Kitchens That Kick Butt

It's been too long since I have updated on here. The house still hasn't sold and I'm starting to think it never will. I'm trying to accept this, and move on but it's really quite hard when everything has been put on hold to sell this house, and now all our plans have to stay on hold too.

I'm all sad and gloomy about it, but feel more like posting some beautiful pictures to be enjoyed and oogled.

KITCHENS!

I have some rather odd plans for my own one day, including tangerine wall paint above plain white tiles...gives me goose bumps of glee just thinking about it.

Beautiful Bedrooms

I thought I would make a pretty post to try abd break up some of the more "verbal" posts I have been doing lately. Since we can't move or really plan for our new house too much, I have been compiling images I have seen on-line of rooms that really inspire me.

None of these photographs are by me.

Open House News

We had yet another open house yesturday afternoon and we were told it went moderately well. There was one young woman in particular who showed a lot of interest, and was just awe struck by the house (to use the Realtor's words). So, hopefully we can find out more about her and see if she is planning on coming again or not. As well, we had a showing on Saturday afternoon and that couple wants to come back either today or tomorrow for a second visit.

A weird, eery sort of calm has come over all of us; we are hoping it's maybe a sign of reassurance that we WILL sell soon.

I will keep everyone updated!

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I also have some pictures from yesturday afternoon. A wholr group of my friends and I went to the park nearby and ate snacks, threw frisbees and even tried flying a kite. Unfortunately, there wasn't much wind to be had, but the enthusiasm on my friend Sarah's face while she raced around with that flag was priceless! I will try and update later.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

Dogs In the Sun

The weather here has been very unusual and record breaking lately. Though Winnipeg is known for freezing cold, HORRIBLE winters, our summers are usually very hot and sunny and beautiful and nothing but blue skies. Lately, though, we have had torrential downpours (causing a minor flooding in our basement) and nothing but grey skies and black clouds.

However, we had a very small window of the promise of summer on Sunday. And so, as we had an open house, my Mom and I went over to her partner's house so we had somewhere to let the dogs run wild.

My Mom's partner, J, has a humongous back yard. His dog Baxter, a 100+ pound mutt loves our two girls (Norwegian Elkhound litter sisters) and so there is nothing nicer than watching them all frolic and go crazy with so much grass and space.

Sadly, one of our dogs, Skye, has primary glaucoma. One of her eye's has been removed and the other is blind. She is a little more timid, and usually spends her time inside Js house than running around. I'll need to find more pictures of her to share!

Below are pictures of Ginger, our dog, and Baxter.

Enjoy!

Before & After: Painting

The painting is complete (has been for a few days now) and the muscles in my back are still in mild protest! It was annoying to be painting so many rooms in a house that we don't even want to live in anymore, but we were happy to do it if it meant selling this place and finally moving on - and out.

No such luck, yet, but we're still hopeful.

I think the hardest thing to swallow about all of this is that had we been told by our first Realtor to stage and clear everything out, we would have. But he didn't say anything, and was so confident that we would sell...we didn't.

Below are the after & before pictures. Keep in mind, it's very rainy and grey here so I did all I could do in Photoshop (quickly). They're not artfully taken, as they're going in the MLS listing for the house, so I tried to keep them as plain and simple as I could.


Front foyer AFTER:


BEFORE



Living room AFTER:


BEFORE:



Second bedroom AFTER


BEFORE



Third bedroom AFTER:


BEFORE:



My bedroom AFTER:


BEFORE:

Never Knew How Much...

...I HATE PAINTING!

Honestly, if you asked me two days ago, I would have told you I really didn't mind it at all and enjoyed the zen-like quiet that happens while painting. Well, I would be lying, apparently. My entire back and shoulder region is sore (must think of it as exercise) and my arms are tingling. Plus, I have huge amounts of paint in my hair.

I think the issue is that I live on our third floor, so my room is all angled walls, windows, too many door frames. So, when I'm painting the angled walls, I need to lean back quite a bit as I move up and down. Blarg!

Anyways, my room is done, two other rooms are done and we just need to finish the "accent" wall of our staircase. The stagers gave us a colour swatch to buy and it's looking awfully bubblegum pink.

Yup.

So, now we need to buy MORE paint and finish that accent wall with a different colour. Any suggestions?

Paint and Staging and Furniture Borrowing...oh my!

Just had a very long chat with my Mom about what the plans are now and we have decided to take the Stagers suggestions and try and do them ourselves. I'm pretty creative and very visual, so I understand what needs to be done.

There will be paint waiting for me tonight when I get home from work, and that is ALL I am going to be focusing on for the next few days. We are thinking and very neutral light grey will be good for all the dark rooms (including my bedroom) and I am dreading the days to come and the amount of painting and sore arms I am going to have to deal with!

But, as I must always remind myself, it is ALL worth it in the end as long as we can sell.

Right?

Fall Through

The deal has fallen through. The people pulled out after the inspection and that is that. I have to admit that even though we knew they would pull out from the offer, a small part of me still hoped that everything would work out this time.

Guess not!

So, now we have more decisions to make and things to do around the house. We need to decide if we are going to hire the home stagers we spoke with, or if we are going to try and do this all ourselves.