Getting market-ready

I did have grand plans to do a little series on getting the house ready to put on the market, but time got away from me!  But I do have some pictures and ideas I want to share.  Then I can get back to posting about our days!

In no particular order, here are my ideas on how we are surviving having our house on the market:

1.  Keep paperwork organized.

2.  Clean up the outside.  Toss old toys, remove ugly piles, straighten furniture and clean what you can.

Jeff cleaning out the gutters

3.  Go through the house and clean up hot-spots of clutter.  Here is a quick example:

4.  Don't forget paperwork in the de-cluttering.  I had all this in a basement cabinet. Paperwork from 12+ years of marriage!  I piled the boxes up on the table and sorted (= mess!).  I was left with a few piles that I found space for in a drawer, plus the plastic filing box.

5.  Don't forget the big cleaning jobs.  I have never cleaned this oven. The last time I cleaned an oven I accidentally inhaled some of the fumes and I had to stick my head out of the window to catch my breath.  I used my Shaklee Scour Off and it not only cleaned great, but my faithful assistant was able to help!

Other cleaning jobs I did (or are still on the list!):  Light fixtures, windows, wipe down walls and doors, sweep cob webs and scrub floors.

6.  Keep the kid's stuff organized.  This is in their bedroom.  I put away some toys and left out the ones I know they play with regularly.  Things have gotten a little crazy since Christmas so I will have to revisit this one.  The idea is to have a place for everything so that clean-up for a showing is quick and painless.  Other ideas: go through the clothes and keep out just enough- pack away the rest; use a toy rotation system to keep all the toys from being pulled out at once; a good ol' purge with  the kids is always helpful.

7.  Make sure the kitchen gets some TLC.  We painted the cabinet doors and got new hardware to freshen it up.  

8.  Stage it using what you have.  I went room-by-room and tried to clear out any clutter and set it up as I would like it to be seen.  Keeping in mind that we live here (with 3 kids!), I tried to keep it manageable.  No magazine photo shoots here, but I think it works.

9.  Try to keep each space so that it can be picked up in a few minutes.  Even use baskets or containers to throw miscellaneous stuff in (for those last-minute calls of "Can I bring someone to see your house in 30 minutes?").

10.  Enjoy your home for whatever time you have left in it.  We did a lot of little projects that we needed to do since we moved in.  It is nice to appreciate it for a while.

Here are a few of the pictures from when we had it really clean for the agent to photograph:

This house is a blessing, no doubt!  I am thankful for the time we have had and continue to have living here.  

Home Tour (until I change it around- again)

I have been wanting to post a home tour since before I even had a blog (I love them like a crazy person!).  The problem is- I am always moving stuff around.  So, I figured I will just have to do a regular "state of the home" post and just see how it changes.  And the other teensy problem- getting it all straightened up enough to take and post pictures!  When Jeff was in Brazil on  Discovery/Mission trip I did what I almost always do- clean something out or change a room around.  And I figured it was a good time to take pictures.

Here is my kitchen where I spend oodles of time.  It is never fully cleaned and put away, because by the time I get it that way it's time to make another meal.  I used to feel more stressed about it, but now that I am learning to cook healthier, more nourishing meals it is satisfying to have such a well-used kitchen.

See if you can find Luke up there.  :-)

One of my favorite spots because I do not like shoes all piled up at the door!

I can fit a lot onto that counter.  Here is a random action shot:

 

Small, but functional dining room.

Here is the big ol' living room.  One of the selling points of this house, for sure.  We fit lots of students, family, friends and toys in here!

Toy corner.

Sean's room and eventually Luke's, as well.  I am standing on the corner of the second bed, squished up against the wall trying to get this angle.  It is not as big as this makes it look- some good camera work if I do say so myself!

Ok- this is just embarrassing, but I had to include it.  This is the hallway outside of Sean's room.  I stored all our craft and homeschool stuff here.  I have since changed all that.  :-) 

Yeah... another great shot of the dark hallway.  It does not look like this anymore.  This has the makings of a good before and after post!

Because I'm all sophisticated, I had to include the laundery room.  But seriously, I love this little closet- turned- laundry room.  It is right across from my bedroom.

Speaking of my bedroom, I totally forgot to take a picture.  In it is also Luke's sleeping nook.  Not quite big enough to call it a nursery.  And the basement is looking much better these days, although not all the way done.  I will just have to do a part two. 
I think almost all of the rooms have been tweaked sinced the pictures.  I could almost do a whole new tour.  Almost. 
And here is my sweet assistant photographer:

I really do like looking at other homes on blogs, but I have not done it in a while.  Most of them, although gorgeous, used to make me feel less content with my own God-provided home (God has thankfully done a work in my heart about that).  My favorites are the ones that look like every day houses, not magazine pictures.  And I am always a sucker for a good picture of home organization! 

10 Things I Love about my House

Because it seems the one year "honeymoon" is over and several problems have reared their ugly little heads in our home (actually some came well before a year!), I wanted to think about the good stuff.  So, here are some things I love about our home:
1.  It has the most beautiful view.

After a good snow before Christmas '09

2.  We are really close to Jeff's office.
3.  We have plenty of parking for students and church get-togethers (several homes we looked at had barely enough parking for our 2 vehicles).
4.  Our spacious, cozy living room.
5.  My kitchen- good storage and space.
6.  Pretty, rolling front yard.

Lots of room to play!

7.  Basement- which is really our 3rd bedroom, but it is a nice place for company to sleep, keep extra toys and all the other stuff that ends up in piles down there!
8.  The patio off the kitchen- needs work, but it is a great place for the boys to play.
9.  Our laundry room is now located right next to our bedroom and the bathroom.  Makes keeping up with laundry a little easier.
10.  This is the home where my boys will grow, explore and learn.  I love making memories here with my family.

Decorating with the Word

This year was a challenge when it came to decorating.  1) It is our first official Christmas in this house.  There are several spots that could use a Christmas-y touch, but I just do not have deocorations to fill it all in.  I would prefer to do it over time and add a little each year.  2) It did not help that after several moves about half of the decorations I had were broken.  I figured at least it got me to clean out!  I may not have chosen those particular ones, but that's ok!  3) Most importantly, I really want to make sure that everything we display points to the real meaning- the birth of our Lord Jesus.  I know myself and I can get carried away with the decorating and spend more time and effort there than on actually celebrating the Birth. 

So, I have come up with a few ideas.  Some I will use next year so that I can get some after-Christmas deals.  This one I wanted to go ahead and do- decorating with the Word and quotes.

I used cardboard (from a curtain rod package) and cut it into rectangles.  I glued a piece of wrapping paper on to cover the cardboard.  I printed 6 scriptures or quotes and glued them over the paper.  Then, I just taped them to the inside of the cabinet door with raffia ribbon.  It did not take long at all.

                                                                            

I love walking by and catching a glimpse of these words that remind me of why we are celebrating.

Here are the quotes/ scripture:

“…stand up and lift up your heads,

because your redemption
is drawing near.”
Luke 21:28

Let every heart
prepare Him room

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him...
Isaiah 11:2

Bethlehem Bound!

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in His word I put my hope.
Psalm 130:5

Our sweet and simple Christmas decorations

We moved into our house 3 days before Christmas last year.  Needless to say, we did not decorate!  I was excited this year to see the house in festive bloom!  Because we did not have a lot of extra money, I made no new purchases (except for some dollar store goodies!).  I have a good idea of a few things I might look for after Christmas. 

Front door

Our good friends have a tree farm, so we got to go pick ours out and cut it down. 

Because we do not have a mantle we hung garland from these vents with ornament hooks.  It was perfect to hang the stockings.

I got these stockings at World Market before we had the boys!  I bought 2 extra- for future use.  This is our first year to have all 4 up.

Beethoven gets a hat every year.  :-)

In the dining room, I was trying to make an ornament wreath (SO not as easy as it looked here).  What I ended up with was a cluster-type thing.  I kind of like it.

Just some knick knacks on the hutch.  This might get some after-Christmas love.

I do like these jingle bells from the Dollar Store!

We are doing a Jesse tree for the first time. We started late, but I have really enjoyed the devotions. Bear likes the ornament hanging part. :-)

Close-up of our pretty nativity set.  We bought this in Ecuador on a mission trip.

Some gingerbread in the kitchen!

We tried to keep things simple.  I have so many ideas about what to do all over the house, but I do not want that to get in the way of why we celebrate. It will be fun to add a little here and there, though.  It's hard to have a healthy balance between the spiritual and physical sometimes, but we are trying!

I do really enjoy seeing how these super creative people decorate!

Our old house home tour

Before we moved to NC we lived in Georgia where my husband was a student minister.  When we felt God lead us to put our house on the market we did a H-U-G-E clean out.  We did not know what God had planned for us, where we would go, if we would stay... So, we just decided to get rid of as much stuff as possible.  I wish I had pics of the yard sale- it was massive!  I love seeing home tours and since I happened to take pics of all the rooms for selling purposes, I thought it would be fun to post it.  Look for Bear hiding out in some of the pictures!  :-)

Front View

Garden outside front door

 This was special because we planted the bushes right after I had the miscarriage and it made the space so beautiful.

Living Room

From the LR into the kitchen/ DR

From the kitchen

Kitchen

Laundry room leading out to garage

This is Bear's room when he was in a crib...

by the time we sold the house he was in a big boy bed.

Master BR

Master bath- I only included this b/c I MISS a master bathroom!

Deck out back

I was a great house and a wonderful blessing to us!  I like looking at these pictures to inspire me when I need to clean out!
I was a little nervous about the sale, since the housing market was already so tough and we had several houses in our neighborhood for sale.  God is good!  It sold in 6 weeks!