A Start

About a year ago, I fell in love with this old Victorian home near AJ's school.  I've always had a "thing" for Victorians, even though I know they are money pits and are truly never a finished project.  This house is still on the market and taunted me the first week of school.  I drove past it at least twice a day.  It is evident that its been empty for a while (sellers relocated) and that whomever is taking care of the lawn/yard is not doing such a hot job.  The house isn't in the best area either. I've finally fallen out of love with this house. 

Instead, we've turned our efforts towards getting this house ready for sale.  This is the longest we've ever been in a place (6 years+) and it shows.  Where does all this stuff come from?  It may sound corny, but how blessed we are to be able to say that.  I've hung curtains and curtain rods that have been in packages in my closet for months.  I've made "To Do" Lists for each room (again) and have managed to cross a few things off the list each day. 

Late last night we watched as car after car pulled up and things started disappearing from our pile on the curb.  This morning, even more things were gone.  I'm really glad someone else will actually get use out of the workout bench and elliptical (among other things).  Jeremy installed the new outside light and I'm still trying to figure out how to mount the new address plaque.  The front door is prepped for paint and the new paint color for the teeny bit of vertical aluminum siding we have has been chosen. The garage is empty except for the excess of trash bags we've compiled with all this de-cluttering going on.  The basement looks huge (again) and is shaping up nicely. 

I'm struggling the most with all of AJ's stuff.  We all know that you live differently when you sell your home.  You stage your home, sans the trampoline and sports bean bags that grace your living room floor.  As much as I'd love to tell someone "buzz off bucko", our toys are staying out, that won't help to sell our house.  In this market, it is really important to do as much as you can to sell your home.  So, I think the trampoline will go downstairs and the bean bags will be packed away. 

We decided to leave the wall color in AJ's room (light blue/white horizontal strip/sage green).  This was a difficult decision for me.  We painted the nursery neutral, because we didn't know what we were "getting". I really wanted to say goodbye to the wall colors as much as I enjoyed saying goodbye to his crib (it sat empty for so long, it created some rough memories for me...so it was really healthy for me when we passed it on to someone in need).  In an effort to save ourselves some work, I decided to leave the paint color.  Instead, I bought a navy blue bedspread and geometric drapes on clearance.  AJ's Room: Done. 

And those sports bean bags?  Are for AJ's new basketball themed room. 

I still need to repaint the bathroom (don't EVER use flat paint in your bathroom).  I went to touch up a few spots and the paint color I got was different.  Gotta repaint.  Be careful when you go in the office closet, something might bite you.  Probably a folder full of paper.  Yikes.  I'm currently typing this on my laptop keyboard, while using the old PC monitor, with both sitting on a card table.  Oh, and the old PC itself is on the floor.  I need to see if I can pull off the rest of the pictures from mid-2007 to 2009 off and store them elsewhere.  Sidenote: I took our external hard drive that crashed in.  I finally bit the bullet.  They were not able to retrieve the data in the store, so the drive has been sent up to Appleton with hopes they can recover it there.  To the tune of $300.  Sigh. I really, really, really hope they can.  Anyhow, the guest room needs to look like a guest room, so I'm unsure of where to put the computer(s). 

Things are moving and in general, I'm feeling good about it.  It makes me cringe to think of driving another winter to and from Waukesha.  I know, there are people who drive greater distances every day.  We are trying to decrease the stress in our lives.  I am just not one of those people.  I don't feel safe.  Given our crazy weather this summer, I can only imagine what our winter will be like.  We're also looking for a neighborhood with kids and younger families.

We're getting excited looking at houses online.  It looks like there are some good options out there for us. 
We aren't the type of people that are afraid of colors on the wall or even ugly bathrooms.  We remodeled our bathroom in this house two years ago and know the process, learning the do's and dont's.  Kitchens? They need good bones.  Paint goes a long way.  Jeremy does the demo, I do the restoring (unless I'm clueless, then we hire help, we've learned!) Bring on the avocado tile and banana yellow tub and toilet.  Bring on the wallpaper and pink countertop.  We're ready. 

Well, almost.  Gotta finish getting this joint ready first.