree! We haven't sold a house for 19 years but we followed our realtors advice then and sold it for more than we hoped before the sign even went up. Hope to do the same here. Not that enjoying each day isn't also important.
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