Decking the Halls

deck the halls

Decorating for a Cozy Christmas

Something about baking, putting up lights, wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music just puts me in the most relaxed mood. I love seeing everyone slowly settle into the season’s comforts. I’m all about adding layers of decorations, day by day. And I love seeing everyone’s Christmas lights – new ones seem to spring up every night! It’s a month-long celebration and we’re right in the middle of it.

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Moving in

home sweet home

Before

It will be fun to one day look back and reminisce about all the changes we’ve made to this house. Our little fixer upper is growing up so fast already. Sigh.

front door

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5 Tips for Staging your House

setting the stage banner

5 Tips for Staging your House

If you’re in the midst of trying to sell your house, you know how stressful it can be. But if you follow some of these basic tips, it doesn’t have to be hard.

  1. Get help – A staging person has a great eye and experience. When in doubt, have someone walk through your house and uncover your blind spots. Many realtors offer to include this for free and have connections in the industry who consistently stage houses that sell.
  2. Borrow – Ask friends and family for select pieces of furniture before footing a bill on new things. Thrift shops and consignment stores can be your best friend.
  3. Keep it simple – Neutral paint colors, sparse furniture and minimalistic decorations are the name of the game. Clean, clean, clean! I could say it again. It makes such a difference. People like to envision what they could do to a space, not see that someone’s living there.
  4. Storage – Invest in a storage unit, or rely on friends and family to hide away your clutter. Nobody wants to walk into the garage and see mountains of odds and ends. On that note, hide away anything that is valuable to you. If someone makes an offer, they may ask for you to leave that favorite rug or those expensive pillows behind in order to seal the deal.
  5. Breathe  – This is a process with lots of moving pieces. Get yourself a good team and do what you can to best prepare your home for showings. After that, let go and trust that things will work out. It’s important to get good sleep during this transition and eat healthy (even if you’re not able to use your kitchen.) It can feel chaotic, but it will all be worth it once you get a happy buyer for your house 🙂

 

Stage Presence

Here’s how we did it. We were pretty confident in our staging abilities, and guess what? We didn’t do too bad! When Barb the professional came in, we didn’t have a whole lot to change. Mainly this is because we had already cleansed the premises and shipped all our possessions off to various garages.

If you’re currently trying to stage your home, you don’t necessarily need to hire a professional staging person. Although, you may find it helpful. Luckily Joe’s parents had some furniture to lend us and his mom got to be the personal shopper for staging. I’ll try to give as many details as I can.

 

staging layout drawing

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House is Sold

sold sign

 

It’s (Almost) Official

The Sign Santa finally came around and left us a little present in the front yard. Just in time to update it to “SOLD” – Joe accepted an offer!

 

Joe signing house offer

He was SO happy to hear it.

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Movie Room Roundup

movie room updates

Little Updates, Big Difference

Well this room has certainly come a long way since it was here:

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