Getting Perspective

There's nothing like a Monday to give you a little perspective. What seemed disastrous on Friday now looks like a mountain that was made out of a mole hill.  It appears that our relocation company is now offering us several options in which we can proceed. Their list of "extensive repairs" were not extensive at all, and we're feeling much more confident about making the necessary improvements to put our house on the market.

On Saturday, we had another realtor walk through our home to give it her appraisal. She was very glowing in her assessment, and recommended that we have a Plan B in place in case our house sells quickly (and she believes that it will. Whew!).

"Your home is so warm and welcoming. I wish that all of my clients would make the changes to their homes that you've made to yours," she said.

Our list of changes were pretty extensive over the past five years. I would recommend these updates for anyone who is thinking of putting their home on the market:

*New light fixtures
*New window treatments
*New appliances
*New bath and kitchen fixtures
*Newly painted rooms in coordinating neutral colors

These are the cosmetic changes that can take a house from drab to fab.

Our house has an open floor plan, which can be a challenge when it comes to decorating. Paint colors and decorating styles have to flow from room to room. Sitting in the great room, you can see the kitchen, dining room, office and front entryway. It needs to have a cohesive look.

To give an open floor plan some continuity, I picked two colors and two neutrals and mixed them up in each room. Blue, green, khaki and cream. Each space has one dominant color (walls), with secondary colors repeating frequently.

The mud room:

Which is visible from the kitchen:

Which is visible from the great room:

Which is visible from the office:

Which leads to the dining room:

This "flow" didn't happen overnight.  As a matter of fact, the colors on the main floor, as of last autumn, were mostly red, yellow and green. It wasn't until I made the decision to paint the dining room blue that all of the other colors finally came in to place.

The house is finally just the way I've wanted it...just in time to sell it!

Isn't that always the case?