Open House

So, we officially placed our condo on the market this past week. After some thought and prayer, we decided that selling would be the right choice for us. So, I’ve been busy busy busy attempting to organize every corner of the house for the past two weeks or so. I recall a time not so long ago when we were amazed by all the storage room we had in our little condo! Unfortunately that is not the case any longer. In an effort to protect any potential buyers from being injured from junk falling out of nearly every closet in the house, I decided to reserve a storage unit nearby and relocate our extra stuff for the time being (plus, I’ve gathered from HGTV that closets stuffed to the brim suggest a definite lack of adequate storage when selling). It took two trips in both cars to transport all of our things, but now our closets look great! Plus, no more fold-away gym in our bedroom or extra couch occupying valuable space in our extra bedroom. Sadly, Penny had to part with the beloved cat tree (just temporarily- somehow I don’t envision the monstrous-sized cat tree making the best impression). Even with our extra junk safely stored away, it’s been a challenge to keep the house clean and ready for a showing at any time!

I also invested some money here and there to make the place look a little more neutral and inviting. I swapped our duvet cover for a simple gold pattern, bought a sheer valence for our bedroom window, and found a new pillow for our bed. In the extra bedroom, I took down the chair rail, primed and painted over the green paint (even though I just recently completed that project!) and found an inexpensive curtain rod and some sheer window panels to match the purple theme in the room. I also found a great deal on some covers for our dining room chairs (I’ve always hated those chairs- I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner! They’re heavy and bulky, the fabric attracts everything, and the style is just all wrong). So hopefully these simple changes will help make a good impression! I decided to take pictures of everything when the house was finally all clean and organized, from top to bottom:



During the open house, Eric and I had to be out of the house for the better part of the day. So we packed up our kids and headed over my sister’s house. She offered to take our cats for the day, since we definitely didn’t want them to get in the way during the open house (unfortunately the fantastic “kitty hotel” idea that I devised to contain the kids when the home was being shown backfired- the two pills got themselves right out on our very first trial run!! We’re still not quite sure how). Getting them from our house to my sister’s apartment however, was a trial in itself. Even though the cats used to enjoy car rides when they were younger, the two howled and complained for the entire 20-minute ride. It could have been due to the fact that Eric’s car is not the smoothest ride (I can’t really blame them, I’ve been complaining about those dang racing springs myself ever since Eric decided to put them on the car). Or, it could have been that they haven’t taken a car ride in quite a while. Whatever it was, the only way they were even remotely content was if they were both in my lap. Keeping almost 50 pounds of fluff contained on my lap, trying not to distract Eric and other drivers was such a pain! But we got to Elaine’s place in one piece and the kids quickly made themselves at home.

In the meantime, Eric and I ran some errands and even checked out an open house in Brentwood that I had found online. It was a newer 3 bedroom, 2½ bathroom home with about 2000 square feet. It even had a pool in the backyard. I was excited to tour the house, but I knew in the back of my mind that it wasn’t the right time to become attached. And luckily, I didn’t have that problem because Eric and I could not get past the super tiny master bedroom (it was even smaller than our current spare bedroom!) and the ridiculously small master closet (not even enough space for Eric’s things, let alone mine). Plus, to top it off, the price was high- way too high for a home that wouldn’t suit us. We quickly left, but I was glad that we had made the effort to at least look. Now we know even more about what we need and what we can’t live without in a new home.

On our way back to pick up the kids (we took the Acura this time and put each cat in a carrier in the backseat. They were soooo much happier!), we stopped by the condo just as our realtors were leaving. They debriefed us of the day’s happenings and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that about 30 people had visited the open house! Now, we wait…

Grease

A few months back, my mother-in-law JoEllen calls me and says, “Mark you calendar! Girls night out in the city in April- we’re going to see Grease!” So yesterday was the day that a bunch of us girls got together, went to dinner, and headed to the Golden Gate Theater (and got there just as the show was beginning, no thanks to a medical emergency on the bart)! I’ve never been terribly fond of musicals or plays (much thanks to being forced to watch them as a child), but I was pleasantly surprised. It had been quite a while since I’d seen the movie, but I quickly recalled the familiar songs and enjoyed the performance.

Semi-Annual Anniversary!

So today marks our 2½ year wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that Eric and I have been together for 7½ year already! It really doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. Since it’s only a half-year anniversary, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but we thought that we should do something fun to celebrate nonetheless! So we went to Claim Jumpers (or Clam Jumpers, as I like to call it). Huge portions and cheap prices! Can’t beat that.