And So It Begins

Before

This was our non-relaxing Sunday.  The jobs to get done before the house goes on the market have begun in earnest.  This is the main wall in our living/dining area right next to the kitchen.  It takes the most traffic and the corner had taken a bit of a beating since we moved in 7 years ago.  When we bought the house we just touched up paint.  Now, the 15 year old paint job is showing it's age.  Our realtor suggested if possible to only paint this one wall to freshen it up as the others are in good shape.  We already had a can of paint (hubby had one made up for touch ups), plastic, rollers, mud - everything needed for this job.  

After, not much different but so much better in person

We also made a couple of ceiling paint touch ups.  As the ceiling is 15 years old we had new paint tinted slightly to match.  Our ceiling doesn't look yellowed but is slightly just due to age.  Total cost was $24 which included some new small paint brushes - no picture there.  Before we talked about buying a different house it was our intention this year to have the main living area including ceilings painted. 

I also managed to convince our sprinkler guy to come and finish changing out our sprinkler heads, a job he started in November but then said he would finish in Spring.  We had to raise some of the heads as they had sunk into the ground over time and some had cracked with age.  Funny, for a guy who just shows up whenever he wants (usually weeks different from what he told you) when  I said we were moving and would like to have the job completed so I could pay him - he showed up the next day to complete the job.  Not a cheap job but part of regular maintenance and an expected bill - $300. 

Our bedroom paint is quite fresh - only 7 years old as the bedrooms were all pink when we moved here so we painted those right away.  We still have that paint and it is in good condition so can do touch-ups there as needed.  My next task is washing walls and baseboards on the rest of the house.  We also need to have our carpet stretched in one bedroom as have a couple of wrinkles then have carpets cleaned right before we put the house on the market.  We are lucky to be in a position where we don't have to sell this home before we buy another one as there are not many homes of the kind we want (2000 plus sq foot, less than 15 years on a decent flat quiet lot with 3 plus den or 4 bedrooms).

It is supposed to rain today which should take the rest of our snow away - it has been chilly and not warm enough to melt it but rain is magic that way. 

Another job in the next week or two is to power wash our outside patio and begin staging it.  I intend to buy lots of flowers this year - they make your house look so nice and if in pots you can take them with you when you move.  It is way too early to plant annuals but by the end of April those will go into the ground.

As stated before, this house hunt may take a while, there aren't a lot of homes with most of the features we want out there.  We have already had a look at what is on the market and only ended up looking at 2 homes.  Both good on paper.  The first had some weird structural issues, strange in a home that was on 9 years old.  The second would have been a good fit but backed onto development land and I want to know exactly what is behind our lot.  I have bat-like hearing so need a quiet home environment and living through homes being built over your back fence and possibly losing privacy is not something I am willing to do.

On the "stupid" front, the second home we looked at was extremely clean inside, one of the easiest things you can do when selling a home.  But when we went to look at the back yard there was at least a weeks worth of dog poop.  Seriously a no no when trying to sell your home. 

We are in no rush, really want to make sure our next home is the right fit for us as will be the last home we buy before maybe condo or senior residence living.  I am 49 so this likely will be a 20-25 year home. 

You'd think I would be in purge mode but we usually purge as we go so don't have much to get rid of although I am sure as time goes on we will pare down things before we move.  We intend to move almost everything except furniture ourselves with our truck as we can save so much money that way and unpack as we take things - I've already packed the house in my head a few times since we decided to start looking for a new home.  Does anyone else do mental packing?