Just Because

I feel like someone out there needs to know this today. You are beautiful to God and you are loved. Whatever you are going through or have been through, whatever you have done in your life, nothing can ever change the way He feels about you. Know that the trials that come to each of us are used to refine our character into the character of God. He allows it because He loves us and wants His very best for us.
May you be blessed today and may you know how beautiful you are to Him,
right now, just as you are.

Staging part 3

Lets continue our staging series today by cleaning up.
Cleaning out closets and cupboards so they are well organized and not stuffed is a great palce to start. Consider actually putting part of your clothing and other items in storage if your closets are stuffed to the brim. Not only will you feel better, the closets will feel more spacious. A definite plus when selling your home. Take time to clean out and declutter bathroom and kitchen drawers too. Don't forget to scub all drawers and cupboards on the inside and out.
To create a home that appeals to many different buyers, a sense of detachment needs to take place. While we want to surround ourselves with the things we love, buyers may not be able to see our home through our "stuff". A Stager can wander through objectively and tell you things that you need to pack away and what can stay. You'll be packing soon anyway, so think of this as a head start. A Stager is not attached to you stuff. She can take the emotion out of the stuff and focus on what is best to create a space a potential buyer will love. For example a collection of coffee mugs on every nook, niche or cranny, may not be a good use of the space or a great selling point for your spaces. She would suggest packing them up. She may even suggest packing up some of the furniture to make a room feel larger as well. Remember that how you live in your home and how you sell your house are two entirely different things. The goal here is to create a "show home" of sorts.
Can you do this yourself ? Most of us can't
One reason is this. We don't see our home the way an outsider might. Let me give you an example. When we first moved into our home many years ago, I wandered through it with a very critcal eye. Places where the texture was too heavy, or the carpet could have been seemed better, etc. really bothered me. Do you know I never see those things now. We become blind to
many things like that in living our lives each day. We may not see the things that need "fixing" the way a stager might.
To be continued...

Baby Nursery paint project

We had a great weekend with Tiffany and Ryan.
The nursery is painted and the furniture is assembled in anticipation of Grandbaby number one in April.
Although we still have some decorating to do, The painting is done!!
What a project that was. TIffany wanted to do a tone on tone stripe sort of thing. This sounded great in theroy but to actually do it caused a lot of laughs and a few late nights. Not to mention a bit of frustration for these two perfectionist women. The stipes of course had to be even all around the room, so measuring to precision was of the utmost importance ugh!!
I must say it turned out beautifully. Would I stripe a room again hmm... maybe after a lot of time goes by.







Linking up to:

Mother Daughter Time

Off for a few days out of town to help our daughter Tiffany paint the nursery for our first grandchild due in April
I'll take some pictures to share and I will continue the staging series next week.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Staging series part 2

Welcome back to my series on staging your home to sell (or to stay in if you choose.)
The first thing you may wonder is "why do I need to hire a stager, I can do this myself". While it may be true that some of us can do it ourselves, most of us are way too attached to our homes to see them with an objective eye. Enter Home Stager: She starts the process of "packaging" your home properly to get the most earning potential.
The first thing she may do is go through room by room and assess what needs to be done. Do the carpets need cleaning? windows need washin? Does the home need painting? Do light fixtures need updated?. These are things that you can do to start the process of preparing to sell or just give a fresh look to the home you live in. The stager is available and will give you suggestions on paint color and lighting options to give your home optimum selling power.
We will be talking more in the days to come about the staging process and what to do next to get your home SOLD!

On a different note:
I have been told by several that my blog is not updating in their readers or blog rolls. I get a "parsing error" and have tried several things to try to fix it as far as I can tell it is still not working. I am kind of techno challenged so I am open to any suggestions or help to get this fixed.