TGIF!

labro

@TwoDimes Eeek have fun babysitting this weekend!!! Your nephew is such a doll! I love his serious face!

[Deleted User]

@speakeasy14 A friend of mine has an Au Pair and I've heard great things from her about it. I never really thought about doing that since I plan to stay home eventually but if my work schedule was so hectic that it made sense to have one then I definitely think it would be worth it.

@cu97tiger I think I'm definitely going to skip out on it tonight. I really won't have time this weekend since I'll be with Callie all day tomorrow...I could have someone come and hang out with her at CrossFit while I do the workout tomorrow morning but Sunday we will be out of town so we will see if Saturday works.

speakeasy14

@labro & @twodimes - deal. We'll start a group go fund me and split the funds

@labro Need - closets.  I hate that I have no storage space in my house.  Also need at least 2 bathrooms, a yard.  Likes - front porch, back deck, garage, big kitchen (that's where everyone typically gathers).

@minskat30 YGAPM

minskat30

@speakeasy14 @cu97tiger @swazzle -  It would be nice to have Ani at home though...if I had a house with a separate living level/kitchen for a nanny I would seriously consider it.  I already know two ladies in India that volunteered to move to the U.S. to take care of Ani (my MIL's cook is one of them...and H was tempted, let me tell you).  I'm deep down an introvert, as is H, so we wouldn't want anyone living with us other than Raj and Ani of course.    

@TwoDimes - I have a day scheduled off in March so that will be nice...I'll be getting a massage too.    

wink0erin

@swazzle My mouth watered with those sushi descriptions. Mmm. 
@CocobellaF Your porch is so cute! Now for nagging, get some rest, don't overdo the steps! Friend of mine ended up admitted to the hospital because she wasn't resting enough on bed rest and they decided they had to monitor her (at least I think that's what went down, there could have been something else). 
@untouchablets Happy bday!

FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!!

Last night when I got home I decided "eff it" and ordered pizza. I ate 4 slices (2 were tiny). I hung up a shelf in my pantry to hopefully organize/put away my coffee and tea assortment this weekend (which has been in a couple bags on the kitchen floor since I moved in). 

Then I went into arts and crafts mode and finished painting two "home" things for my mom (part of an art exhibit with an interactive "make your own home" portion, so she wanted to hang up samples to get people inspired to make their own) and started sewing a tote bag. I'll finish the bag tonight probably, so far I'm proud of my handiwork. 

I have no plans this weekend other than laundry, arts/crafts, and starting to pack for next week's trip to FL for a conference. BF had wanted to go to see his friend's band play tonight and wanted me to go with, but it turns out he had plans with his dad to watch basketball. I'm honestly kind of relieved. I like his friend's band, but I didn't really want to go to the show. I'd have gone anyway, but this way I can stay home in sweatpants and do crafts!

AW of the two "home" things... first one I cut squares of sky photos out of a magazine and did a mosaic, second one I cut naturey stuff out of a magazine, had a mental block, and just slapped paint on the outside part to continue the scenery. 

labro

@speakeasy14 I mean I guess what mean is, if you're viewing a home, what's a turn off? What's a turn on? We have closet space in spades!

LizzyTish88

@labro I agree with @speakeasy14 that storage is key. Having a yard/fence was a huge thing for us when we were looking for a house. When we got to our house, BF was a little iffy on it, then he stepped outside and was sold on the size of the yard. Other than that, it's just a basic stuff.

labro

@wink0erin Wow that mosaic is beautiful!!! I would NOT have the patience to do that!

minskat30

@labro - The biggest thing that bugs me about a home are the unfixable things...location, footprint of the home, yard/space.  It is also my biggest draw.  Our home was a bit of a dump if I'm honest but the location and lot size couldn't be beat.  For cosmetic things, the thing that bugs me the most about a home next is an outdated kitchen/bathroom (because I know the cost associated with fixing that).  For really cosmetic things, next on my list would be things I need to fix BEFORE moving in (floors mostly) since closing on a house, coordinating the move and buying but not moving in until you fix something is a PIA.  

Swazzle

@CocoBellaF - Listen to your doctor! 

ETA: Just some ideas to help with your restlessness: read a new book, knit, find a TV series you haven't watched before that you can binge, organize something around the house like old photos, etc. 

minskat30

@cocobellaf - I "third" that you should listen to the good doctor.  I know it is a giant PIA but I also know how much you love Kennedy already and you want to give her as much time as possible to bake in there.    Hugs to you.

labro

@minskat30 I think that's what I was looking for. There are some updates we can make but I don't want to go OVERBOARD because we'll never see our money back...but at the same time I want to do what I can to make the house as appealing as possible from the moment you walk in the door. We're lucky in that we have some pretty big things going for us - new HVAC, a massive and beautifully landscaped yard (if I do say so myself lol), lots of closet/storage space, but our home is also a 1980s home and there are some things - finished wood instead of painted (we have a lot of wainscoting, crown-molding, baseboards, all the "extras" but it's stained, not white paint) that I want people to either look past or not be bothered by.

cu97tiger

@cocobellaf - I'm sure it's tough, but really, it's a small sacrifice to make for the health of you and your baby. Don't mess around with that!

@southernpeach89 - I say bring Callie to CF. We always love when people bring their babies in. And after your warm up, you'll probably only need 8-12 minutes, unless you're thinking of squat cleaning 115#

@minskat30 - My friends do not have a separate kitchen for the nanny. And my friend is super particular about stuff, but that hasn't been a complaint for her.

@wink0erin - That is a cool sky mosaic!!

@labro - I think everyone is completely different. I would have said closet space before we moved to our current home, but the ease of living downtown and walking to places counter-balanced that (and we have a full basement, so that allowed us to put things down there that were previously in closets). I also would have said we HAD to have two full bathrooms. Right now we only have one that has a shower, but it really hasn't been bad. If you are thinking about what makes your home attractive to people, I think having neutral-ish paint (because people, even me, have trouble seeing past really specific paint colors, like WATERMELON! or FUSCHIA!). Also, de-cluttering the crap out of it. Nothing turns us off more when we're looking at the pictures on-line and they have stuff everywhere. It takes away from the person seeing the bones of the house. I'm not sure if that was helpful.

speakeasy14

@labro ah thought you meant what should you look for.  I can give you tips that my bf gave to his clients: light-neutral colored walls create the illusion of more space.  The smell of fresh baked cookies is inviting so they always tell sellers to have a candle or melt in that scent on.  Also hides pet smells that may turn people off.  People will search your closets, so make sure they're organized. From when we were looking, majority of the houses I said no to, either needed a lot of work or had a really bad smell.  

minskat30

@labro -  I hear you but don't work yourself up too much.  Buyers will find a problem even with the most perfect home.  That said, if you can fix cosmetic things like flooring and paint wainscoting, etc. it will make your house a LOT easier to sell.  With H selling his condo soon our agent (who I bought with, sold with and is great and sells homes within 3 months MAX every time she lists if sellers are realistic) suggested a fresh coat of neutral paint (she said the greigh (grey/beige) works best).  As to @speakeasy14's comments on smells... every time our agent showed our condo when we were selling, I took Rajah out obviously and ALL of his toys/his dish/etc.  Basically any proof that a dog lived there.  Raj doesn't smell (is this like that one commercial..."you think your car smells fine, but it smells like this...") but I didn't want to give anyone any excuses to smell anything.  And definitely clean your closets if they aren't clean/organized...even with a lot of closet space if any one closet is cramped it makes the buyers think there isn't enough room.

beachyone15

@labro - For us the most important things were enough space and a good layout.
-3 bed, 2 bath
-A kitchen pantry (apparently not all homes have one and I NEED one).
-Open floor plan
-Large-ish kitchen with counter space
-Room-y bathroom and closet areas

There were a few things we really wanted while searching for our home, but weren't able to get them. One of those was a 2-car garage. Apparently that's near impossible to find. Most garages here fit 1 1/2 cars (maybe 2 if you both drive a Prius). The other was mature trees in the yard. The only houses with mature trees were older homes that needed a lot of work. We found a happy medium and settled on a house with a greenbelt behind it. How much work are you looking to put in to the house? I think that also helps determine what you really need right off the bat, and what you don't, KWIM?

labro

@speakeasy14 @cu97tiger Ughhh I hate painting! I think we'll definitely be re-painting the guest bedroom though. It's a pale blue-ish color but the wall has some issues and I have a whole collage of pictures hanging in there so I think I want to fix up the wall and then re-paint. Neutral it is! We were also planning to repaint the laundry room because again, walls need some repair work. My office is kind of a...dark dusty rose color I would say though. I actually don't hate it and it complements the furniture in there well. 

[Deleted User]

@cu97tiger LOL I don't think I can squat clean over 100#. I'm scaling the shit out of this WOD.

beachyone15

@labro - I wouldn't worry about the unpainted wood. Some buyers may actually like that style. But if they don't, they can always paint it themselves. I think a good layout and a good yard helps sell a house so I think you'll be fine!

wink0erin

@labro When looking to buy I think the worst was going to a place that looks great in photos and realizing it's a dump (like, rotting wood decks, visible mold, being able to smell mildew in the house, huge cracks in the ceiling/walls, etc.) Those just felt like a waste of time. 

Turn ons are a good layout that makes sense, neutral walls/floors that don't need a ton of work, storage space.

Turn offs (other than the obvious ones mentioned above) are small rooms, walls blocking rooms/features from the main area (think, dining room, kitchen, living room are all in boxes rather than having a little bit of openness, so you can't see the big dining room window from anywhere else), and super bright or super dark ugly colors of wall/floor. Yes, the colors can be changed but if they are too bold it's harder to cover them, and why would you want to have to yank up chartreuse carpet the second you move in? 

The major thing is making sure the "bones" are good. Anything you can't change without major expense/hassle, like good solid structure, location, lot size, layout, storage space (or potential). 

labro

@beachyone15 Yeah...it's tough. The house selling down the street from us painted all of their wainscoting white and it's selling for $260k! So I'm wondering if it's worth it to us. I think I'll wait on the trim paint until we've hired a realtor and see what they advise. H loves the stained wood but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and he's concerned that painting it will just make it "trendy".

Anyway, we've scaled back some of our plans (we were doing a major master bath remodel and putting in wood floors in the living room). Now we're -

- Replacing the tile floor in our master bath and the tile around the tub.
- Replacing the carpet like we planned but instead of removing the carpet in the living room and doing wood floors we're just going to get new carpet in there instead.
- Knocking down a few more trees in the front yard to help with the natural light in our home, plus they are kind of ugly (but we're still leaving a lot of mature trees including a huge magnolia towards the front corner of our yard).

@speakeasy14 I've definitely started on closet re-org! When we get to the point of staging our home I'll probably rent a storage unit and remove a bunch of stuff (non seasonal clothes for example), but for the moment I've been doing a lot of throwing out, re-organizing into baskets, stuff like that so it's clean and easy to make changes in.

MissKittyDanger

@CocoBellaF  puppies!! Your garden is going to be amazing

@swazzle sounds like well deserved rest! Tbh I'm hesitant on trying new rolls too, but Matt's not so he'll get something and if it's not spicy I'll have a bite.

@untouchablets HAPPY BIRTHDAY!


@southernpeach89 poor Callie and mama


Not much last night. Matt needs a new phone since his phone is glitching out pretty bad and he forgot that he'd gotten a Nokia from work. He's gonna do some research on it to see if it'll do what he wants it do, if so he's unlocking and putting in sim card! Saves us money.
I ended up stopping at F21 for a couple tshirts. I'm not wearing them yet but I wanted to pick them up before they sold out. They're super cute spring colours {one is mint, the other is a blush} so I figured they'll likely be sold out before I planned on doing some spring/summer shopping. Maybe they'll have more colours by then also!

This weekend not too much to do. Tomorrow I'm likely stopping by a friend's place for a bit to sniff her PartyLite candles, drop off tea stuff and see her son. Obv see her too Another friend is having a party at her bf's place to celebrate his passing the accounting exams, so we'll go then.

Deadpool on Sunday!!


Also this weekend I wanna tidy stuff and start spring cleaning. Suppose to get warmer next week, so I'm excited!

wink0erin

I agree with @beachyone15 about the wood. One thing I hated in homes I viewed was when they had freshly painted wood. I like natural or stained wood. 

labro

@wink0erin WELL at least we have good bones lol! And no mold/mildew/gross stuff like that. Our main level layout is pretty traditional though but the door openings between the rooms are extra extra wide so there's flow anyway.

minskat30

@labro - The wood thing is so hit and miss with people.  I love white painted wood but H loves natural wood.  If push comes to shove, you can always offer buyers a credit so they can choose.  By the way, we got paint quotes and the cost to paint the trim (just baseboards) in H's condo was equal to the cost to paint ALL the walls and closets.  Painting trim is a PIA.  We are NOT painting the trim as a result but his condo is a starter-condo kind of place.  

wink0erin

I feel as if painted wood has a time and place. Like if the grain is realllllly ugly or if the wood is too dark for the room. I'm just glad I found a house that had the original wood trim, most homes had it painted white!

labro

@minskat30 That's a good point. Or we can be open to the option if someone puts it in the contract or we're told that it's an issue with a likely buyer.

labro

@TwoDimes @minskat30 @wink0erin @beachyone15 I love how we all have such different viewpoints on the wood! It's so polarizing!!!

What I love about white trimwork is it looks clean and bright. Stained can look dark and dated to me for some reason. But H is the total opposite!! He thinks it's classic.

beachyone15

@labro - I know, my parents have stained wood and I actually really like the look of it in their home. We have white trim in our home though which I also like. So for me personally, it could go either way. The color of the trim wouldn't deter me from buying a home that I otherwise love. Since you have so many opinions going on here, I personally wouldn't spend the time/money to repaint it unless a buyer tells you that's a make or break thing for them. Who knew trim was such a big deal?!

wink0erin

@TwoDimes Wood CAN be "unpainted," but it is a major PITA. I looked into it because my kitchen has painted wood cabinets and I wanted to get them back to the natural wood... but it seemed like such a huge ordeal that I decided not to deal with it. I'll live with the black cabinets!