The Big Decision

My big decision in the last few weeks: Sell the house this spring. 


It has been a great 10 years. I've had a dozen people share the Homestead with me at various times for various lengths of time, and that time is drawing to a close. For a couple years now I've thought once I can sell without losing a lot of money, I would like to do so. I love the small city I live in - but I would prefer to be out of town, a bit further out, with a bit more yard to neglect, etc. Let's be honest, I'm a country girl at heart!   

So I'm jumping headlong into this process we call "getting the house ready to sell," which is all new for me. And kind of a big project. Daunting. I know it doesn't have to be perfect (or so I keep telling myself) but somehow going through my house trying to think like a prospective buyer is making me very aware of all the little things-- the kitchen faucet that leaks a bit and is old and kind of crusty in spite of my cleaning efforts, the bathroom faucet that the handle comes off of easily (kids and guests always manage to remind me of that), the linoleum in the bathrooms that is kind of tired, the counters that I should have replaced years ago... the list goes on and on. Not to mention the rooms that need repainting / neutralizing (think bright green living room). SO many things that I could / should do. So... what began as Lock Down February to just catch up on some home projects has launched into a full fledged Get the House Ready season. And it's a doozy!   

In addition to all the house stuff that I need to do, there's the ten years of living there to purge. It is entirely too easy to put stuff in a box in storage and forget about it. Especially the stuff that is hard to decide about: college papers, childhood treasures, that cow collection, etc. So I am delving into all of that and throwing away a lot of stuff, filling bags for donation, and organizing like crazy. It is a humbling task. I knew that the last couple years I let things go in the midst of burnout conditions in my life... and now I'm facing it head on. Lovely.  

I am also finding remnants of things from nearly every roommate that has ever lived there. Not only do I get mail for every single person I've housed from time to time, I'm finding odds and ends from them in the storage room: CDs from one roommate, a crochet project binder from another, a backpack from another, a desk from another.... the list is endless and a good reminder of how much life has gone on under this roof in the last decade. It has been a great decade in this home- the longest I've lived anywhere and the most "home" of anywhere I've ever been - so I'm getting a little nostalgic and at the same time, confident that it is time. Let's do this.

Lock Down February

It is officially Lock Down February in my life. Lock Down February? How so? December is always a flurry of preparations and celebrations and overall frantically busy (and really fun too). Typically January is the month to recover from December but somehow this year I managed to fill it so completely that now I need February to recover from that. Not to mention I desperately need some time at home to catch up on life there. I've got bedrooms to paint. Clutter to purge. A living room to paint. Kitchen touch ups to do. And apparently these things don't happen when you are never home. Lock Down February it is!! 

If you want to see me, I will be at home. Wear paint clothes or at least plan on being drafted into a project. Enter at your own risk.  

Obviously I can't do a complete lock down (although that sounds delightful right now). I still work full time, teach Religious Ed, spend one night a week with my grandparents, etc. But I am determined to limit the amount of outside activities I'm not already committed to so as to deal with my own life for a bit. Wish me luck... 

A few painting tips (or maybe a painting rant)

How not to paint a bedroom:

1. Leave all the hooks, shelves, etc. on the wall. It doesn’t matter right, no one cares about a little paint, right?

2. Do a crappy paint job. Poor coverage. Splotchy. Drippy.

3. Feel free to get it on the freshly painted ceiling, the wood floors, the trim. Don’t bother wiping it off while it is wet.

4. Did I mention about the leaving shelves mounted on the wall? See, when you leave them there, and slop paint all around them, not only do you get lovely blotches of paint on them, but when the homeowner goes to repaint the room after you’ve moved away, she has to pry the brackets off the wall, pulling drywall with them. See that? Yeah, always be sure to leave shelves on the wall and slop paint around them. It is simply too much bother to spend the 5 minutes to take them off the wall and preserve them for the next inhabitant.

 

How to paint a bedroom:

1. Imagine you are going to have to repaint this space in a couple years. Save the future you a lot of trouble and do the little things: remove hooks, shelves, switch plates. Spackle holes. Sand off spackling. Remove all of the wallpaper adhesive before painting. Believe me, if you don’t thank yourself a few years down the road, the next homeowner will.

(not quite done – I still have to touch up the brown wall shelves and put them back up).

Swatching

If you know me well and visit me often, you know that you can almost always find a stack of paint swatches floating around. On the table, in the kitchen drawer, in my purse, on the coffee table. I love paint swatches. I love agonizing over what the perfect color would be for whatever room I’m currently dreaming of painting.

But don’t be fooled, I am actually a clearance paint junkie. It is kind of ironic that I pour over paint swatches, checking them with all sorts of things around the house to make sure they are just right, and drool over shades called “Rusted Earth” and “Sunny Dale” and “Shoreline haze." And then I go by the mis-tint paint section in every home improvement store that I find and pick up whatever shade of $5 clearance seems close to my dream—or whatever shade could fit into that same dream with a little help.

I believe I can trace my love of clearance paint back to the laundry room repainting project, during which I ended up with several pints of mis-tints in various colors and managed to produce a bright, cheery laundry room out of them for very little money. Since then, I always walk by the clearance paint when I'm in a home improvement store, just in case the perfect color is there on the shelf. Or maybe something relatively close to the perfect color- which of course I know because I’ve done all that paint swatching ahead of time.    

I can't say I always use clearance paint—in fact, I don’t even use it most of the time. For instance, I bought full price paint for the hall because I didn't find anything I liked on clearance and wanted a specific color and sheen.   

The other day the paint gods were smiling on me. I’ve been thinking about painting the living room a more neutral color and then having splashes of bright colors in the form of pillows and painted end tables (rather than the whole room being bright green). I’m thinking gray but still swatching to find the perfect gray – not to warm so that it’s beige (I abhor beige) and not too gray so that it is too cool with the red brick fireplace and the new couch. Anyway, I walked into my local Lowes looking for something unrelated, and happened down the mis-tint aisle (duh), and there it was: a gallon of beautiful gray paint. I knew I’d need a second gallon but figured I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. When I checked out, the lady handed me a rebate slip. $5 off that brand of paint. What? I spent $5 on the paint and will be getting $5 back. AWESOME. The following week I was in Lowes to buy roller covers and found another gallon of nearly the same shade of gray in the mis-tint section!! So the paint for the living room (2 gallons of paint+primer) cost me a total of $5. I will probably mix them together and might add a touch of brown to warm it up, but still… I am loving the clearance paint! 

Keep in mind, I’m not actually advocating this as a decorating strategy. In fact, I prefer all of you stay away from the mis-tint sections and leave those yummy, super cheap colors to me.

I would also like to note I do not buy paint only because it is cheap. I am always amazed at some of the hideous colors there in the mis-tint section and I leave those for some other poor sucker, sticking with the ones that go with my color palette.

Hi. I’m Reenie. I am a clearance paint addict.

Hi Reenie.

Recovering from Productivity

I started this almost two weeks ago and completely forgot to add pictures and post it... so my apologies... though it does feel like yesterday...

I think perhaps winter is settling into my bones (it is either that or old age- and I prefer the seasonal excuse). Last week felt long- really long. For no apparent reason long. I survived the week and spent a wonderful Friday evening with some good friends and their awesome kids. Nothing like an evening with awesome kids and catching up with one of my dearest friends to set a good tone for the weekend.

And what a weekend!! 

Saturday morning I dragged my tired self out of bed rather early to head to my parent's to pick up a trailer (and the car to pull said trailer). Then I headed for the local bakery to pick up treats and went to pick up my brother. Naturally I had treats for his kids so we visited for a few minutes and then headed out. I had this appointment set up with some random people from the wonderful world of craigslist to buy new (to me) couches. When we walked up to the door, the lady of the house answered it, took one look at my brother and said "Oh are you Miss Hannah's husband? Jane's dad?" (Cue "It's a small world after all" song in my head). Their kids go to the school Hannah teaches at and the kids are classmates. (It's a small world still going). They are moving back to a Guatemala and thus were unloading nice furniture in great shape for a good price (score!)

Of course I had somehow overlooked the detail about the couch being a hideabed (aka the HEAVIEST furniture there is). Thanks to my brother's inside connection with this family, the husband helped move that monster of a couch to the trailer. We got the furniture loaded and home and unloaded it to the appropriate rooms. Then we loaded the existing chairs from the living room into the trailer, and leaving my disheveled, un-arranged house with things strewn in all directions to make room for furniture moving behind for another day.

I delivered my brother back this his home and took the chairs to my other brother's apartment. (Cue: The Circle of Life song in my head). Those chairs have quite a history. We have photos of my dad at age 12 with those chairs. My memory of them was at my grandparents big house, and then their retirement house, then at Brendan's house, then my house. And now they are in Emmet's apartment. I have to say, sometimes good furniture is worth the investments. Knowing my grandma, I'm sure she paid top dollar for that furniture, and 50 years later, it is still comfortable (and was reupholstered once by her and then slipcovered by me). I am confident my second hand ikea couch- though perfect right now- will not be seating my grandchildren when I am 70. Thank you Grandma for your expensive taste. It has served all of us quite well.

 

Meanwhile, my oldest brother called to see if he could drop off a mattress I had lent them and a bunch of bedding. Sure. Use the hidden key. (Two weeks later, I still haven't moved the mattress from the hallway -hangs head in shame). 

After unloading the chairs, I headed for my other brother's house. It was kitchen day at Casa Cous. The funny thing about being part of a close knit community and part of my dad's complicated life is that sometimes you end up buying a house from someone you know. Someone who may or may not have grown up in that little house. Someone who may or may not have done repairs or upkeep through their many years in said house. Someone who may or may not have put in hideous  now-outdated wallpaper in the kitchen 20 years earlier. It is one thing to curse the previous homeowner in any home you buy for their bad taste, the hack jobs, wallpaper of any kind. It isn't necessarily better knowing who is responsible, by name, for putting up horrible wallpaper. It's also awesome to post a comment about improvements on facebook to have the original homeowner comment on their fond memories of said "improvement" (aka bane of the next homeowner's existence). Awkward!

Meanwhile my old roommate and her husband stopped by to use the large car I was driving to go to my house and pick up her furniture. Hooray!! So they took the big TV, TV stand, furniture from the basement, and returned the car while I was still working on the kitchen project.

Right, back to Kitchen Day... so my brother and his wife moved into the house 4 years ago and painted the rest of the first floor immediately and have been slowly doing repairs and updates ever since (so yes, they are your typical homeowners). Currently they are in the midst of gutting and re-doing the upstairs bedroom and adding a bathroom-- no small task!

A few weeks ago my sister in law was commenting on the horrid wallpaper in the kitchen. I offered to come over and help take it down. It was long past time. (I believe that wallpaper would have lasted approximately 3 weeks if I had bought the house- so it was driving me crazy!) We borrowed a wallpaper steamer from a friend, mixed up an internet-suggested wallpaper remover (fabric softener and hot water in a spray bottle--fabulous!) and got to work. The wallpaper was not in great shape- taped to itself in some cases- and came down fairly easily (for wallpaper). The fabric softener / water worked great, the steamer helped with the tough spots, too maybe an hour to get most of it down. Underneath was a lot of mold. Awesome. Purple, pink, red mold explosions. Mmmm mold.

And the border- a country folk art farm (I really should get a copy of Lindsey's before and after pics for you) - good heavens the border!! It appeared to be glued with something stronger than wallpaper paste. Some kind of tacky glue perhaps? Awful, awful, awful to get off. The steamer didn't really help. The removal spray didn't really help. Thus Lindsey and I took turns chiseling and scraping that horrid stuff off the wall-- for HOURS. We were also scrubbing the walls to remove the mold and adhesive at the same time.

Meanwhile Donal was on project errands- looking for cabinet doors- which they apparently recently stopped selling at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. And then at the Reuse it Center - also no luck finding the right size. Finally going to Lowes to get boards to make his own (big sister is so proud). Keep in mind the idea with this project is not to re-do the whole kitchen -- someday, that would be great-- but to do the small things that would make it live-able (and pleasant) for the next few years. Even homemade cabinet doors are better than 4 of the 8 doors just missing.

Donal made it back to scrub the cabinets down and help prep for the primer. The caulk made a huge difference- caulking gaps in trim, cabinets, etc. makes it look so much more finished!! Lindsey spackled 60 years worth of holes in the walls and some cracks in the ceiling. And finally we were ready and primed everything (ceiling and walls) before calling it a day. Whew.

The young people involved in this project showered and went out for dinner and a movie. The old person involved went home and collapsed face down on the new and very comfortable couch for awhile. Fed the pups. Showered. Fell asleep on the bed hours before intending to. And then woke up to take some pain killer for the throbbing arms before going back to bed.

Sunday was another packed day- although less physically intense. Late Mass. Brunch with the fam. Dinner with friends. Downton Abbey watching with bookclub friends. And finally home- to that house that still has furniture strewn places it doesn't belong. Cushions for the new furniture not on new furniture, and general mayhem.

It took me a few days, but the living room is generally together. I need to do some staging, change around some pictures, get a new TV stand when the roomie decides to buy a new TV. But it is at least livable for right now. And Christmas is down, cleaned up, put away. On to Ordinary Time.

So far, January makes me tired. Productivity bursts. Cold weather. Change. Decisions on the horizon. Over-socializing. I find myself craving some quiet time, alone time. On the other hand, I certainly haven't had time to sink into winter depression yet :) So that's something! And I do realize being SO invested in someone else's home project might indicate I have some sort of problem. 

Hi. I'm Reenie. I'm a home project addict. 

Hi Reenie. 

2012 Wrap Up (ish)

Everyone else in the blogosphere is wrapping up 2012 with fancy posts of amazing things they did in their homes, amazing new business ventures, cute kid pictures... And here I am, six days into the new year, just beginning to think about goals (we are NOT calling them resolutions) for the new year and pondering last year.

Two years ago, for 2011, I decided it was time to learn to say No -- and thus was born NO11.  It was (mostly) a dismal failure. So NO11 made way for NO-f-ing-12. I did better. Far from perfect and I certainly can't claim to be good at saying No, but I made some notable progress.

The biggest progress was finally saying NO to a job that was sucking the life out of me. In spite of the things I liked about it, two years of having your life totally dominated by a soul sucking job was enough. God opened the right doors at the right times and the transition happened a lot faster than I though and very differently than I imagined. As usual, God knows what I need better than I do.

Since that transition, there was some vacation, some dismal attempts at gardening in a drought, some chickens massacred, some weddings, a lot of sewing, some dining room furniture redone, and mostly getting back in touch with my creative, energetic self. It has been good and I am optimistic about 2013. God only knows what He has in store, but my prayer is that I may be listening attentively so as to know where He is leading and humble enough to follow at the first invitation.

I will also be working on monthly goals, because, as usual, I'm more comfortable with failure in small doses. I have a bunch of house projects I want to do. Some sewing projects I want to finish. Some skills I'd like to learn. Some weight I need to lose. Some finances to get in order. Some people I desperately want to visit (lots and lots of them!). And, most importantly, some spiritual growth to foster and make room for. Come Lord Jesus.