June 16th, 2009
This July it will be 4 years since we bought our house. We moved in as a family of 3 and now we are a foursome. Although I will always feel attached to this house because of the history I have here and the memories we have created here we are ready to move on.
Mainly because we want more than one bathroom and we would LURVE to have a garage. Usually we aren’t fighting for the bathroom but there are times when one of us is taking a shower and somebody needs to go poo. And no matter how much we love each other here in the 007 house we just don’t poo in front of each other. No offense to the open door poo-ers out there.
It’s just too personal. Plus we don’t have a fart fan. See now there is another reason to move. No fart fan to suck the unpleasant odors out.
Was that too much? Sorry if that was too much.
Anyway we are getting ready to put the crooked blue house up for sale. I will miss a lot of things about it. It has a great amount of charm and warmth and I feel very cozy living here. It has good light and it has all of these little built-in shelves and cabinets that I will miss. But 2 1/2 bathrooms are calling my name!!
My dad (a fabulous real estate agent if you live in Middle TN) came over and gave us a list of things we might want to do before we list the house. We have pressure washed and stained the deck, washed the windows inside and out, painted the front porch, planted landscaping in several different areas, pressure washed a bunch of other stuff and touched up some paint inside the house. The deck looks so nice without our patio furniture that I don’t want to put it back up there!
And we still have A LOT to do. There will be lots more painting and a few more things to do outside. We are also thinking about renting a storage unit to make the house look less like a toy store threw up in here. I was thinking about storing the treadmill and packing up various odds and ends to declutter and simplify moving. Plus I was thinking that it will make it easier to keep the house clean for showings. There are these two small people I live with who like to take out every toy they own at the same time.
Does anyone have any tips for selling your house with small children? Because I am pretty sure potential home buyers won’t find our Fisher Price toy selection a selling point.
Filed under life |
Who is your dad???
We need to pressure wash & stain our deck and possibly our fence (ughh!).
We need to declutter the bonus room upstairs and the office and we need to repaint so much that it makes me sick to my stomach to actually think about it.
We’re having a major yardsale and bless my kids hearts, their toys are going bye bye. Well.. not all of them, just some. Mostly of the plastic ride on variety & Little People.
Good luck girl - I have no advice!
Been there done that.
It is hellish.
SO first. Pack it all up. All the big ol toys/ and or/ little scattered toys etc.
Put it in a storage place. Very little toys.. bins under their beds if need be.
De-clutter.. stage it beautifully… just like all the shows say to.
You have to always be “on” …house ready.
The day you don’t stage your house.. get it ready.. for show…
someone will ineveitably come by and see your dirty laundry and dishes in the sink…
it happened to me.
good luck…
I’d be hard pressed to do it again. But it can be done.
d
(we chat on twitter some)
I sold our first house after I became a widow. I was so scared to do it…because of the history….but we needed a bigger house. It was intended to be our starter home and we had an “oops” in that house which made it even smaller. But it was a cute house, great starter home and I updated all the colors, decor, etc.
My girls shared a room which created a challenge and they were approx 7 and 3 when we put it up for sale. I totally decluttered their room…only essentials and main toys. I did what you said and rented a storage unit. Every night before we went to bed, we made sure the house was perfect and before I went to work the next day…same drill.
The house was only on the market a week, thank the Lord and it showed several times a day.
Good Luck!
I don’t have any fabulous tips but I just want to say your flower bed and deck looks awesome!
We have a tiny tiny half bath and just one full bathroom which will so not fly with two girls! So we are probably going to be doing what you’re doing in about three years.
Good luck!