Ok, so today our house looks like this. So – spontaneous decision! – while we get settled and find our underwear, this week is going to be moving week! Turns out you guys still wanted to hear a whole lot about the sale of our current house. So let’s do the dang thing. Here’s what we plan to cover in honor of Spontaneous Moving Week:
- How we staged/sold our house (including a glance at our real estate flyer, a list of what we changed before showings, etc)
- What we made when we sold our house vs. what we put in- budget breakdown included!
- Empty house pics (dude, it’s trippy to see your house all echoey and vacant, but it’s pretty awesome closure too)
- Moving day photos of our new house (we love having this Day One post from our last house to look back on)
- A house hunting post about a few other homes we casually checked out (sort of like these that we did last time)
- Other stuff that I’m forgetting right now because our house looks like this:
So onto the first bullet! We got a lot of questions like this:
“Did you stage your current home to sell it? I’d be interested to hear if you’ve made any small changes/put things in storage in order to make it seem less personal to potential buyers.”
“Would you be willing to share your For Sale flyer (obviously without any too-personal details like price and address)?
So here’s the little double sided flier we made in Photoshop (minus the address, price, and our contact info). Just click the image below to see it larger.
And here’s the back (again, just click it to see it bigger).
Turns out we’re not really staging rule followers in the traditional “neutralize and de-personalize” sense. The whole repaint-rooms-so-they’re-all-neutral-and-remove-all-personal-photos-from-the-wall approach isn’t really something we subscribe to since we sold our first house by owner without doing that, and it seemed to work out for us again this time around.
So when we were showing our house to potential buyers our frame hallway was still very much intact. We think it’s helpful to show off how cozy and personal a home can be. Chances are that it could “speak” to a prospective buyer more than a stark and stripped down house might anyway.
But that doesn’t mean we didn’t do anything at all before a showing. Instead of taking things away, we mostly focused on making things look their best. Here’s our list:
- We over-seeded the lawn a few weeks prior and let the rain do its thing to help the grass look fresh and green.
- We mulched the garden beds and planted a few annuals (it definitely ups curb appeal and sends a “this house is cared for” vibe)
- We organized closets, the attic, the basement (basically any nook people could peek into should look functional and not stuffed-to-the-gills)
- We wiped down counters in the kitchen and bathrooms and quickly polished the faucets with some Mrs. Meyers so they looked and smelled clean
- We rolled up the rug in the cooking part of the kitchen and stashed it at the new house, just to show off the cork flooring a bit more
- We mowed the grass and used a leaf blower on the driveway, patio, and deck to clear off any errant pollen/twigs/leaves/acorns
- We touched up any paint that was scuffed in doorways, baseboards, etc
- We also tucked Burger’s food and water away since it’s stored in our walk-in closet and we realized that might be weird for non-dog-folks who were trying to feel at home.
- We removed Clara’s bath toys along with her potty seat and sink stool from the hall bathroom so people without kids didn’t just see it as a “kids bathroom” (we left her other toys in baskets in the living room, nursery, and playroom since those seemed easy enough to see past)
- We removed the bath mats in every bathroom to make them seem more spacious and show off the tile (matted stepped-on-with-shoes bath mats aren’t always that pretty, which tends to happen during showings).
- We vacuumed, dusted, and generally cleaned things up (this included following Clara around for the last half-hour before the showing and singing the clean up song about a million times while we dumped stuff into bins and baskets)
- I took a damp rag with a bit of mild soap (Mrs Meyers) and scrubbed the front door, which was still glossy and yellow, but had a haze of pollen. It really made a difference and only took five minutes!
- We left the separate entry basement door unlocked during showings so people could easily check out that space without trekking down there and then finding themselves locked out
- We put a little note on the microwave cabinet in the kitchen and said “there’s a vented microwave in here!” so people knew where to look
- We tossed a runner on the table on the deck along with a few cups (even though the furniture came with us, adding some color and that sit-right-down vibe couldn’t hurt)
Most of those items just had to be done once before the first showing, and then keeping them up for the following ones wasn’t too bad. Sure, getting a toddler and a dog out of the house on time before each one was a little hectic, but we feel really lucky to have only had three showings this time around (we had 14 last time!). What do you guys do when your house is on the market? Any other tips for folks who are about to list?
Carmen says
I love moving day! Congratulations on your new home and your giant mess! :)
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
You had me worried that Mrs. Meyers had gotten divorced (“polished the faucets with some Ms. Meyers”), but it looks like that was just a typo because she was Mrs. again when you wiped down the front door. : )
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahahahahha!
xo
s
Braelin says
This comment totally made me laugh out loud. Made me wonder ‘Who IS Mrs. Myers’..?? You can read about it here: http://www.mrsmeyers.com/content.jsp?pageName=Our-Story (the products are indeed ‘inspired’ by a REAL Mrs. Myers..). Cool!
YoungHouseLove says
No way! So funny!
xo
s
Liz E. says
Bahaha love it! Poor Ms. Meyers :)
Love the post, Petersiks! I’m super pumped for Moving Week and seeing all the things you do to the new house! Enjoy!
Wendy @ New Moms Talk says
Awesome tips!
Most of our moves were Navy related, so it always took a different turn depending on where we were stationed or living.
Despite all of our moves, we never somehow made it to Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming. My folks decided to make the most of our non-Navy move out here and visited us for a Yellowstone and Tetons trip before we eventually move again.. (move number 62?)
This weekend we sifted through our hundreds of photos from the recent Yellowstone and Tetons trip to come up with a best of list-
http://www.newmomstalk.com/2013/06/03/yellowstone-and-the-grand-tetons-a-drive-through-version/
It boggles my mind that we live so close..for now!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome!
xo
s
Crystal Breen says
Hi guys! So glad to see you moved it if not unpacked! Your post couldn’t have come at a better time- my husband and I are meeting with our agents today to list our own home. We’ve only been here 6 months, but are making the leap from city life to big open land and a farmhouse!
It’s great to hear you didn’t strip down and reprint your house, we’re on the fence with doing it also. Wish us luck- my husband is grumbling already about having to repaint but after reading your experience with the paint gun we might try it ourselves. Are you going to use it on the walls?
YoungHouseLove says
We actually think we’ll roll the walls since it seems to work best on cabinet doors, furniture, doors, trim, and crown molding. Hope it helps!
xo
s
Debby says
We just bought the same paint gun to do our cabinet doors. We thought about our garage walls. Would you just roll it?
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah, I would, just because it seems better at more concentrated stuff (cabinet doors, furniture, trim, etc).
xo
s
Meredith says
Woot! Super excited for moving week, congrats guys!
Typo alert: “in tact” should be one word. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Meredith! All fixed!
xo
s
Manda Wolf says
Very exciting. You guys moved into your second house right around the time my hubby and I moved into our first. Reading these posts is really giving me the itch to move and start over again!
Courtney says
I love that you sell your house with your life still a big part of it! I think the whole ‘strip down the personality, paint the walls’ approach is over rated, in fact we chose not to buy houses based on that just because it was harder to envision our things in! Glad you sold it in 3 viewings!
Constance says
I’m geting flashbacks of your 1st den with that awesome brick fireplace wall. SO excited to see more (and more and more). Happy unpacking!
YoungHouseLove says
Us too! That was our favorite room ever (so cozy, we missed it the most!) so we’re so glad to be back in a smaller living space – and Karl is going to get a little reconfiguring to fit…
xo
s
Amy says
Love the informative post! Congrats on the new house!
Lesley@ChaoticallyCreative says
I do not envy you! But Congratulations and I look forward to all your new posts and new DIYS.
jenn says
woohoo! i love the move in day clutter! it’s so exciting :D
Kelly says
We moved Mother’s Day weekend and are still working on getting settled in with everything. Seeing your pictures today made me feel better about the progress we have made. I actually, for some unknown reason, thought you would be completely settled in with everything put away. You have given me new motivation to finish settling in to our new home. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, it takes us months to get settled! I think we still had some boxes to unpack at least a few months into our move last time, so we figure it’ll take a while to find a spot for everything and make sense of the new storage/two floors situation :)
xo
s
Molly S. says
After you made the (super awesome) flyer, what did you two do with it? Was it posted around town or mailed to real estate companies in the area?
YoungHouseLove says
We put it out on the island in the kitchen so buyers had all the house details. We planned to list our house on MLS and Craigslist but a few local realtors contacted us to see it (one knew we were going to list it this spring because she was our buyers agent for our new house and one actually read the blog post about selling it and stuck a letter in our mailbox!).
xo
s
Katherine says
So smart that you put Clara’s things in place first. It really helps children to feel the excitement and settled all at the same time.
Enjoy the process of unsettled to settled. It’s all a part of the experience.
Stacey says
I know nothing is permanant yet, but I am LOVING that rug in the living room of the new house this time! It looks great in there!
Jodie says
YES!!! I thought the same thing!
Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says
Thanks for sharing that stuff. I was curious about that too.
As far as tips, from a buyers perspective…people with cats…PLEASE don’t leave them there or their dirty litter box stinkin’ up the place. My Mr is allergic and nothing makes us turn tail out of a house quicker than when his nose closes up and he can’t breathe. One we went to 3 months ago, 4 of us all had to leave because of the cat and that left one person left who could go through the open house.
While I am more partial to not seeing personal pics (more for privacy reasons), I must say it was quite interesting to see I was touring the home of a school bully (not mine) on an open house last year when I rounded the corner to see their mug hangin’ on the wall! LOL
Shannon K. says
I’ll second the cat thing. We are looking to buy right now and one of the houses we looked at had a room closed that we couldn’t even look at because the cats were being kept in there. It also smelled overwhelmingly ‘catty,’ which was a major turnoff.
We’re also looking to sell and I can’t decide on the painting. Our girls’ rooms are pretty obviously for children (bright, juvenile colors), they should probably be painted, right…? And our living room is a red color, which I know is not for everyone. Sigh. We should probably paint. I just don’t wanna.
Julianne says
Already starting to shape up nicely and feel like home! Clara is so cute….looking forward to seeing her grow up in your beautiful new digs. And thanks for the great posting on staging. It’ll come in handy in the next couple of months! :O)
Jen says
And just when I thought I couldn’t be more excited for today’s post, you go and expand it to “Moving Week”!! You guys are always the bright spot of my Monday morning. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of the week.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Jen! You’re so sweet.
xo
s
Debbie says
whenever we’ve ever sold a home, we’ve always made sure to put out a box of disposable booties (can be purchased at home stores)& put up a sign asking that shoes be removed or booties be placed over shoes.
Kathryn says
It sounds great from the sellers’ perspective. Who wants to clean up after a bunch of strangers have tromped through!?
But have to admit, as a buyer it would seem a little OTT, like I was visiting a crime scene versus a place that could be my home.
Sarah says
The sign is key! I toured a house with our agent the other day & didn’t notice the booties at the bottom of the stairs until we came back down the stairs! I felt terrible – but there was no sign. Oh and the booties were in a picnic basket, which I thought was weird & probably why I didn’t notice them.
Jess @ Crunchy Hot Mama says
That’s a great idea, Debbie! We don’t wear shoes in the house (grew up that way), and I love idea of offering booties so we don’t throw that rule out the window when we do decide to sell. Here’s to keeping our new and expensive carpets clean!
Karen says
I am so excited to see what you do with your new house. It has issues in it that I am currently facing with my own 1970’s spontaneous foreclosure purchase that I have no idea how to tackle yet. How exciting!
Krystle @ Color Transformed Family says
I really like your staging method. Depersonalizing and neutralizing everything would have probably made your house stay on the market longer. Your style and design sold yours so quickly. I can’t wait to hear more about the whole process!
Constance says
Another quick thought is that I think realtors advice “de-personalizing” a home by taking down photos, etc. b/c in most people are not that great at decorating and personal items on top of not amazing decorating is a double-dip into poor ambiance. BUT, with good, appealing and stylish decor, it a compliment, not a distraction to keep them.
Linda says
Very true, I think – also, the concept of making sure closets and cabinetry look organized, with room to spare, is very appealing to most people, as is the idea that everything looks clean and cared for. Re pets – well, some people are hypersensitive and/or truly allergic, true, but scooping a litter box twice a day, or vacuuming after doggie on a regular, will make most homes just fine to prospective buyers.
Certainly, a good pet parent is not going to evict a beloved pet for months on end during a sale (or worse, rehome), but a good pet parent also provides a very clean home for their pet in any event, sale or no sale. I knew going in that adopting my two cats might somewhat limit the pool of prospective buyers, but it’s all a balancing act between making a place your home, or just a place waiting to be sold again.
Honestly, if I thought a homeowner got rid of their pet just to sell their house, I’d turn and run no matter how appealing the house was – I figure it’s spiritually full of bad karma.
Mary P says
I agree Linda – I have a cat, but I don’t think my house smells like cat pee or has that much fur. I have two allergic friends who visit often, and they don’t have a problem. Regular brushing and cat box scooping do a lot! He “yells” at me if his box isn’t cleaned often – he runs out of it, looks at me, and meows in a mean tone. Clean it human! I was more worried about him getting out accidently during the selling process, more than anything.
Shelley Howard says
So, what you are going to do with that giant couch? I’m so excited to see this house turn into your new home! Enjoy!
YoungHouseLove says
He’s like a transformer, so we can reconfigure him to fit! At least that’s the plan. Will keep you posted…
xo
s
Alisa says
I am going to be watching this post like a hawk for any other suggestions that may pop up! I agree with not neutralizing any colors. Our house hasn’t sold/rented yet, but the biggest compliment we’ve been getting during showings is on our use of color. Most houses where we live have the same colors used as decor in everysingleroom and we like to use bright pops whenever possible. Here’s hoping it works for us as well as it did for you!
Katie says
I’m so excited for moving week! For some reason, I’ve always LOVED moving, when everyone else seems to dread it. I’m looking forward to all of these posts, but especially the photos of the old house emptied out, and our first glimpses of the new house with all your things in their new homes! So exciting!
-Katie at AdventuringAtHome
Jen. says
We didn’t have a new house already when we listed ours, and renting a storage unit was the best plan for us — totally worth it to declutter our smaller house while keeping things we knew we’d need in the bigger house we were looking for. Plus, the movers (we hired since we were moving 2 1/2 hours away) stopped and unloaded the storage unit for no extra charge.
Best wishes on your move! Can’t wait to read this week’s posts!
Kate says
Nice! Have you closed on the old house yet?
YoungHouseLove says
Very soon!
xo
s
Robin says
Oh it’s great that Clara transitioned to the new home and her room so easily … great planning and pre-work on your part! Thought of you moving this past weekend cause it was a hot one in Richmond and moving wouldn’t have necessarily been something I would have wanted to do in this weather! Hope you had everything in before the rain hit :) Welcome home guys! Robin
Liz Marie says
Love all these moving posts! We are making a big move from NC to MI next year and this is getting me ready for it. I hope everything goes smoothly for you this week :) :)
Elizabeth says
I made a move from NC to MI myself… the first time, all our stuff fit in a small moving truck. When we moved back to NC, we needed professional movers. Amazing what happens after 8 years and two kids, lol. But the movers said a lot of people were moving from MI to NC when we did.
Amy @ Woodlawn Lane says
I would really love to start doing the photo thing you do with Clara with my two kids, but I am having a heck of a time with the photoshop part! As she gets older and has more lumps and folds in her shirt, have y’all still just used the “multiply” method described in her pst at 12 weeks? Or could y’all do an updated post on how you currently make it look so realistic? That would be awesome and super helpful! Thanks!!!
YoungHouseLove says
It’s hard to really explain what we did to the number as she grew since our methods pretty much changed every time based on her pose/shirt wrinkles, but the best tip I can give you is that we always rasterized that text layer and then it was a flat image that we could manipulate (ex: we could use the distort tool to give it perspective, we could cut a slice off the edge and move it so it overlapped if that’s what the fabric was doing, etc). Hope it helps!
xo
s
Amy @ Woodlawn Lane says
I don’t see a reply button under yours so hopefully this will go in the right spot!
Thanks for answering, I was REALLY hoping you weren’t going to say you manipulate it by hand! lol I was hoping maybe their was some magic effect I hadn’t found yet that just made the image conform right to the photo layer! Ah well, thanks anyway!
Amy @ Woodlawn Lane says
Oh good grief…sorry to be a grammar loser like this, but I will die if I don’t correct that “their” to be “THERE”. My fingers have lost all grammar skills since having kids. I don’t know how that even happens.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, no worries! It happens to me too :)
xo
s
Johnny @ Our Freaking Budget says
That’s one fantastic looking For Sale flyer. And that’s coming from someone who collects those things. Well, sorta. I just can’t stop myself from grabbing them to see how realtors spin words to turn a people-might-have-been-murdered-in-there dump into a “Spacious, Natural, Warm Abode Needs a Dash of TLC.”
Congrats on the sale/move!
Jennifer Nardin says
Long-time lurker, first time posting. :)
Congratulations on your new home!!! The layout is absolutely fabulous & I am positive that it will give us (readers) many months/years of enjoyment reading about your hard work, laughable moments and blossoming home!!
thanks for this post in particular because my husband & I just signed a contract on a home & we need to sell our old one as fast as possible (of course!) Once the initial scampering is done, I’ll be using you two as my primary inspiration for fixing up our home & writing about it (for friends & family, not professionally, like you)
So please take this as encouragement (not creepy-cyber-stalker) that what you are doing brings joy and inspiration to your readers.
>>hugs to the whole family<<
~Jenn~
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, good luck Jenn! Hope it goes fast!
xo
s
alivicwil says
Can I just ask: what is “Equal Opportunity Housing”?
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a by-law requirement in our area so it’s on all of the fliers/listings, but it basically means that we won’t discriminate against anyone and all offers will be considered regardless of who they come from :)
xo
s
alivicwil says
Thanks!
I wondered if it was something like that but then wasn’t sure. (Here in NSW, we have an Anti-Discrimination Act, which would [should!] prevent anyone from discriminating on any grounds, so I guess we don’t need to explicitly state that we won’t.)
Hope the unpacking goes quickly and smoothly. We’ve been in our smaller-than-our-last-place rental for almost a year, and I’m too ashamed to tell you how many boxes we still have in the garage!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, we had those unpacked boxes in the basement here for months! Maybe even a year. Haha!
xo
s
Jennifer says
Just curious about the “Fireplace As Is” point on the flyer. Is that a local code issue or something?
YoungHouseLove says
That’s something many folks do in this area (it was on our flier when we bought the house so we put it on ours when we sold it). Essentially, it’s a non-functional fireplace so it basically means “don’t look up there in the inspection and say “it’ll cost $3,200 to get this running” and then ask for us to pay for that” – when you put as-is, everyone’s on the same page :)
xo
s
Kara says
Yeah, we had our fireplaces inspected recently and they’re deteriorated enough that it would take $5k of work to get them safe enough to burn wood again. Which is a bummer, but you definitely want to put that up front. If you advertise a house with a fireplace, people assume it’s usable unless you specify.
Our chimney inspector recommended installing unvented gas logs (which put off more heat while using less fuel compared to vented gas logs, though vented have bigger, prettier flames) for a couple hundred bucks and advertising the fireplaces as functional for gas logs only. But we’re not planning to sell right now, and I’d definitely run that by a realtor first.
YoungHouseLove says
Smart!
xo
s
Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says
All of your tips are spot on. I only recommend to some people to repaint to a neutral color if the colors they have chosen are pretty out there and off the wall (all black 1/2 bath? Talk about limiting takers!) Staging is super important and making sure the home is clean and presentable BEFORE taking the pics is important as well. I can’t tell you how many times house pics on the MLS that have literally had underwear hanging over the top of the shower stall have popped up and the buyers all go “Ewwww! Skip that one…” and won’t even waste their time going to look at the house. It just makes me smh as to what some people are thinking sometimes.
My best, Lynn
*yay “Moving Week”!
Kitty says
Oh man! The underwear thing happened to me.
I’d left my boyfriend-of-the-time to clean the house before the Estate Agent came to take photos, not entirely sure what he spent the time doing, but the next thing I know I have my Mum on the phone chewing me out because my underwear was drying on the radiators in the prominently displayed listing at the Estate Agents. I wanted the ground to swallow me up.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, I’m blushing for you Kitty!
xo
s
Hanna says
Mine wasn’t quite as bad, but I left first in the morning and told my husband what to do beore the listing agent came to take pics. Unfortunately I didn’t tell him NOT to hang is wet towel from his shower over the iron bedframe… why??? Why did he even take the towel out of the bathroom? I was too frustrated to even scold him lol.
Andrea Melberg Thompson says
I love your blog. I am so glad you are able to make a living off of it. I do NOT expect you to have time to answer, but it appears you opted to keep Clara’s crib in the new home her new room, rather then move her on to a bed. Could you talk about that decision at some point? It appeared her “new” room was fully functional at your “old” house, so what played into setting up the crib again(if I viewed the photo correctly)rather than moving on.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Andrea! Clara actually still sleeps in her crib (by choice) and the doc actually recommended to keep her in her crib (unless she put up a fight) during the move since it’s something she’s comfortable with and it’s a big adjustment for a child to move, so by keeping her sleeping spot the same, it seems to bring her comfort. As soon as she tells us she’s ready to move into her big girl bed, we’re 100% on board – but as of right now she still prefers her crib. So both her bed and her crib are in her new room and we’ll just have to see when she makes the switch :)
xo
s
Steph Nelson says
Does she climb in and out of the crib?? Just wondering? :)
YoungHouseLove says
Just climbs in, but has never climbed out. Which cracks us up because getting up there from the floor is the harder thing to do!
xo
s
Meagan {Green Motherhood} says
We just moved 2 months ago and that’s exactly what we did for Isla June. She knew her crib and felt safer in there so we kept it as consistent as possible for her which seemed to make the new house transition go much smoother.
She just started sleeping in her big bed in a different room and it’s gone seamlessly! She really got too big for the crib and was hitting the rails all night long; she sleeps so much better now!
Just saying, waiting till she’s ready worked so well for us!
YoungHouseLove says
So glad to hear that Meagan!
xo
s
Brandy says
I know nothing is staying where it is, but your master bedroom rug looks awesome in your current living area. I love moving clutter and I can’t wait to see what you mix up/sell/keep/upcycle! So exciting!
Julie says
I’m just curious what “Legal Description” is about, on the back of the flyer. Obviously, I don’t need to what it said, since you’ve censored it, but I don’t even know what the refers to — it’s nothing I’ve seen on listings up here in NY. Can you fill me in?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh that’s the coded “lot number” of our house (it gives away our location).
xo
s
Lesley says
The lot number is a requirement in Torpnto listings too, I think that it’s related to the land title and tax roll, more important than the street address in identifying properties.
Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says
Every piece of land has a legal description. It’s super easy to just look up any address if you only have the legal description because they are so unique. If it wasn’t censored for this post then goodbye privacy for the new owners of the old house because any of us readers could just plug it into the appraisers website and before you can say “Bob’s your uncle!” you’ve got the physical address to the house. I’m a Realtor in FL and every home down here has a legal description as well.
Julie says
Got it, thanks!
Jenny says
Love this post…takes me back to when we sold our townhouse in Rockville, MD 3 years ago. The realtor hired a staging professional to come through and (among other things) she told us to clear our kitchen countertops of everything except a coffeepot, a plant and a bowl of fruit. When we looked at sales flyers for other houses in the neighborhood their countertops looked exactly the same, right down to the bowl of fruit. Guess all the realtors for that neighborhood hired the same stager!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s funny!
xo
s
Sarah says
That’s good advice though huh? Makes it look like someone lives there AND that there’s TONS of storage space and counter space. Filing that tip away for some day down the line. :)
Anu says
Hi,
busy week you must have had! but now you can unwind at your own pace. btw did you have to goback & clean the other house after you guys moved out like bathroom, kitchen usage ? I always wonder if I’d have to remove the stain from someplace, if any etc.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we’re still doing that since closing is a few days off. It’s not too bad once the house is empty :)
xo
s
bryanna says
AAAH! SO EXCITED! I can’t wait to read everything this week and then see everything you do with your new house!! It is GORGEOUS and has so much potential!
We are just renters living in a place with a COL high enough to keep us renters for a good long while so I’m totally living vicariously through you guys. Your style is SO similar to mine. I love how happy Clara is in her new home.
I’ve said it before and I guess I’ll be the creeper saying it again… I would love to copy your house completely and move right in. the last two and I bet I’ll feel the same about the third. I liked your second home better and I bet I’ll like this one even more as you work on it. Although, my most favorite part is how you two have turned home DIY into a full time career. Coolest job ever. Clara will win career day when you guys show up ha!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Bryanna!
xo
s
Lindsay Osborne says
Congrats on the new place! Would you be able to include in these moving posts the things you left behind (like the curtains you mentioned), if anything vs. what you took with you?
Can’t wait to see what this place has in store!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we’ll list that out on the post with the empty pics of our house (some things will be obvious since they’ll be in the pics :)
xo
s
Amy @ Woodlawn Lane says
And now for a comment relevant to today’s post, we just sold our house too, and didn’t “depersonalize” either! I didn’t have a TON of personal photos out in the first place, but there were a couple of small galleries in various rooms. I think that rule of thumb is more a blanket, politically correct statement so that all the 80’s country farm style decor have-ers don’t feel bad when their realtors tell them to ditch all that ugly stuff! That style is notorious for having way too many cluttered tchotchkes!
Love this post, it’s so fun to see what other people do to sell their houses when you’ve recently been in the tenches yourself!
Juli says
My mom’s favorite trick to help sell a house was to keep a batch of chocolate-chip cookie dough in the fridge. Right before a house showing, she would bake just 6 or so, and the whole house smelled wonderful when the prospective buyers came in.
YoungHouseLove says
Love that!
xo
s
Jen E. says
Um ok, I know I’m weird, but I think that would have the opposite of the intended effect for me. If I walked in and the whole house smelled like cookies–yet there were no delicious cookies for me to eat?!?!–I think I would be agitated through the whole showing. In fact, I would probably have to leave quickly so I could stop at a bakery on the way to the next showing.
Hi, my name is Jenny and I am a cookie monster.
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahaha!
xo
s
Sayward says
Jen E – that is HILARIOUS!!! I thought the exact same thing. I’d be wandering the house like a Pavlov dog drooling and just HOPING the warm cookies were about to show up. Then when I finally accepted that there were none, I’d get angry and feel tricked and march out all indignant, and then then run into the nearest bakery all manic and distraught demanding cookies.
Courtney says
When I first toured my house, there was a plate of cookies on the table for prospective buyers. I won’t say it’s the reason I bought the house, but those cookies were pretty delicious…
Steph says
I am so super excited about this it’s not even funny.
I bought my house as a foreclosure and there was nothing in it. NOTHING. There wasn’t even a fridge. It certainly made it hard to envision anything in it.
Also, don’t tell my mom, but I’ve been in my place for a year and there’s 2 boxes I haven’t unpacked. Shhh..
Manda Wolf says
That’s how ours was. A complete fixer upper foreclosure no furniture, no fridge and we found out once we bought it hardly any working plumbing. That was almost three years ago and I there are still boxes in our spare bedroom we have yet to unpack.
Steph says
This makes me feel better. LOL thanks.
It wasn’t even really a fixer upper. I had to get some plumbing corrected and the place cleaned but it was pretty much move in. My mom constantly tells me to unpack those 2 boxes but I just…can’t. They’re things like mirrors and pictures. I haven’t gotten there yet.
Amanda B. says
I am sure you all are super busy unpacking and cleaning, but the bear ad showed up again! He slightly panicked me coming out of your living room photo. It is for British Columbia tourism and the URL when I cliked on the ad is:
http://www.100bcmoments.com/nature-wildlife/?utm_campaign=ss2013connect&utm_medium=floating&utm_source=casale_california&utm_content=floating_bear&utm_term=heavy_international_travel
Good luck with blocking it and unpacking!
YoungHouseLove says
ARGH!!!! That dang bear. I’m going to spray paint him white when I get him.
* to anyone not up on this bear issue, we have been trying to block that ad for around a week and he keeps slipping through. GRR!
xo
s
Kim@NewlyWoodwards says
I love your sales flyer – such personality and I can see that it would really attract buyers. I also love your take on “depersonalizing.” I subscribe to a similar mentality myself.
Maureen says
I am so excited to follow you guys on this journey! I have a 1956 Cape Cod and always feel like there is something to do. Seeing you guys start from scratch makes me feel less overwhelmed. lol
Love how cozy that living room is!!!
Melanie says
So happy sad about leaving your house! It’s really inspiring to see you guys start with a home that needs lots of love and transform it into something that screams John-and-Sherry-(and-Clara-and-Burger).
Did you guys happen to leave a hidden time capsule letter in your house or backyard like you did with your very first house? :)
YoungHouseLove says
We haven’t quite closed on our house yet, so we want to find the perfect place to slip one in before we go!
xo
s
Lesley says
Oh the possibilities….
Since it doesn’t take much time or money to paint/repaint. Are you considering painting any rooms that are slated for larger renovations, but are currently a total mismatch for your decor, so that it looks a little nicer in the interim? Or does leaving it motivate you more to ‘get on that’?
YoungHouseLove says
We can’t wait to paint, but downstairs we have lots of wallpaper to strips first! We usually just paint rooms as we go. I think it takes us about 2-3 years to get them all done, so we don’t do anything speedy like paint them all white while we think about long-term colors. It’s more like we go from room to room and once we have a clear “direction” for the color we’ll jump on it whenever we have the energy. And sometimes we choose things like art/rug/curtains first and base the wall color off of that :)
xo
s