House Pics Part Two!

Well I finally got some semi-decent pics of the upstairs of the house--so here goes!

First off--some detail of the stairway. Isn't it beautiful?
The landing at the top of the stairs (Remember my giant clown? He found a nice home up here!):
And another angle:
Pickle's room--it's very...PINK!
Another view...you can see her "princess throne" on the right.
Gooser's room:
This is the playroom/guest room. Still need to do some work in here like curtains, etc.
I had this sofa-bed recovered (it was a MESS before) and I'm very happy with the turquoise velvet!

Master bedroom--notice the fireplace so it's all romantic up in there! Still stuff to do in this room too--curtains and whatnot.
This is the back staircase:
And this is the room that made me want the house--the linen room!
My sheets and towels have never been so organized!
Here's a pic of a hall--exciting!
Now on to the third floor where Andy and Teddy are sharing a room. You can't really tell in this pic, but it's a pretty big room!
Patrick's room:
And check this out from the third floor bathroom--cute little clawfoot tub--it's pink!!
And I'm throwing in one more pic of the dining room because it looked pretty messy in that last batch of pics!

Thanks for checking them out!!

House Pics--Part One

I can't tell you how many times I have almost posted pics of the new house on here. And every time I'm about to--I hesitate because, even though we've come a looooong way since we moved in, I still feel like things are not ready enough for pics...So many things still need to be done like window treatments and replacing gross light fixtures, hanging up pictures and getting new furniture. But then I decided I was being too picky and I should just show them already. So keep in mind that it's not DONE done--but you'll get the idea!

I'm only going to the first floor tonight. I need to retake a few of the upstairs that I'm still being neurotic about.

OK, so....Entry hall (facing front door):

Another view of entry hall. I don't think it reads in these pics, but the hall is painted a pewtery gray color.
Dining room--still very messy with stuff all piled up...Color on walls is called Yam and I'm happy with the way it turned out.
Living room. Remember the retro green velvet sofa? I got it! This room is painted a blue that I had the paint store mix up for me--I couldn't find it in an existing paint so we invented it!
The fireplace was a VERY exciting find. When we bought the house it had been plastered over (for probably over 50 years!) and we took a chance by tearing all the plaster and wood down--but it was worth it! It was somewhat damaged and the wood you see in this pic was missing, but we had a carpenter recreate it in a way we feel is true to what the original must have been.
Another view of the living room--you can see the giant frog and bee science charts!
Family room--this room was originally called the "music room" but it's working pretty well as a family room for now, though some day we will probably add a family room on. Sorry about the blankets and magazines on the floor!
Kitchen--very messy! Note the "Princess Potty" on the floor--Pickle is potty trained!!
Screened-in porch. I took this pic at night so it doesn't look that great. I need to take some better pics because this is a nice room!

And here's the backyard (unraked!):
I'll show you the upstairs soon--I'm still waiting for some stuff to be delivered like the rug for Pickle's room--then it will be ready for the unveiling!

Meanwhile--remember a long time ago I said we were going to a dinner party with one of last season's Top Chefs (Radhika) cooking? It's happening tomorrow night! So I should have an interesting evening to tell you about and hopefully get some fun pics--and maybe some good gossip on Padma and Tom Colicchio!!

This is Dumb...

Well we had the showing on our house today and the feedback was about the dumbest I've ever heard--the realtor said they really liked the house and spent almost an hour here, but in the end they decided it was "too big."

Too big??

That's a new one on me! I mean, I know people downsize when the kids get older and stuff-but this is a family with young kids. Maybe they didn't like it and were just trying to be nice?

Besides, our house isn't even that big!

Don and I joked that maybe they should just buy it and wall off some of the rooms they don't need!

Oh well, onto the next showing...

Little Update

Long story short: I'm exhausted. I have been cleaning the house every waking moment to accommodate the open houses and showings. One thing is sure--keeping a house spotlessly clean is a full-time job! I can't keep this up much longer!

The good news is that someone might be interested--it's too early to know for sure, but please keep your fingers crossed for me. Otherwise the non-stop cleaning might kill me!

I'm also baking cookies non-stop--I want my house to have that homey cookie smell. So it's actually a good thing I'm cleaning so much so I can burn off all the calories from all the cookie dough I'm eating.

And another apology for not doing much blog visiting lately--I have been storing our laptops (and phones!) in the car as part of my decluttering spree, so until things settle down here I have very limited computer access. So when I'm not cleaning, I'm driving around aimlessly with a car full of electronics waiting for people to leave my house. Bear with me!

House

I thought since I am completely immersed in house-selling, I would show a few pics of my house (which hopefully won't be mine much longer because it will sell right away--right!?!).

They sent a photographer over the other day and these were the pics he took:

This is part of the living room and dining room:
"Sun room":


Family room:
Master bedroom (I like pink, okay!?):

Please wish us luck! Our first showing is today (Friday) and then we have the weekend-long open house.

My friend bought me this "house selling" kit which is a statue of St. Joseph that you are supposed to bury in the yard and then recite a couple of prayers--we will be having the ceremony in the morning!

Please join my friend Candid Carrie and check out all the crazy Phriday Foto Phun!!

Inspection

We had the inspection on the house today and I feel totally stressed out! The good news is that everything checked out okay--but the stress part is that the owner (Mr. Howell) was there the whole time! It made me SO uncomfortable walking around w/ the inspector and pointing out the things that needed to be changed/fixed. I was a nervous wreck because the last thing I want to do is insult him.

Then to make things worse, we had a painter go through for an estimate because there's so much wallpaper removal/plastering, etc. that needs to be done. I felt awful talking about all the cracks in the ceiling while he was just around the corner!

Anyway, we got through it.

Some more good news: The fireplace "mantel" in the living room (well, it's not even a mantel, just a basic piece of wood) is really ugly and clearly not original. I had told Don about an idea I had to hire a woodworker and build a mantelpiece that reflects some of the motifs going on in the house which are sort of tapered columns and arches.

So today I asked the owner about the whole fireplace situation and he told me the pieces to the original one were in the basement! And--it was exactly the same as the idea I had drawn out for Don! I'm so excited about that!! Putting that back will be one of the first things we do.

So you just have to keep crossing your fingers that we can sell our house quickly and easily--then we can move on with our new adventure!