Looks like home

The house has felt like home since the first night. But finally, this week, it's starting to look like home - from the outside.

Despite the fact that it's mid April, the temperatures have felt more like early March. There have been a few false starts to spring, and one day of full-on summer on Saturday, which is when I got most of the planters for the front patio potted up and in place. It's raining again today, and chilly, but I did two more pots and got them out front so they could get nicely watered in.

Things to do: get an outdoor faucet installed.  The lack of one might explain the ratty condition of the lawn, which won't be around much longer. At some point, I'm going to install a rain barrel, but right now I would like to actually be able to turn on a faucet and have water come out.

In old house news, it went on the market two weeks ago and I got several offers. I picked one, she had the house inspected and found no major monsters in the basement, so it looks like things are moving forward and soon I will only have one house on my plate. That will feel good.

End of an era

The house went up on the MLS yesterday, and the sign went up this morning.

It's still mine, but it no longer feels like mine.

Space

Bedroom. The floors never looked that good.

The emptying of the old house is somehow still going on.

My advice to you: declutter now, so you don't have to do it later.

I actually admitted defeat and hired my local thrift store to come in and empty the attic and basement. Whatever they couldn't use, they would take to the dump.

Living room. So much brighter without
curtains. Shame there are neighbors
4 feet away.

I assumed, wrongly, that all the contents of my house were of such high quality that they would dispose of very little.  And then I saw the dump receipt.

They removed a TON of stuff. Literally a ton.

I'm dizzy at the idea, even knowing that about 200 lbs. of it was my big wooden conference table that I used in the workroom.  (They said it had limited resale because of its ginormous size, and also they didn't have a place to store it).

Even then, I had to get a scrap metal guy to come in and remove the old dryer, 50 year old hot water heater, and an old oil tank.  The last 2 had been in the basement when I bought the house,but as my realtor just told me,"It's not 2000 anymore; standards are higher."

Which means, apparently, a clean basement. And attic. And floors. And rooms that no longer even faintly smell of cat.  I found a cleaning product at the dollar store that did everything. It's recommended for use in "public bathrooms and animal quarters," so I figured it would shine floors and alleviate minor cat funk in a few corners.

It certainly did that. The smell of the cleaning product was so strong it clung to my clothes, and the house smelled like a roofing truck drove into a bar.  The smell faded after a few days. Thankfully.

Kitchen.  It hurts to leave those
cabinets behind. But they're so
perfect in that space.

Every time we go back, I think we're done. And every time we leave, we say, "Just one more day should do it."

This time, I think we're right.

Workroom. The table took up
almost the entire space.

*** In case anyone wants to look up the cat-odor-defeating product, it's called Creolina.  Here's a link, but there's a good chance you can find it locally.  Try your nearest dollar store and work out from there.