This is So Moving......

and by "this", I mean "me and my family". Hopefully. In the near future. Because this party of five is not meant to stay in a 1200 square foot house. Yes, we've done A LOT of work on this house. Yes, we've done two additions (garage and family room). And no, we're not finished with everything that needs to be done before you put a house on the market. But Tim and I agree that we're busting at the seams, our neighbors are too close for comfort, and we would like a little more privacy and a lot more land. So the prep work has begun! Tim is busy finishing up the electrical in the garage so that we can get that final inspection done next week. Also on his "honey do now" list? Replace all bedroom doors with six-paneled doors (they are hollow core right now, and very dated) and build a deck off the back of the house where we put sliding glass doors into the addition. We thought about just doing a landing and stairs into the back yard, but a deck would look soooo much better and probably help sell the house. So we scrapped the plans to do the Trex deck that we would have built if we stayed, and we're doing the basic weather-treated wood 10 x 12 deck.

My list is just as long but involved the inside instead of outside. I have been packing up all the rooms so that the house "shows bigger". I've been a little obsessed with staging websites, and I think I have all the tricks of trade in place! We took half of our kitchen belongings out of the cabinets, packed up the kids' rooms, cleared out linen closets, etc. Take a look at our progress below! Hopefully we will have more updated photos in the next week so you can see how far we've come!

The cleared out living room entrance. Removed a white bookcase and fixed scratches in hardwood floors. Don't worry, cozy coupe will be packed up soon too!

kitchen table needs to be cleared off with jackets in the closet, but it's baby steps around here!

Garrett's room: took down his border, packed up toys (hence the boxes in the middle of the room), cleaned up desk and bought a new chair cushion, bought new bed set. Still gotta paint, clean, and clear out!

Caroline wanted to get in the shot!

Master bedroom: turkey is getting put into storage, new bed linens, computer is going into storage, desk chair will be gone, new paint job

Finally, a finished project! Built in bookcase next to kitchen--I took out all family photos, cleared out Timmy's junk from work, packed up my million cook books (left out a few for the top shelf), and wiped it all down.

This was a BIG job! Cleared out sooooo many books and knick knacks from the built in bookcases in the living room. Left books sorted by color, added a few baskets and tasteful pictures (nature scenes, not babies!), and wiped everything down.

Other side of bookcase.

A view of bookcase and fire place.

Snowball looks concerned, and rightly so. Cats do not sell houses! Their food bowls and litter boxes are a big NO NO. So Snowball and Buttercup are being packed up for a visit to Cammy's house. The kids and I are headed to Virginia Beach with cats in tow the last weekend of February.

Who knew there were so many shades of "tan neutral" in this world??? We ended up going with "A Beautiful Beige" from the Better Homes and Gardens collection. It was a nice warm beige that looks amazing with white trim. All three bedrooms and the hallway will get a new coat of paint, along with white trim for the bedrooms. I will be very busy in the upcoming weeks!

Organized and cleaned out spice cabinet. It's amazing how much junk I let pile up!

Packed up all kids' plates, plastic bowls, etc. and left the organized and matching dinnerware.

Corner cabinet--only left rectangular baking dishes and set of mixing bowls. Looks huge in there now!

Cup cabinet. Left matching coffee cups with handles all pointed in same direction (this was on staging website), and matching glassware. Everything is white, blue, clear and green except for my beloved Virginia Tech cups! They stick out like a sore thumb!

A cleaned off fridge--so white and boring :) I know everyone loves stainless steel, but my fridge is AWESOME (huge and french doors and freezer on bottom) and very new! So it's staying! And it matches the dishwasher and microwave (all are Whirlpool gold). Figured it was more important to have matching and new than stainless steel. We scrubbed out the fridge too and organized the food--apparently house hunters like to look in fridges???