Artwork over the fireplace.

The Home Stager suggested a larger piece of artwork over our fireplace and I agreed with her.  So I decided to borrow the painting below from our dd.  She "won" it at The Drawing for Art event that we go too every year.  It looks gorgeous there, but as it's an original piece of art which is probably worth a few hundred dollars I am concerned with the heat coming off the fireplace and worried about the soot from the fireplace making it dirty.  So we decided to go out and see if we can get something similar.

 

Last weekend we saw this print and the colours were right.  However when we got it home it was much too big.  So we took it back yesterday.

We ended up buying this one instead.

The price was right at $39.99 and it is the right colour.  Dh is taking down the light fixture; that too was suggested by the Home Stager.

One question that was asked yesterday was are we moving closer to the kids.  Dd, hubby and Miss Nora, live around 90 minutes from us, we are moving around 10 minutes closer to them.  We do not want to live in the area they live and there is a possibility that dd hubby's work location may move to the west of the city.  

 

Our son lives around 40 minutes from us, again that will be cut by around 10 minutes.  Our little Princess and her family will be around another 10 to 15 minutes further away, so it will probably take us around 75 minutes to get to their house.  Also on a positive note, dh's commute will also be 10 minutes shorter.  It takes him a full hour to get to work.

 

By the way this weather sucks....just thought I'd mention that.

Dining Room photos.......

Immediately to the right when you come in through the front door of our house is a room that would have been used as a parlour or front sitting room when the house was first built.  Over the years this room has been used for a number of things, including a parlour, dining room, office and bedroom.  When the home stager came through the house she suggested turning it back into a formal dining room.  Which is what we have done.  The door is called a Dutch Door and is pretty common around here.

Although there wasn't much to do in this room other than, repair some plaster work, paint and do a little prep on the floor.

I hung the sunset and sunrise photos in this room.

As you can see in this photo there is another door in the room.

It's a pocket door which leads into the main floor bathroom.  One of the prior owners couldn't manage the stairs so they turned the parlour into a bedroom and made the room behind it a bathroom.

We had the mirror on the table in the bathroom.  It was much too small so the home stager suggested using it as a mirrored tray on the table.  Which believe me it's a lot cheaper than buying an actual mirrored tray.  So if you have an old mirror hanging about put it in the middle of the dining room table with some candlesticks on it.

We had to buy a table and four chairs which cost us $226.  Luckily we had another couple of chairs hanging about which go well.  The other major expense is we were missing around 16 feet of baseboard.  No idea what the prior owners had done with it?  The problem is this is not just any old baseboard.  The baseboard is over 14 inches high and comprised of three pieces to make up the height.  We have ordered it from the guy who redid the kitchen and it has been a challenge for them to make it.  We should be getting it back this week; I dread though to think how much it's going to cost.  Anyone with a carpentry background will know how labour intensive this would be to make.

One of the joys of this house are the deep windows we have all over the older part of the house.  This room is also cool so cyclamens grow like mad and do well in this room.

I am not sure how much more has to be declutttered from this room?  Also not sure if I should set the table to look as though we are ready for afternoon tea?

Photos need opinions.....

First the before photo of our bedside lamp (dh has the matching one on his side)

 

 This is the after photo, I like it and it's big enough, although the stager  said to put a couple of hardback books underneath them to make them higher?

 The girly things I picked up for the spare bedroom.  The stager want's a white flower in the vase.  I am not a fan of the vase so may take it back.  The white thing is a jewelry holder and I think I would be able to use that in our next home and the little Scottie dog is cute.  The stager liked all items.

 The mirror in the bathroom I think needs to be bigger and dh says another colour.  What do you think?  The white things on the corners are the packing as I haven't removed any of the packing so I can take it back if I want to.

Got the back splash in the kitchen tiled yesterday, today is grouting day which neither me nor dh like, but the sooner it is done the sooner it is over with!!

More about moving.....

A couple of you have been asking why we are moving.  I wrote about it in this post.

I know I was whining about the home stager yesterday and am still not 100% happy but I am coming to terms with all the ideas and what needs to be done.  Dh however is still very stressed at getting all the jobs done in time.  I do think it will all be completed in time it's just going to be work, work, work until the house is ready to put on the market.

The very first sentence of the Home Staging book she left say:

"Staging is always less then the first price reduction."

That is oh so true.  The one reason we need to stage this house as we have a country property and it's not as easy to sell a country property.  At one time you had to bargain on having your house on the market for up to a year or two.  We're hoping it will be on the market three months at the most with having this lady stage our house.  She seems confident it will be sold in that time frame.

I did go out on Tuesday and look around a couple of stores for things I need to purchase, but other than the paint for the stairs I got nothing.  However dd called and we talked through everything we need and she is going to lend me her Sophie Conran Portmeirion white pieces so that will be good.

We need to purchase a dining room set as we are making the "parlour" into a formal dining room.  I found a set on Kijiji that I am going to follow up on.  It's on for $250, has nice lines and will fit the period of the house fine, but hoping to only pay $150 at the most for it.

Our kitchen table is 8 feet long and too big for the room, but suits us fine and I want to take it with us when we move.  So have spoken to the people who did our kitchen and they think they can cut it down and use what they cut out to make leaves in the table.  We also need 16 feet of custom baseboard/skirting board made for the parlour/dining room, as some is missing, so they are making that also.

We fortunately have nice art work, so that isn't an issue.  Everyone who has been through the house these past few days have commented on that and the lights in the kitchen.

We are on tiling the back splash, as as soon as that is done and I have re-painted the bloody kitchen walls again I will take photos of it all finished.

So that is where we are at, at the moment with the house prep.  

Very, very overwhelmed....

We had a home stager come through the house yesterday, and she was a whirlwind of a woman.  She did write things down but not everything and by the time she got to the family room, she had gone through the rest of the main floor, my poor head was pounding.  So I said I will not be able to remember all of this, how much do you cost per hour to come in when we get the photos done.  She costs $125 an hour and would probably be here all morning {SIGH}

HOWEVER, she is one of the best around and when she stages houses they sell.  I had to laugh though I am re-painting the bloody kitchen again as she didn't like the colour I have painted it, just like dh; it makes the kitchen too cold looking she says?  I will also be painting the mud room and the living room the same colour; Benjamin Moore Fogmist OC31

So I need to go shopping for odds and ends that she wants either changed out, replaced or added.  I will say she recommended Wal-Mart, Homesense and Giant Tiger for everything.  Her vision was great and what she has in mind was good, but how on earth we are supposed to live here is beyond me while we sell the place.  Also we have a lot of work to do in such a short time as we hope to have it on the market by mid-February, depending on the weather.

I will write another post about putting a house up for sale and especially a country property like ours, as it is a totally different kettle of fish from selling a house in the city.  Dh and I need to sit down and go over everything and decide a plan of action as neither of us could even be bothered to talk after she had left last night.

Should say the real estate agent paid for yesterday's appointment, not sure if she will pay for her to come in before the photos are taken?

Enough of selling the house, lets here a bit of Christmas music.  I hadn't heard this Celine Dian version of this song before, enjoy: