So, about the house...
When the real estate lady came in and asked me if I was still living there, I figured we were off to a good start because it was a big job to get the house looking like no one lived there. Feedback was good-my kitchen is big (11x11) for Lakewood, my cabinets are good, I do get lots of nice light!, nice attic, green room got a "wow!", bathroom is big and with the new tile job not unattractive, and overall with some more paint we are okay. My roof is 2007 (complete tearoff of 3 layers of asphalt and the original cedar shakes), and my furnace is from Fall 2003. Did I ever mention that the furnace in place when I bought the house was from the mid-1940's (the same age as my mom) and the size of a VW Bug?
She suggested painting my accent wall in the kitchen SW Baguette instead of BM Honolulu Blue, and she was right. It picks up the brown off my crappy floor and does make the place look more sophisticated. I would never have picked it because it's totally a baby shit brown.
What I've had done/done to get it fixed up by the time I leave, along with huge divestment of stuff: tore off wallpaper and repainted the Tuscan Nitemare room, repainted hallway & downstairs, parts of the kitchen, new cabinet knobs, got the walls leading to the basement and outside the kitchen repaired and painted, fixed the mystery plumbing leak which lead to new tile including the building of a wall and moving the light switch that had previously been located in the shower(!), got the scary bathroom ceiling textured (totally a place in hell for me for that, but it was the only quick and easy fix), painted the woodwork in my bedroom back to white, painted the porch & steps, and planted flowers.
It's all I can do.
I also called the B-Dry System people and it turns out in 1981-1982 they did the whole basement, which is good because I now have seepage from behind the west wall. Those systems are guarenteed, although I am unsure if I can get it fixed in any sort of fashion because of the paneling down there. But the next owner can take care of that--information is power.
"But Kerry," I can hear you ask, "what price did she put on it? And how long does she think it will take to sell?"
The market has picked up some, but it's still not great. Not a lot of buyers, even if The Romance Heroine almost bought a cat pee house. I found my original listing sheet for this house, and I bought it after it had been on the market for 3 months in 2001. I'm looking at up to a year. I can make it work.
The original price we're setting? It's 11% more than I bought it for in 2001. If I think about it too much, I will cry. But there is room to drop it if in this glutted market if that will just get rid of it.
I'll take pictures before I leave and put them up on Flickr with details. I do like the house more now that it's fixed up--oh, paradoxes. And it's a pleasure to take a shower now. And my inner meth head handy girl will be up all night at work.
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