Soooo… there’s been a lot going on around here, so much in fact I haven’t had a second to share. We are in the process of deciding if we should sell our house and move closer to the beach and my family or stay put. We have lived here one month shy of 4 years. Of course I watch the HGTV show Love It or List It, so I am excited to try our own version.
I definitely don’t hate our house. And I LOVE OUR GARDEN, which I’ve spent 3 summers completely reinventing. But the taxes where we live are ridiculously high and I don’t feel like we see much for our money. The schools are great, but the house needs a new roof, my neighbor is always taking me to court, we’re constantly driving over an hour to the beach. Plus, I think our house is actually too big. I was totally looking for the biggest thing we could afford when we bought it, and it’s no mansion, but there is enough room for me to comfortably store a bunch of crap we don’t need. It’s too much. I am ready for a simpler life, and if that means my girls might have to share a bedroom, then so be it. I had always planned to one day renovate the kitchen and bathrooms, but I think I am finished sinking money into this house and wouldn’t mind moving on.
Of course I DIY when it’s time to sell a house. I had huge success selling our last two houses on For Sale By Owner. Our last house sold after being on the MLS for 10 days. It was awesome! The main feature I used was the MLS listing, so I might try a service like this one next time, which says they will list my property on the MLS for $299 (showcase listing). For Sale By Owner’s MLS enhanced listing is $699. In the past I have offered the buyer’s agent a 2% commission, because most home buyers use a realtor.
I know that just because I sink money into fixing our house up doesn’t mean I will see ANY return on my investment. So I am not looking to put much money into it, but these are some things that must be addressed before we can put it on the market.
1) Paint all trim/doors upstairs and replace hinges and doorknobs. We already have the paint and new doorknobs and have replaced everything downstairs, so this is a must! There are 10 doors.
2) Paint/update vanity in master bath. For the record, let me just tell you that we always planned on gutting this bathroom, taking out my walk-in closet, and making a giant bathroom with a tub, because right now we only have a shower. So that’s why it looks like crap.
3) Replace two lights in master bath
4) Paint over birds on dining room walls.
5) Remove carpet in kids’ bathroom and replace with tile or left over vinyl from the basement. Ok, so this is DISGUSTING and I know that, but I also know myself and if I tear out the carpet, I will want to tear out ALL the tile and the bathtub and the fixtures. See? That’s why I’ve put it off. But it’s still a possibility to do all that before listing it. But stick to basics! Besides, I was not the moron who put the carpet in there in the first place! Duh!!
6) Do something about kitchen counters. This is another one… I want to replace the entire kitchen, so I’ve just ignored this. I hate the peninsula and would much rather have an island, so I would never replace the counter tops with granite (for myself) without changing out all the cabinets. I also don’t like the sink. I would love anyone’s opinion on this one: Replace with granite (which I can get installed for $29/sq ft and “add value” to the house) or just kinda make these look a little nicer. There is no real answer until we know if we are moving because as I said I would never waste the money to put a nicer top on these lame cabinets.
7) Replace knobs in kitchen. I asked my hubby to take all the knobs off and clean the cabinet fronts for my birthday. I ended up throwing them out because I had spray painted them turquoise 4 years ago and it was starting to come off. I had no luck with knobs at Hobby Lobby because I need 27. But this is an easy one. Update: Done! Post HERE
8) Replace two faucets. Going back to master bathroom… Can you believe this? They have just peeled and corroded while we’ve lived here. Again, we were always planning to gut the bathroom, so we’ve been ignoring them, but sheesh, it’s time to replace these things!!! Oh, and whatever moron put these pieces of junk in, hooked up the hot and cold to the wrong sides!!!
9) Replace the last of the ugly old switches with flat switches and rectangular outlets. The only remaining ones are in the master bath, again because we were going to gut it.
10) Remove the carpet from the stairs and refinish the wood underneath. I know, this is a big project. But the carpet is nasty! I wanted it out when we moved in, but was afraid with our kids being so young. I understand that re-carpeting it is very expensive because the stairs are curved and because of all the spindles. I like the wood look better anyway and this thing has got to go!! A friend of mine with the same model house can’t wait for me to do my stairs because she wants to learn how to do hers. There’s a dumb “platform” on the side of the stairs that has carpet on it too. What in the world? So I actually have carpet on my freaking wall.
.JPG?resize=263%2C400 "Smart Girls DIY: need to remove carpet and refinish stairs") |
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| Read about the piece of furniture here and the glass door here |
11) Touch up paint in kitchen (we have benches at our kitchen table and one is up against a half wall which is constantly taking a beating) and hallway.
12) Tidy up yard (mostly leaves and pine needles) and move flagstone. I bought flagstone for a small patio area in the front yard and when the guy delivered it he left a huge hole in the brand new asphalt driveway. The company was great about it and gave us an entire pallet of flagstone for free. I asked my loving husband to carry it (piece by piece) to the backyard, and he did, but it’s scattered all around and looks pretty silly right now. So if we stay, the flagstone will be incorporated into the existing yard. If we go, I might try to take some of it with me.
I think that’s about it. Other than de-cluttering of course!! I will keep you posted as we get these projects done.
This is the maybe list:
1) Paint master bedroom (it’s the only room that I never painted)??
2) Replace carpet in entire upstairs (not DIY, I don’t do carpet) Update: I ended up doing the carpet myself, posts HERE and HERE
3) Come up with something better for this weird “window” off the master bedroom
So what do you think? Too much stuff? You think it’s worth it? How long do you think it will me (and hubby)? I figure when we’re done, we’ll either be able to get more for our house or I will enjoy living in it that much more.
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