Archive for October, 2011

An Autumn Potpourri… (Which sounds way classier than “Completely Chaotic Blog Post”)

OK, yes– I am aware that every single breathless detail of our upcoming (hopefully soon, dear God) adventures in selling this house and moving into another one do not necessarily make for riveting blog fodder.

I know that.

But hey, that’s what my life is currently consumed with, so please indulge me for just a bit, m’kay? If you are nice about it, I might just have Charlotte make you a buttermilk pie… (Aside: Charlotte made her first buttermilk pie ever this week, and it was absolutely perfect. Seriously. On every level. Creamy and custard-y? Check. Top browned to a pale golden color? Check. Smooth, tangy and faintly rendolent of pure vanilla? Check. Ate the whole thing in less than 48 hours? DANG RIGHT.) Want the recipe?

But I digress.

Things around Chez Taff have been in a constant state of motion this week. We’ve been getting this house ready to list, while simultaneously working on all of the financing stuff and preparing an offer for the one we have our beady little eyes on in Columbia. Mostly I’ve been busy with ‘freshening up’ our front porch entry area– which is real estate talk for repainting the front door and trim and borrowing a set of really cute planters from Lynne, my friend/realtor/chicken purse owner.

Wanna see?

**Before…

**Meh. Annnnd After:

Good, right? And how cute are those little punkinhead guys with the pansies for hair?!

**Close-up:

(Buy my house and I’ll get Lynne to throw them in.)

We had an actual professional-type person come video the house and take photos for the MLS listing, and if you could have seen all of the running around and shoving stuff out of sight that went on at the last minute, you would have lost all respect for me laughed your head off! So basically the house looked all picture perfect and clutter-free while the closets kinda looked more like this:

Anyway, my task this weekend is to paint the garage doors, and then start trying to empty the closets and storage areas. Apparently it’s not good form when showing a house to throw yourself dramatically in front of your closet door and scream, “DON”T LOOK IN THERE! Take my word for it, we have really nice spacious closets. With built-ins. Just try to picture it in your imagination… BUT DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!!!” So, I think we’re going to have one of those POD thingys delivered to our driveway and rent a backhoe start boxing up all of the closet stuff. And then have the mother of all garage sales.

Well, that’s about it from around here. Russ conveniently took off for Myrtle Beach just in time to miss the Great Closet Clean-out of 2011, bless him– but I have a sneaking suspicion there will still be plenty of things left to do when he gets back…

So, what do YOU guys have going this weekend?

I Ache All Over and I Think I Inhaled Too Much Bleach Cleaner

Ok, so today? A realtor came to look at my house.

Told you I was thinking about that whole ‘move to the country’ thing– apparently it was more than just a passing thought! We’re not on the market yet, but this was kind of a sneak preview. Basically it was preceded by about 24 hours of non-stop housecleaning and decluttering, which in the end, came down to a last minute flurry of running around the house like a crazy person lighting candles and stuffing things into closets (they PROMISED me they wouldn’t look in the closets) and then calmly opening the door and saying with a big smile, “Hi! Please come on in…” And I didn’t just wear myself out. I may or may not have killed Russ and Charlotte, too. We flat-out CLEANED THE DANG HOUSE, people. Russ has been soaking in a hot tub for about an hour now, and Charlo is making noises about going to bed– and it’s only 7:30! But in the end, it was worth it. The house got rave reviews, and we are probably going to list it soon. I’m gonna need a little bit of time, though because apparently when *real* potential  buyers look at a house they kind of want to look in the closets. And the storage areas. So we have a LOT OF work ahead of us, and a driveway POD in our future.

Which brings me to…. a question for you!

My family and I want to try out life in a smaller town– what life change do YOU daydream about? Moving to Europe? Another state? Big city? Living downtown in a high rise, or out in the country on a farm? Historical property or brand new construction? The mountains? The beach? Cabin in the woods? WHAT???

Tell me all about it– I’m curious!

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