Dinner and Home Staging

The house smells so yummy right now! I’ve had stew simmering in the crockpot all day and the longer it cooks the better it smells. I’m going to toss some cornbread in the oven before too much longer. Beef Stew and cornbread, now that is a yummy cold day meal! <---I wrote that about three hours ago and it tasted just as yummy as it smelled! I started my blog entry earlier today but got a little distracted with finishing dinner, getting everyone fed and getting the little one into bed. But now the kitchen is clean, the house is quiet and the little one is fast asleep. Time for a little blogging and quiet time before bed.

The meeting with the realtor went well today. He seems like a knowledgeable person who will do a good job. I hope this turns out better than our last attempt at selling this house, 2 showings in a 6 month period…..not good. Tomorrow I’m going to start the staging process but I’m running into one little problem, toys. Everything I read about staging says to put the toys away which is easier said than done with a toddler. Since her bedroom is upstairs it is hard to keep everything up there when we spend most of our day downstairs. Not to mention her bedroom is already overflowing as it is. She is quite a blessed little girl! Staging is pretty tricky when you’re still living in your home. Our house is filled with family photos and special keepsakes that make our house feel like a home. I hate the idea of living in a generic house but if it helps then we’ll do what we have to.

Here is a little home staging inspiration.







Now, how do you get a house to look like that when there is a toddler, two dogs and husband running around?

Clean Clean Clean

Yes, it is that time again. We’re going to be putting the house back on the market in hopes that it will sell in the next three months. While I’m not holding my breath on that happening I nonetheless have to get this house back in showing shape. Not an easy task with a messy husband, toddler and large dogs. I’ve spent my entire morning cleaning out closets (and wondering how they’ve gotten so bad since the last time I did this), folding laundry and making lists of stuff I need to get things more organized. It’s so easy to lose yourself in the amounts of tiny clutter that can accumulate. I’ve had to put a few of my crafty projects on the back burner for now while I tackle my current project. Sometimes it seems like I’ve got 20 things going at once and I want to do them all at the same time! The sad thing is that I haven’t finished a complete project in ages. The hubby is probably starting to wonder what I do all those hours that I’m working in my craft room. But this gives me time to get my crafting supplies a bit more organized. Right now they are all living in a number of shoe boxes and plastic bags so it is probably time to invest in some better storage options.

In other news the hubby managed to break a fairly expensive camera lens while he was out shooting yesterday and he had that thing all of two months. Apparently the winter weather doesn’t agree with his California boy nature because this is the third time he’s slipped on a patch of ice this winter. Here’s hoping his warranty will cover getting it fixed. He did manage to come home with some lovely pictures of the winter landscape around the area. He’s getting good at this new hobby of his!

Here are a few shots he took……

He found a small ghost town about an hour away from us and he said that the old general store still had stuff in it. How cool is that? I love old towns and buildings because there is just so much history. We're heading to a ghost town a few hours away this Friday and i'll be sure to take my camera along! Okay ladies and gents my break time is over and i'm off to get more done!

Losing weight the real estate way!

We are currently in the process of selling our house. With the market being so slow and another PCS, meaning Permanent Change of Station for those not in the know-basically moving, being immanent in the future we have been talking about doing it for some time now. After I got back from seeing the family in Texas I went ahead and interviewed some realtors and got the house ready to be put on the market.

Are you looking for a good weight loss plan? Well, I’ve got one for you…..sell your house! I painted all three bathrooms, hallway and laundry room and all the other rooms have a fresh coat of paint already. I’ve placed new mulch in the front flower bed and pulled the weeds and turned the soil in the back flower bed. Picked up all my dogs “presents” in the backyard. A lovely job I assure you. Rearrange furniture, shampooed carpets, de-cluttered closets, cabinets and any other storage, rearranged pictures and spent ample money for staging certain areas of the house. One month and four ads on craigslist, one add on a local site later I have lost ten pounds but the house has been sitting here for four weeks with only one showing. Definitely disappointing after all the work I’ve put in.

The realtor is telling me that it is just a slow market and we’ll have to wait and see what happens. But we put it on the market for exactly this reason. I would really rather us not be saddled with two mortgages have a repeat of out last move. Let me tell you, not fun.

Fingers crossed!