It's for Sale! Woot woot!

The old house has it's own website! Check it out here! So excited! Already had someone call and is going to peek in the windows! Fingers crossed it sells quickly!

The weather has really been beautiful and springy! Koko and I have been spending our days doing this ^^^ she watches for the birds and squirrels out in the courtyard, then she barks and gets all excited to chase them all off, I let her out, she chases them all off, then it starts again!

She is sooo happy to finally have some action around this new house! It has been fun to have the birds and squirrels so close to the house.

The hubby and I spent the weekend tidying up the yard at the other house. It looks so nice!

We raked all the flower beds, mowed the lawns, painted the back deck, used the leaf blower to blow lots of "stuff" off the patio, walkways and driveway.

We filled our trailer full and took it all to the dump on Sunday! Feels so good to have that all done! We signed the papers tonight with our realtor to put it on the market. She is having a group of realtors walk through tomorrow, a photographer take some pictures and the "sign guy" come to install the for sale sign. Keeping our fingers crossed it has some activity right away!

I had the rest of the house looking so cute I decided to add a little something to the laundry area. I bought a jar at Walmart, filled it with some homemade laundry detergent, stuck in an antique jello mold for a scoop and added a tag and ribbon.

The tag just says SOAP simple as that!

Last touch was some fresh flowers by the front door. 

Spring is coming! =)

Staging...

 When I was leaving this morning to meet the realtor at the "other house" the wind was blowing and stuff was falling all around me. I couldn't resist taking a picture from the driveway of the whitecaps on the water! (this is zoomed in quite a bit!)

 Things went very well at the other house! Our realtor was very pleased with the condition of the house and the changes we had made since we purchased the house from her 3 1/2 years ago! Yes, we have used the same realtor to purchase both houses and are now using her to help us sell the other one! Above is the upstairs fireplace "staged". I added a nice flowery wreath, a spring-y picture and a bucket that will have a plant in it soon! Left the mirror, the fireplace utensils and the fireplace screen, all clearance items at Lowe's and Home Depot! Oh and the fireplace grate a ReStore discovery!

 As I was waiting for the realtor to meet me I had a chance to walk through the house that I fell in love with 4 years ago! I still love that house! It took me 4 months to convince my hubby that this was the house I wanted. He has always disliked the house. Of course in that 4 months the house sold twice, but both times the buyers had "financial or family issues" and had to back out. I told the hubby it was meant to be, so he bought it for me =) I had no intention of selling it, until I found the "cottage on 39th" then I NEVER looked back. When we were house hunting, every weekend the house had an open house we would go visit this view. The view out the front window. It is what ALWAYS drew me back to the house.

 After we finally decided to buy the house we would come have dinner in the back yard (it was empty) so I could peek though the windows and "mentally decorate" every inch inside! Good times I tell ya! But now it is time for someone else to give this house some love...

 I placed my bucket of flowers in the kitchen. From here you can look out the front window and see the water. I am hoping someone else will love that view like I did. Our realtor was friends with the previous owners, she used to come over for dinner parties and sit at this counter with a glass of wine and watch the sunset.

 The sun was peeking out a bit in the windstorm, which was nice for my pictures =) I added a cookbook, a bottle of wine and a metal basket with some kitchen towels and hotpads.

 The cookbook is open to a page for italian meals...

 The upstairs bathroom, I need to put a plant and some soaps in the basket and this room will be "staged".

 Last but not least, my favorite change! The family room! Now I must explain... when we lived in the house I painted down here a pale green (the previous owners had painted it bright yellow and the fireplace was covered with an entertainment center the homeowner built in BLACK! Uh, ya yellow and black!) anywho, once I painted the living room green I decided to paint this room blue and wanted to add beadboard to the lower part of the wall. So I started by painting the fireplace white (against my hubby's wishes).

Then I painted the laundry area which is located in a closet in this room blue. I had started painting one wall before last summer when I wasn't home very much due to some things going on with family that took me away. So only part of a wall down here was the blue. Then we decided to move.

 I "staged" the finally finished mantle, with my Salvation Army Ikea picture, a couple star fish a candle and a pitcher of flowers.

 Left the fireplace utensils, a bargain from ReStore and added a few pieces of wood to an old galvanized bucket. I am in total LOVE with this room! My plan was to put an Ikea couch down here, with the Ikea end tables and coffee table that have glass and cubbies to put sand and shells and pictures inside.

I am considering this color for my studio. The hubby hates the color though, so I am not sure... what do you think? Love or hate? Would you want to live here? The house goes on the market Monday. The hubby and I need to do some clean up outside this weekend. Yay!

What we have been doing...

 So you may be wondering what we have been doing since I have not been posting as regular, well the other house is almost empty....

Um... ya, except for this room! I know it looks like a tornado hit it! And I just cannot get myself to pack it up =( I just don't know when it will be un-packed. I have soo many other things on my list to get done before the studio gets it's update. 

I did work on packing it today though. The work space is now cleaned off, all the buttons are packed up.   

The fabric is all packed up, the Cricut, the Cuttlebug and all their accessories are all packed up.

 I have this weird fixation with light fixtures. All the light fixtures on the outside of the new house looked like the one above, ugly! Sorry if you happen to have these on your house =/ 

All of the ugly fixtures are being changed out to these beauties! Not only are these prettier (in my opinion anyway) but they are also better proportioned for the exterior of our house. See how much bigger they are?

My second weird fixation is door knobs... all of these are being changed out also...

 The front door got one of these... awww =) love it!

 The kitchen door got one too! All the other doors are getting just the plain black door knobs.

 This closet in the laundry room had no knobs, so the hubby fixed that for me. We also have 2 pocket doors, neither one of which had latches to pull them closed... he fixed them too.

 The outdoor fireplace has been cleaned out, and the hot tub got new water too!

 The garage is slowly getting fixed up, we will be painting the countertop with some new paint we discovered for painting laminate counters! The upper cabinets will be getting knobs soon when I change out the ones in the kitchen.

 We rented a small dumpster for the monstrosity mess. We loaded it up and it has already been picked up.

We have not gotten the chandelier hung up yet however... we are going to have to rent a ladder tall enough to get up there,  but first we need to figure out how to get it here! It will be a 16 foot step ladder, Scott has a friend with a van that may be willing to transport it from the hardware store and back for us. Keeping my fingers crossed he will do it and soon! I really want to see that chandelier up, I think it will be gorgeous! 

The guest bedroom has been measured for carpet, we just need to finalize the color we chose, I am hoping to start painting in there within the next week. I want it to be painted before they lay the new carpet. Then I need to find new bedroom furniture, our first house guests arrive in February!

Things I will miss, things I won't....

There are things I am going to miss about our house we currently live in. 

*I will miss the wood fireplace. Yesterday afternoon I decided to light a fire, it will probably be the last one in this house. 

*I, of course, will miss the view from the front window, but we do have a peekaboo view in the cottage and hope to have an even better view when the house across the street sells. We are hoping the new owners are willing to limb a few of the trees. 

* I will miss our backyard and little pond, but will totally love the yard and ponds I am getting at the cottage.

The things I will not miss far out way the things I will! 

*As I was bringing the groceries up the stairs yesterday I realized in 3 weeks I will not have more than 3 steps to bring the groceries in!

*I will get to park in the garage for the first time in THREE houses with garages!

*I will have MORE than enough storage room, finally!

*I will not have to lug wood in from the woodpile to have a fire, just flip the switch to the gas fireplace, plus no wood/ash mess!

*I will not have the pine needles all over the floor that need vacuuming all fall, winter and spring, don't get me wrong I love all the green and living in the trees, but less mess will be nice =)

*I will not miss having to go downstairs with a huge pile of laundry in a basket and then remember to bring the laundry back upstairs after folding it all or ask the hubby to do it =) 

*I will not miss having to step over the bathtub to get in and out of the shower.

*I will not miss how cold the basement is, even in the summer.

*I will not miss the lack of parking for guests!

*I will not miss not having a guest bedroom (can't wait to get that room redecorated, wonder who the first guest(s) will be?)

*I will not miss ever moving again or at least 20+ years, this house will be perfect!

The cottage passed the home inspection, their were a couple minor concerns that we asked the homeowners to fix or have inspected and a couple we will do ourselves, they agreed to our terms. Next is the appraisal which I think may be happening tomorrow. As I stated in my other blog papperribbonandink we have a goal of putting the other house on the market January 15.