Open House

I don't even want to know how long it's been since I've blogged. We have moved from Nebraska to Colorado and have been in a small one bedroom apartment for a month and a half. It's not decorated very much - we brought a very limited amount of stuff. Our house is staged for selling, so most of our decor stuff is still in Nebraska. The rest of our stuff is in storage. I haven't felt much like blogging about decor or home stuff since I'm not doing any decorating or crafty things at the moment. We're in this apartment for 6 months, then hopefully by that time our house will have sold and we can buy a house here in Colorado. THEN I'll be motivated to blog blog blog!

But in the interim, I really need to find a creative outlet, so I'm hoping I can do stuff in the little apartment that we can take with us, and, as always, doesn't cost much money.

One of my goals in this time is to make at least half of the slipcovers for our 6-piece sectional. We have two of the armless pieces in our apartment, so I have those to use for my pattern. More on that later...


The open house!

This weekend we're having our very first open house. Our lovely realtor, Mary, who also has a home staging business, will be hosting from 1-2pm. Here's a link to the listing, for those of you in Nebraska who want to snoop around the place attend the open house!

Here are some of Mary's photos that show what the place looks like now.

So I've heard a lot about staging your house to sell. I've seen the shows on HGTV and read blogs & stuff. And my own realtor is an expert herself.

This being our second house that we've staged for sale, I feel like I have a little bit of a grasp on what to do. I asked Mary her opinions and from that, HGTV and personal experience, here's what I know:

1. Clean. Clean like the wind. Clean like you've never cleaned before. Then clean it all again. If you have a grimy house, prospective buyers will assume you don't do other maintenance as well.

2. Remove all of your personal stuff. Put away photos of family & friends & yourself. Put away all of your bathroom stuff. Find some closed storage to put them in. Take all of that stuff off of the front of your fridge. All of it.

3. Don't declutter SO much that you take all of the personality out of the house. Leave tasteful decor items in logical places. I put some real looking hydrangeas in a vase on the dining room table. They won't die while we're gone, and they look nice. Also, use decor that enhances the architectural style of your house.

4. Remove all unnecessary furniture, baskets on the floor, etc. You want to show as much of your house as possible - people want to see the house, not your stuff. They want to be able to picture themselves living there. Mary suggested that we leave only two pieces of the sectional. I thought it would look really bare, but she was right! It makes the room look bigger, and you can see more of the nice wood floors we had refinished.

5. Don't expect your house to be perfect. Do to it what you need to do, but be satisfied with it when it's done. You can paint, clean & declutter. You can have things repaired. But there will always be imperfections - ESPECIALLY with an older home. You have to draw the line somewhere. Potential buyers know they are buying an older home with older home issues expected. Especially when they see that you still have the original windows. :) You don't need to put sticky notes labeling everything that bothers you about the house, but you also don't need to be deceptive about anything. People can see what they're getting. And hopefully they'll like what they see!

What are some of your secrets to staging? Do share!

Sorry I've been away for so long. Hopefully soon I'll have an update on my slipcovers. I also hope to let y'all know that we've sold our house!

Our House is Listed!

We've been busy. Really busy. I didn't realize how many projects we still had to do. I guess when you live with something long enough you don't see it anymore. :) It's an old house and will ALWAYS have projects, but for now, our projects are complete. Thank you so much to my sister-in-law, Doreen who came from Colorado to help us out and to my Mom & Dad who have put in many hours helping us with the house.

Here's the listing!

We move this weekend. I'm not freaking out. Yet.

Christmas: Cramming it all into a TINY house

I was pretty excited to decorate for Christmas this year. Our decorations have been in storage for 4 years, since we sold our house, moved overseas, moved back and bought another house. This is the first year since 2006 that I've been able to break out this stuff!

My goal this year was to buy as little as possible and make use of what we already had. The only things I bought were 2 tiny bottle brush trees, 2 candle stands/holders for my bell jars and a small artificial tree for the front porch.  All said, those items cost me LESS THAN $4. Sweet. Thank you, local thrift!

I had one problem, though. I couldn't think of anywhere in our hobbit-sized house to put our full-sized Christmas tree. No worries. It is possible to decorate without one. :) Here's my solution: 

Living Room:

I appropriated this tree from my Mom. She usually sets it up in the kitchen. Afterward I felt a little guilty. I kind of strong-armed my way into getting it for the month. But not guilty enough to give it back. :) As you can see, though, the lights on the top half of the tree aren't working. They work maybe 30% of the time. That's what I get, I suppose. Anywhoo, as you can see, it's a pretty narrow tree, so it works to put it on the console thingy behind the sectional.

 

Candles on the piano - I should probably put something under them. The frame usually lives on the piano, with a family photo in it. For the holidays, it holds a Christmas card someone sent us years ago. Free art.

 

Wrapping paper & ribbon I already had.

 

Back to the tree: It's decorated with my mercury glass ornaments that I LOVE. Also, it has the ornaments that my Mom gets for us every year. For several years she's been getting us sparkly, shiny ones with not a lot of color. I think they all look great showcased on the tiny tree!

 

 

 

 

 

 

No mantle for stockings, so this is where they go this year.

 

I think I need one more fake amaryllis. And I wish they were white instead of red. But I already had them and I still like them. The vintage village is also my mom's, but she gave it to me this year with some other old decorations. I remember this town from when I was a kid.

 

 

More of the village, and my vintage stamp holder. I really should figure out something cool to do with it other times of the year.

Dining Room:

More village! This time under the bell jar my sister bought for me for me last year. I wish I had more surfaces for more bell jars. The one with the bottle brush tree under it isn't actually a bell jar. I'm pretty sure it's upside down & goes in a candle holder. Actually, that, and the white candle holder under it and the tree are all from the local thrift and cost less than $1. That makes me happy. :)

 

And those are the vintage glass Christmas balls that were damaged with water in poor packing.  I think they look like bubbles.

 

 

And my angel, who was also damaged.  I really should glue her hand back on.

 

 

 

I don't have a stable for my nativity scene. That's ok. This year they are hanging out on a street somewhere in South America.

  

Complete with "flying" angel. This one is from Kenya and made of banana leaf and is the only surviving one of a whole choir of angels, again, from poor packing. Mice like banana leaf.

 

 

Bathroom:

I remember taking these crocheted snowflake ornaments with me to Kenya 13 years ago, so I guess I've had them for a while. The pot was free from a pile of clay pots found in a barn. I like that the paint finish was already like that & I didn't have to be crafty or anything.

 

Our other nativity, still with no stable. They don't seem to mind. I should put some sort of background behind them, though. Maybe next year.

 

 

 

Front Porch:

This is the little tree I got at the thrift. Only $3! It's decorated with stuff Vino went out and bought one year. I think I like the decorations better on a small tree than a large one. They look more substantial! I raised the tree with one of my plethora of vintage suitcases (I have an addiction). The burlap "skirt" was a remnant I had leftover from a project. And the GIANT stars can have a light inside. Again, maybe next year. I'm all decorated out.

 

 

(notice how I angled this picture so you only see the parts of the room I want you to see?? Except I really should put a shade on that bare bulb!)

And there you have it. I had plans to go out out and cut fresh evergreen boughs so the house smelled Christmas-y (SOMEONE won't let us have a real tree!) but then it snowed and got really cold and I didn't know where I'd put them since I decorated first. NEXT YEAR.

So this proves that you don't need a spacious place or a bunch of new, expensive stuff to make your home Christmas-y. Even if you just light a few more candles than usual, play Christmas music and simmer a pot of water with orange slices, cinnamon sticks & cloves. That's enough. You don't even need to go broke on gifts. Fragrance, warmth & twinkly lights can go a LONG way.

Merry Christmas!

Erin