An end in Sight

Whew. This project is just about over. Well, at least the fun part is. Melissa and Cathie really pulled through for us and managed to finish the house within our budget. I'm not really surprised that they ran short... Our house is surprisingly big. It can absorb so much ... At the same time, all of that space is really livable and workable. But how do you make people see it?

Next week we will get new photos taken, and hopefully the marketing-fest will get started!
But for now, rumor has it that Cathie will be hosting an impromptu open house this afternoon. Kind of a sneak preview, to see how other people like the changes. It would be fun (and nerve wracking) to be a fly on the wall. All this time, all this effort. It has to make a difference.

It's interesting, looking at these "after" snapshots, I really see how much this house was supposed to be about "indoor/outdoor" living. There are a tremendous number of windows, and most of them are south facing. But for some reason, in the "before" pictures, your eye was always pulled inside, into the vacant core of the house. With the staging, my eye keeps going to the outdoors. Maybe that is because of the scale of the transformation in the yard, but I think it must be more subtle than that. This house was designed for indoor/outdoor living, as much as that is possible in Wisconsin's climate.

The shady, wraparound front porch is perfect in the intense summer heat, and the screened-in porch is perfect for a more private retreat. We really lived out on that screened porch.

The work that these ladies did in the back yard really paid off big. The walk-out to the back yard is so engaging, it does really draw you into the yard in a way that it never did before. The yard is just a fantastic space for children to play, with plenty of room for play equipment or ball games, although with the park across the street, it can be reserved for more adult uses.

I love this picture of the little garden bench. I think it really draws out the charmingness of the back yard. Like the rest of the house, the largeness of the yard only makes its vacantness seem more overwhelming. It's intimidating to know that you have to expand to fill up all that space. How weird is that, everyone is so hungry for space, we all have too much space, but when you are faced with all that space, it overwhelms you.

Failure

Well, I the house was supposed to be finished this weekend. I've been waiting for pictures, and getting more and more nervous when none arrived.

Then today I got the bomb. Cathie wants more money. Wants me to pay her more for what she's already done, and then wants to add a whole lot more to paint and other things. Says the house still looks vacant: "It seems that no matter how many rugs, prints, accessories I bring in, the home absorbs the products continuing with the spacial feeling of vacancy. This is for several reasons - the large (and beautiful) open living, soft colored walls with no contrast and high ceiling (also beautiful!)."

But there is no more money, I told her there was no more money, and now all this effort was just a waste. All this money down the tubes. We're never going to sell this house.

And I don't know what else to do. It's so frustrating. The house is already priced well below market value. We dropped the price against our realtor's recommendations, and still no one wants to even see it.

I could cry. And I could scream. But mostly I just want to cry.

A Surprise

Today, I was given a homework assignment. Cathie asked me to right up a funny story or two about things that happened in our house. She also requested pictures of the family, in the house. In particular, she would like a picture of Caitlin in her fantasy bedroom, where she has this big mural of fairy woodland. Cathie is going to put together a board that tries to bring our family back into the house.

And I have to say, I am so surprised (and tickled to be welcomed back into my own house). Every thing I've heard from realtors and seen on the tv staging shows is that you want to remove yourself from your house, to depersonalize it. For over a year, we had spent hours depersonalizing the house, and taking down family pictures, and packing away our quirky treasures. Then we moved out, and haven't been a presence in the house for over a year. Back when we started this, I had thought (after a flurry of cleaning for a showing) that it would be much easier to sell the house if it was empty.

But it just looks cavernous. It's funny how the open concept can backfire when there is nothing to define the spaces. I look at this picture and I don't even recognize the space. It looks so angular and harsh. This house is so comfortable, so livable. It is so full of quality materials and smart design, and when you see this picture, it just looks, well, vacant. It looks so harsh and angular. You don't see the way that this amazing kitchen works, with the huge breakfast bar so folks can gather around while you and your spouse are cooking. You can't appreciate how you can still be part of the party in the great room where the guys are watching the football game, yet separate in the kitchen. On the left side of the picture is a whole, dedicated baking center that is hidden in a second walk-in pantry, so that your bulky appliances like your mixer and your bread machine can be used but not sitting out, and if your daughter makes a big mess making cookies before your guests get there, you can just shut the door and be presentation ready.

When we designed this kitchen, my dream kitchen, I had been studying the Fit House plans in the Cooking Light magazine. In fact, the whole house was designed with healthy living in mind. For example, there are hardwood floors throughout, to simplify cleaning to fight allergens. We also installed not just a central vac, but throughout the house their are the vacuum dust bins, so that you can just pop the little cover and sweet the dirt into the vac. It makes cleaning sooo much easier. We also put in a Recyclit, which is a little door that goes through the main pantry into the garage, so that you just drop your recycling into the door and it goes into the bin. The six burner stove with the indoor grill was a must, and I miss it dearly. In Wisconsin, it is wonderful not to have to head out to the back deck

to grill up a healthy meal in the middle of February.

Anyways, I am having a tough time finding a picture of Caitlin in her fantasy bedroom. Even with the one decent picture of the wall I could find, the computer desk and the bookcase in front of the mural ruin the whole effect. Truth is, that room was usually a mess, with toys covering every inch of floor space! Cathie... I think staging is even required here!

As for my cute story, well I have to try it out here first: One that captures both the nature of the house and the charm of living in Savannah Village took place in the kitchen pantry with the recycling center in it. We always kept our cereal and snacks in there. It's really almost a room in itself, and it is fully lit, so when my then five-year-old son, Thomas, wanted a snack and didn't want to ask permission, he would just go in there, close the door, and help himself. Sometimes he and his best friend would both hang out in there, snarfing down the junk food. Then one day I had been at a meeting all afternoon, and when I got home I went to start supper. I opened up the panty, and there's the neighbor boy, eating a bag of popcorn. I said "Hey John, what's up?" He just said "huh", cause his mouth was full. I asked him "So, where's Thomas?" "He's over at the park." Ok, I said, and closed the door and went about making supper. About five minutes later John pops out and runs out of the house to the park!

Staging, Day 2

The cleanup is finished. It's time for the side by side comparison. From afar, the house looks cleaner and tidier, and somehow less up on a hill. The whole look is a little more formal, yet certainly more welcoming. But that is just from a distance!

Who wouldn't want to come into this home. The planters full of mums really do bring you right up to the doorway. And the branches in the vase... how simple and welcoming. Dang, why did I never think of that?? It's funny, because I always thought of the house as a cottage or a bungalow (despite the fact that it's almost 4000 square feet), and if you had asked me, I would have thought that such a formal arrangement would make it kind of cold. How totally wrong can one be!

But even better, Cathie gave me back my front porch! It is back to being a place where you can share a beer with the neighbor, or read a book in the cool shade on a hot summers day.

The Staging - Day 1

Yesterday was the big day, the Staging began. It's very exciting and somewhat nerve racking, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I don't know exactly what they plan to do, which I guess is the whole point!

Yesterday was spent in the gardens... which, I have to admit, look tired and drab and neglected. Well, a word to the wise... if you ever lease your house out, hire a gardener to maintain the outside. Tenants don't do it. We were in a fairly odd situation, since the tenants had "bought" the house, it never occurred to us t

hat they would let it run to ruin, or that it would ever matter to us again. We'll call it live and learn, I guess.

Anyways, here are a few before and during pictures:

My house: Boy, it looks so lonely. It's funny how such a cozy house can look so drab and dreary. That nasty grey sky doesn't help.

But as it is, you don't even notice the wrap around front porch. This space, like most of the houses in Savannah Village, was designed to invite people to

sit out-side and socialize with your neighbors. There's little better than sitting out front after work with a glass of wine or a beer and talking to all your neighbors as they walk by. That's one of the the best things about the traditional neighborhood design, with the smaller front yards and the wide sidewalks that encourage walking. You can't help b

ut live on your front porch, and you can't help but know all your neighbors.

But right now, I have to admit, my front porch doesn't look so inviting. You are so right, Melissa! My house does need help! Please save me!

Here's Cathy, the stager, to the rescue.

And Melissa, my realtor, hard at work. Digging out the front gardens, to invite people up to the front porch. Ok, I have to say, I'm impressed. And my poor barren porch, it so needs a little girl to playing barbie dolls, or a dog

napping on it, or anybody rocking in a swing.

Here's our beautiful rock wall, overgrown and weedy. What happened to all the beautiful flowers? I guess the lupines and tulips and irises are all

out of season. Rumor has it that mums are on their way.

Ugh! Here's my back yard, or the landscaping by the walkout family room door. I can see why people aren't enticed into this fabulous back yard, it just looks tired and hot. Our house is on one of the biggest lots in Savannah Village, where most of the houses have a postage stamp, and it doesn't look much like a selling feature. Ugh.

All I can say is I can't wait to see the after pictures! Stay tuned!

I am in house selling hell. I have been, for years. Last July, after over a year on the market, I actually thought I sold my house in this sleepy little subdivision in Wisconsin, moved to California, and started this new life. But, alas, there was a catch. Our buyer hadn't sold their house, and we agreed to lease them the house for a year while they sold theirs. Fast forward a year, and their house still sits on the market, and now my house, vacant and rejected, is back on the market.

I am in house selling hell. But I have hired a new realtor, who is creative and energetic and seems to have some success. She is aggressively marketing the house and she has suggested that we STAGE THE HOUSE. Now, I have been watching "Sell this House" and "Designed to Sell" on A&E and HGTV for years. My house is not dirty, or cluttered, or does it have any repair issues. In fact, it is only five years old, with a spacious and open floor plan, a gourmet kitchen, spa master bath, hard wood floors throughout, two fireplaces, craft room, game room, sun room, all the baubles and buzzwords you could ask for. And apparently it is unsalable.

So, we are now we are paying a tremendous amount of money to have our house staged. Part of me is extremely excited. This is something I have fantasized about doing for way too long. I am also somewhat horrified, not just by the expense (which is way more than HGTV would lead one to believe!) but by the fact that my dream house, this house that I helped to design, is unsalable.