Whew! After all the interior painting (thank-you Brian and Shalise), furniture and closet staging, front-yard planting, screen replacing, exterior painting, window washing, bathroom hardware updating (thank you Shalise), door staining, Goodwill running, and more - the house is as ready as it's going to be.
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| This guy had the perfect set-up |
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| Curb appeal in a drought |
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| Dance of the ladders |
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| Just a little face-lift |
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| Shalise tackling more fun-work |
It's always been a lovely home, but now that we're selling it, it's even nicer (funny how that happens). I could second-guess myself a dozen times about other upgrades we should do, other touch-ups and landscaping that might draw more prospective buyers, more creative staging ideas to make it stand out from the others.....but I know from experience that the person who ends up buying it is the one who just likes the house because it "grabs" them.
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| Buy me - I'm wonderful! |
So other than keeping it neat and fresh looking, I'm going to relax and let the realtor do his thing. Really. Just chill. Read more Outlander. Drink tea. Take Tessa for walks. Really.
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| Just chill Mom |
Yep, I'll get back to seeing the great sites in our local area, and I'll enjoy the cooler temps that are finally in the forecast. Head to the museums in L.A., see the La Brea Tar Pits, and visit the San Fernando Mission. It will be wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
I'll find us a short-term apartment in the right area, and check out RV financing. Pull out the Benchmarks and put together several routes and stops for our first few months on the road. That will all be fun to do. I'll have fun!
And then if there's no offer in the first few weeks........
I'm not planning for that!
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| See it See it See it !!! |
Our houses always looked their best when we were selling them. New decks, doors, etc. It doesn't seem fair that we wait to really fix them up until we are trying to sell them. :-( Good luck! I hope it all goes smoothly for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Patty! We're afraid to get it dirty now :-)
DeleteOh, I can feel your pain and disappointment. We went through all those steps...house looked better than ever ready for the market! And then you wait for that offer...not fun! Of course, we were selling at a much worse time for the house market. But our house did finally sell. Good Luck to you!!
ReplyDeleteYour house looks wonderful. Hoping you get lots of offers soon and get truly ready to hit the road:) Now follow you your own advice and relax, visit local sites, and plan some of your adventures...chill, mom:)
Although we put the sign up almost two weeks ago, we held off on the listing until this Sunday - soooo, hopefully it will be quick after that :-) Thanks, I think it looks pretty cute!
DeleteLooking good! Fingers crossed for a quick and easy sale, quick and easy rental find... we'll be seeing you on the road soon!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa - that meeting will be icing on the cake!
DeleteIt's true that we don't fix things for ourselves but we do when we want to sell them. I've always thought that was too bad. It's sort of true for me with cleaning as well. LOL! Let someone say they were coming and I'd look at the place with different eyes. Loved Outlander, which book are you on? Better get busy with those chores for a place to live and a rig, I'm predicting it's going to be a quick and easy sell!
ReplyDeleteYep, only time I detail my cars is on the way to CarMax to sell them :-) Bill usually tells me stuff like "Company isn't going to open the shower curtain..." but what if?? I'm only about 100 pages in on Book 2 although Bill finished it last week (we both read the same book on our Kindle and IPhones), so I'm looking forward to catching up - love it so far.
DeleteQuick and easy - oh yes please!!
It feels great when the work is done. That is until you spy a wee thing that you think might look better. That went on with me for a couple of weeks...then the house sold. Did any of those last minute things help? Who knows, but I just felt better knowing that I had done my best.
ReplyDeleteSo true! I catch myself touching up spots on the wood door with a brown Sharpie :-)
DeleteI'm hoping you get a very quick sale!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Debbie! Will be so glad when it's behind us :-)
DeleteYou have a great attitude -- it's always good to remember that while we're waiting for something wonderful in the future, life is happening right now. Enjoy your close-by adventures and planning for your new full-time life, and the house will be sold before you know it! And I know that this is all easier said than done. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Laurel :-) they say "every fighter has a plan until he gets hit"......but I'm determined to enjoy the now!
DeleteThink most of us have been there, we chose not to do a few things too, our house was a little different. In the end we sold it ourselves because we knew the house. 75% of the way through Drums of Autumn, 4th in the Outlander series, great books. Enjoy the local area and your planning...
ReplyDeleteI do worry that the agent hasn't asked me a lot of questions about the property, and sometimes worry that he'll miss important things - l like how big the attic is! We might get some "weather" this weekend so that would be really nice to get some more reading done :-)
DeleteHere's hoping that you are soon in that little apartment planning for the biggest adventure of your life ... RV time. This will soon be behind you. It would certainly be nice if it's fast and painless. My fingers are crossed for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! Like many "unknowns" it's both scary and exciting :-)
DeleteWe've wanted to change out our carpets and go with wood flooring for many years. But big dogs (Rottweilers) have big and sharp toenails. Now we know why you haven't had time to blog lately-you've been very, very busy! Ron and I wish you the best of luck in the selling process. This is our first house, so we've never sold one. I bet it can be stressful. If your realtor isn't asking questions, give him the answers anyways... Now go out and enjoy yourself :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Rene and Ron- we'll be cheering you on next year! At the last house I had a 150# German Shepherd and a wolf-hybrid. Got rid of the carpets and put in wood laminate - best thing I ever did :-) It never scratched, and they were indoor dogs :-)
DeleteI am surfing this morning and happened upon your site. We are both from Valencia also. Was your S&B in Granery Square? I used to work for Newhall Land (23 years) before we moved just recently to Lake Havasu. We have a Newmar and are looking forward to traveling 1/2 time. We have Hart High connections (and Valencia High). Loving your blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jana! Glad to have you along. We lived on Avenida Frasca off Mills Valley. Our son Nick is a math and physics teacher at Hart High, and son Corey works with autistic kids in the school district. All of the first two years of blog posts are from when we were still in town prepping to go. As kids we lived in the desert between Indio and Blythe - Lake Havasu was a favorite place to go play!
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