Got Wood?

Well, the house has been on the market for over 60 days now, roughly two months. Selling the house has been such a stress in my life at the moment (I know qq more right?)…but it does take its toll.

This is the first time I’ve ever done the house selling thing. I hope I never have to do it again. You have to constantly keep the house in a museum state and you have to be ready to vacate at all times and NO ONE tells you what you need to know up front.

For example, the kitchen flooring was done with this horribly cheap vinyl flooring crap that has started to rise and peel. No one ever said, “look, it’s expensive to get new flooring but it will literally be the difference between selling the house in 2 weeks and 3 months.”

Everyone has commented on the flooring issue and the rationale for leaving it is as is was “if they don’t like the flooring, the price can be adjusted for new flooring installation.” What they don’t tell you is that NO ONE wants to deal with getting new flooring when buying a new house.

So that brings me to today…where I spent a good portion of my Saturday looking at hardwood floors trying to decide between style and budget. SOOO fun. NOT. The best part is that flooring is a total biatch to shop for because of the layers of pricing tacked on for installation, removal of existing flooring, trim work, leveling, glue, and everything else you can possibly imagine them charging you extra for.

My favorite part of looking for flooring is talking to hardwood specialist clerks.

“so what type of flooring are you looking for?”

“I’m not sure, I went to Home Depot and found this nice dark colored flooring called Thomasville Engineered Wood”

“look, I don’t know who this Thomas guy is but we sell the real brands here.”

ahhh. yes. industry snobs. Sometimes I wonder if I really am a hermit that doesn’t know jack about the real world.

Chapter 23: Declutter

So I just got done talking to a “professional stager” as we’re looking to put our house on the market very soon. I didn’t want to have one come out as I’m pretty good at staging things myself. However, our Realtor really recommended we do it as staged houses sell at a much faster rate.

So let me save you all guys $125 dollars.
DE CLUTTER!

Yeah. I knew she was gonna say that. It’s like a really key rule in all staged photos of spaces. You want all the knick knacks gone and out of site.

*Pretty much move all your “junk” into storage.
*Remove all personal photos and things with your name on them. You want to generalize the space but keep furniture and decor so people can imagine themselves living in the space.
* neutralize wall colors (bye bye green wall!)
*all rugs and bath mats gone as they bring the space down.
*all bathroom/shower/counter tops cleared save for decor.
*don’t over clutter when decorating.
*clean all fixtures

I can’t believe I paid this chic to come in and tell me all this. She tried to sell me the premium package too which would have cost up to 300 dollars. I was like, unless you’re gonna do the “decluttering” for me, there’s no way I’m paying that much to have you take notes and re-inspect my cleaning job. I feel like I just got robbed.

Chapter 21: Home

How much of your life is TMI and how much is just a touch too vague? I used to share it all. I miss that. But a part of me thinks the people who know me now just don’t need that much access to my life.

Four years ago, this blog would entail my outing with the Realtor today which would probably include pics and descriptions of the homes we visited. It was a great day. I might have found my new dream home. It’s a lovely two story home, completely brand new that sits on an acre of land.

We also visited three other properties which didn’t really make my heart stop at all. For me, my home, my room, my space is very sacred. I spend so much of my time inside my house that how I feel in it is extremely important to me.

When I first thought of becoming an Architect, the only thing that connected me to the profession was the idea of manipulation through building. You can ultimately effect someone physically and emotionally by design. I truly believe that. However, in this country, very few investors are willing to put in the cash to make that a reality. It all go so depressing watching the art of spacial and building manipulation turn into big box productions.

Can you imagine the ability to turn stone, concrete, wood, and other structural materials into emotional triggers? I imagine that sense of control and power architects of the 16th and 17th centry must have felt. Patrons who paid such massive amounts of wealth to have structures constructed to awe and overwhelm the senses.

And the most bizzare thing today was that I sort of found myself laughing inside. Surely I can’t have found my dream house on the first try? Who does that? And then the sadness sort of hits me. As solitary as my life is, even if I do get this house, I’ll once again be alone in the sharing of it.