Soon to Be For Sale

We've been working like crazy and the house looks great - H. scrubbed the driveway with the power washer and it looks really good.  We planted some pretty plants in back to fill in where we took out the wildflower garden.  Wildflowers look beautiful for a bit - and then they look like an overgrown, gangly mess shortly after blooming.  We bought some perennials that will hopefully spread out and fill in.  Knowing the new owner might rip them out made spending some money on them hard - but we're doing what we can to brighten things up.

We think our house is beautiful - recently reinforced when our neighbor shared her worry about 'who will we get in the house' - looking for the good neighbor component.  She said 'your house is beautiful and it will sell quickly'.  I hope she's right. We've worked so, so hard and it looks so (SO!) much better - but the realtor said 'keeping decluttering'.  At this point, we're ready to just put things in bins, label the bins by room and move on.  Nineteen years here and there are just so many' things'. Thankfully, he said 'when the photographer comes, it's OK to just do room by room - example:  coffee machine.  It's OK to leave it out and move it of the counter when he's taking pics of the kitchen'.  It's supposed to look like no one lives here.  Feels frequently overwhelming but we're getting there. 

I notice things that sort of irritate me and I know/wish we could do better.  Example:  there was a small 'jar' on the kitchen windowsill with miscellany in it.  I ask J. 'do you know what this is'?  And he promptly gets a Ninja cup and snaps that piece back on the cup.  (It's the 'cover' for the drinking hole).  It's been on that windowsill forever - so why wasn't it put back on the cup as soon as it was missing from the cup?  Things like this - times a million - boggle my fretful mind.

We signed all the documents to officially engage the realtor and begin the process.  We are tentatively planning for pics on the 28th and then the house will go on the market on the 30th.  That's Labor Day weekend and we have plans to go to Reno/Carson City - but we'll change those plans.  We're going to think about it - realtor doesn't seem concerned about waiting a week if we want so we'll just have to see where we are as the weekend approaches.

The listing price is way below what Redfin says the house is worth but those websites have home prices all over the place.  High, low and everything in between.  We trust our realtor who used comps from within a few miles of our home and we want it to sell fairly quickly.  Better to conservatively price it and who knows!?  There might be gobs of interest and it will inch up a bit.

We're heading up to Reno/Carson City on Monday for two to three nights.  (I will stay three for sure because I have a slot tournament event; J. will likely head home Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning).  I'm ready for some play and some down time.  We also have an appointment at the lighting vendor on Tuesday morning to make lighting choices.  Will be fun.  There will also be (of course) two cars loaded to the roof with stuff to trek to storage.  I'm starting to think we should have rented another large unit - but we'll see.