Hey friends! As you know, we’ve been planning for the last six months to get our house on the market and move closer to my husband’s work.
Most of those months were just spent waiting for the right time due to other life circumstances, but I took advantage of the wait to wrap up projects around the house so when we were finally ready to list, we would also be ready to pack up and go!
Things like:
- Finally tackling the kitchen walls that had been sitting wallpaper-free but bare for over a year
- Finishing painting various rooms and touching up paint
- Switching out a few light fixtures and curtains
- Replacing our splintery wooden toilet seats with new white ones (because for some reason, for the last three years we tolerated the risk every time we sat down, but God forbid someone else get a splinter in their butt!)
- Packing away some of my bolder art choices (like Lady Margaret)
- Toning down some of my maximalist decorating tendencies
- Fixing up the front garden beds
- And having the exterior of our home completely repainted (and not, sadly, “Barbie Dream House” pink)
Photo credit: Michael Keegan
Photo credit: Michael Keegan
In fact, so much has slowly changed around here the last few months that I decided to share an “Open House Home Tour” for you guys so you could virtually walk around and see the way we “staged” our home for sale. For full “before” and “afters”, visit my Home Tour tab up there at the top of the blog!
I almost never take photos with the lights on, but I wanted you to experience the cozy vibe of certain rooms in our house, like the living room right when you walk inside…
If you open my recent Living Room Tour post in another tab, you can play a game of “Spot the Difference.” The biggest changes were switching out the curtains and pulling the fiddle leaf fig into a different room to help open up the space.
- Curtains: Ikea Lenda
The room off to the right in the shot above is the house’s original dining room. Even though we didn’t use it that way ourselves, we set it back up as a dining room for house showings.
The kitchen has come a looooong way! You might remember that I had grand remodeling plans and I would have loved to have the time and budget to tackle them, but I will say that a new wall color, a few new appliances, and smooth ceilings made a miraculous difference!
Who remembers the decoupaged brown wallpaper that was there before?
And here’s how it stands at present:
- New wall color: Sherwin Williams “Silver Strand”
- Chandelier painting from my sweet friend Becky of Sketchy Styles
- Light fixture: Hampton Bay (similar)
And the second living area, which you might remember we had turned into my favorite room of the house, the dining room. In order to show its original purpose, I set up a little seating area, switched out the low-hanging chandelier, and left the rest of the space wide-open.
- Curtains: Ikea Lenda
- Light fixture: Hampton Bay Semi-Flush Faux Alabaster Nutmeg (who names these products?!)
And an area I don’t think I’ve ever shared here on the blog… Here’s our little laundry room area. Oh how I love those colorful curtains – they’re originally from World Market, but I found them brand new at a thrift store!
And the door to the left goes to the downstairs powder room, which is extremely hard to photograph, but a pretty cute little space!
Once you head up the stairs, this guest bedroom is right at the top. It’s quite a bit less colorful than the last time I shared it – I was going for light, peaceful and serene.
Notice, I even swapped out lamps from when I shared this needlepoint pillow for Thrift Score Thursday a few weeks ago.
Absolutely nothing changed from the master bedroom tour I recently shared…
But here’s my best attempt at a “realty” shot, so you get a feel for what it’s really like to step into the room…
Down the hall is our office. It really hasn’t changed all that much since I last shared it. Sharp-eyed readers will notice this room is staged with some of our dining room chairs and I switched out the shelves full of Bryan’s beer bottle collection with some fun & colorful vintage records.
And that about wraps this little home tour up, my friends! There is a fourth bedroom tucked away, but we never got around to any kind of transformation, so it won’t be appearing in photos here on the blog.
But seriously – it’s such a strange, strange feeling, knowing that this is one of the last times I’ll ever capture pictures of this, our first house.
When you reduce it down to a little virtual tour, it might not seem like much, but I assure you there’s so much blood, sweat and tears in these walls, it’s practically a bio-hazard… (And yes, that’s a joke. I just felt that I needed to clarify.)
As I was thinking through every last little detail to get our house ready to go on the market (from choosing coordinating kitchen towels to scrubbing bathroom grout with a toothbrush), I decided that I had to pick a fun and motivational quote for the chalkboard garage door.
I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head, so I figured I would do a quick Google search and pick the first corny but heart warming quote that I came across. Wouldn’t you know, this little gem stopped me in my tracks:
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
— Arthur Ash
And it was just such a perfect summation of everything we’ve done in this house and everything we want our life to be and everything we hope for the next family that ends up living here!
So that has been the story of our first home here on Newberry Street. You can catch up on plot lines and plot twists and chapter headings here on our full-fledged Home Tour page.
But the dust jacket blurb is: we started where we were, we used what we had, we did what we could… and we’re excited to begin all over again somewhere else soon!
it is a strange feeling- i cried like a baby leaving my first house because it had so many memories… we were married and moved in a week later. we brought both our babies home there. it was tough to leave that behind, but i know that home is in my heart and with my family and it’s not actually in any structure.
I think there will definitely be some crying over here too! More than any other house I’ve lived in my whole life, this is definitely where I “grew up”! But I’m also really excited at all the possibilities that lie ahead!
It all looks so pretty! I love how your living room looks right now and I’m sure someone will fall in love with it too.
Thank you Julia! The white curtains were such a huge change, it stopped feeling like my living room for a while! But it really gave it a totally different light and bright vibe rather than rich and moody 🙂
I’d buy it! Moving is always bittersweet (haha, I should know.) Sad for leaving the good times of the past but excited to make a new future. But you always have to, Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Perfect!
Bittersweet is a great way to put it, mixed in with a whole lot of anxiety, ha! But hopefully the next home owners will love it as much as we have and enjoy their time spent here as well! I’m getting pretty excited about our next step too!
Aww, everything looks lovely, and it’s so clear how much you loved it and how hard you worked!
Thank you so much Gretchen! It really gets so personal – this place is my baby, haha! 🙂
Everything looks so fresh and clean! I’m excited to see what your next place will look like!!
Thank you Oscar! I have definitely never cleaned as much in my entire life as I have in this last month or so – fingers crossed those habits stick, as I tend to be pretty messy otherwise! In the last few months, I forced myself to find a place for EVERYTHING in the house and it was magical. It’s definitely one of the first things I plan on doing in the next place!
You have worked so HARD! I think you do staging for a job because you totally did what they want you to do now. My favorite thing is the shelves in the office — the records and the musical instruments are a genius idea.
Nice!!!! I have those same curtains you have in your laundry area except I spent a pretty penny on them. Girrrrrl, your house is huge!!!!!
I love all you did with the house. You living room feels so awesome. Here is to the next chapter : )
How bittersweet! It’s exciting and scary and sad and new. Right there with you friend!
Your home is massive and beautiful! Lovely details. I absolutely adore what you’ve done to the outside. My exterior is looking so sad right now so I’m picking away at all the little details of yours!
I’m definitely more on the minimalist side, but as we prepare to move, I’m excited about staging our house for sale. Not looking forward to patching holes and touching up paint this weekend, though!
Your place looks great, and you made smart choices to make it realty-ready.
good luck with the sale!! We are officially moving on May 31st…. selling our current home and buying the new one in one big long day at the bank. And I will totallyyyyyy be crying, despite how much I love our new house- our current house is a biohazard of blood, sweat, and tears as well. 🙂
Oh gosh, trust me, I understand! I’m actually really impressed that you were able to coordinate that all – what a crazy, crazy process it all is! Best of luck to you as well – I think we’ll be moving that same weekend 🙂
Ummm wow! Your house looks amazing! Love your living room and that bed! There are no words even for how incredible that bed is. Bet it feels so good to have that to do list all checked off!
Your home inside and out is beautiful. You did such a good job adding personality and beauty to it. I can’t wait to see what you do with your next one!
It is a lovely home, hope it gets the love of a sweet family soon.
I am no home owner, have been renting all this while, soon to move to our first home – yet it feels so weird and nostalgic thinking of leaving this home. cant imagine how you are feeling after all the memories and hard work you have put into it .
Good luck 🙂