Dining Room…After
Dining Room…..Before
Getting the old dirty brown shag carpet out of the house and having the new carpet installed was probably the most important update I did to try to get people to consider buying my dad’s house in such a sluggish market. But the second most important thing was to paint the house. We had to not only paint the walls and trim but also the ceilings. The walls were literally yellow with nicotine from many years of four people smoking day in and day out. Some walls and trim I had to wash to remove the yellow. But some of the walls we were able to paint with Kilz.
Living Room….Before
Living Room ….After
Kitchen Cabinet and Floor….Before
Kitchen Cabinet and Floor…..After
Kitchen…Newly Painted, Cabinets treated with spray on wood finished. New Lineolum.
Not quite done with painting.
New curtains, paint, painted windowsill and caulk. Still need to line the cabinets.
Ready for new stove.
Bedroom…Before
Bedroom….After.
Bedroom….Before
Bedroom…After
Bathroom…not quite finished.. Added curtains and shower curtain to emphasize blue in the tile. Still need to paint ceiling, gas stove, and repair broken tiles.
Hallway….Newly painted..new switch plates. You can see the contrast with the ceiling. Jacob hadn't done that yet. He was so good to paint ceilings for us and hang blinds.
We have had the house treated for termites and pests and have a year’s contract on maintenance for both. The foundation is repaired and the plumbing is now sound. The kitchen floor and cabinets are now repaired too. And I set up a timer to run the sprinkler on the front yard at 8pm every other evening. It had been dying due to lack of water.
Next week, we will go back and cut down the dead tree in the front yard and finish the bathroom and paint the garage door.
Will it work? I certainly hope so! I will say that of the five different groups who came into the house to repair it or treat it, two said, “Nice house! How much is it?” And one guy said that if it was still on the market in three months..he’d buy it. If termite guys, plumbers, and repairmen are ready to buy it, I think we have a really good chance of selling it now!
We are all so tired..but it was worth every bit of effort we put into it. I hope to have good news once the realtor takes the new pictures and lists all the repairs and improvements we’ve done.
Dad had written a list of all the home repairs he wanted to get done written on a yellow piece of paper pinned to the bulletin board in the kitchen. On it were all the items I did with the kids this week. He left me money to do exactly that. That last month of his life he expressed concern that the house wouldn’t sell if those things didn’t get done.
All the while we were working, I kept thinking how very happy he would have been to see his parents’ home look so beautiful, clean, and updated. He only lived there 3 years and I’m certain it was the cancer that caused his continual anemia that made him so tired that he couldn’t do the work he wanted.
Today his house is everything he dreamed of. If he could see it now..I know he’d be smiling. Have you ever had to get a house ready to sell? What helped the most?
Happy Homemaking!
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