Perfectly At Home - Part 1 Walking the Walk

I sat in my living room one afternoon after I’d worked with Just Perfect for a while, looked around, and started to think about all the changes, improvements and updates we would have to make before putting our house on the market. We’re not interested in selling right now, but it occurred to me that a LOT of work would have to be put into to prepping our house for sale. That’s not to say I don’t like our home and its décor. I do. I love it actually. I designed and decorated every inch, so it stands to reason that I would think it’s fabulous. (Let me also say that while I totally love it, nothing is ever truly “done” in my mind. Every project is a work in progress and nothing is ever truly finished. Things can always be better. Time and money often get in the way of my masterpieces, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have big plans swimming around in my head.) Just like any first time homeowners, we were eager to finally have a place we could customize and upgrade to our liking. We (and by we, I mean I) painted every room with bold, cozy colors and found unique ways to display a lot of firefighter memorabilia. We really made it ours. It’s great for us, but I’d be a little naïve to think that because we love it and get lots of compliments on it, that any potential buyer who walked into it would not be intimidated by the brick red living room and stone colored kitchen.

I’m getting off track a little, so back to my original agenda. It occurred to me that even though we aren’t thinking about selling, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start a list of projects I know will need to be done when that time comes. I think a lot of homeowners feel overwhelmed when they realize how much work is needed to get the house “ready” for market. I think they also probably throw their hands up in the air and decide lowering the price is more convenient that doing the mountain of work. I can certainly understand that. Given my profession, however, and the need I feel to “walk the walk”, I have decided to make a list of to-do’s and slowly but surely get this house in great shape so when we do decide to sell, we can hit the ground running and really get the most out of our investment. And ultimately that’s what a home is. An investment. We attach sentimentality to our homes and will always associate them with great memories and times in our lives, but when it comes time to sell, those feelings must be put in a scrapbook or photo box and shelved until the deed is done. Once you decide to sell your home, you can no longer think of it as your home. It’s a product. A commodity. A means to an end so you can move into that next stage of your life. It’s time to make your home look like a model home. A home that sells quickly and for top dollar is a home that’s warm and inviting, universally appealing and most importantly move-in ready.

I thought to myself, what better way to really “sell” the concepts behind staging than to invite readers along for, at least what could be, their side of the process. See the before’s and after’s of a real person’s home, laugh at the struggles and frustrations, gasp at the expense of replacing a few planks of hardwood floor that her dog chewed during the puppy stage. I’m not a super handy person. I don’t have years of expertise in home improvements. I’m actually more of a teller, than a do-er. I tell my husband what I want and he does it. Or he looks at me like I ate a crazy sandwich for lunch and says we’ll hire someone else to do it. I don’t flip houses for a living, have an inside track to the best contractors or a hookup at the local hardware store. I’m a first time homeowner getting her home ready for sale and I’d like to invite you to join me on this journey. If nothing else, it should be entertaining.