Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

Old Home Tour

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We laughed with our realtor yesterday about the use of the term “house” versus “home.”  There is a difference between the two words.  One seems matter of fact and the other is personal.  Since we began this house attack process, our living residence was a “house” in most of my frame work.  I had a list of to-dos and I just kept at them.  This week, the list of to-dos got less and less until we were done.  Now that I am not in task mode and breathing (and able to sit once again), I am getting sad about leaving this place that we call home.

Our Home

 

We changed this old 1952 house from Matt’s bachelor pad to a place where we started our marriage and our family.  So many memories exist here.  Although I am excited for this next phase of life, it will be sad to close a huge chapter here.

Yesterday, I showed you a quick DIY Initial I made to complete one of my staged shelves.  Today, I want to give you the full tour of our house.  Almost the way potential buyers see it…a full video walk thru.  I will be updating our Home Tab at the top with more pictures soon, but I want to get them organized and edited properly first.  Until then, please come see our house!  Welcome in!

 

If you made it through the whole video, you saw we have two huge beds for these rascals.

My dogs

I don’t talk much about our pups, but they are fun (and trouble) and nervous wrecks right now with all the moving and changes that have been going on.  You also saw in the video I couldn’t take down all my boys’ art in their bedroom.  I took down LOTS of pictures for staging, but I just couldn’t take down all their art.  The video goes from our house to our apartment out back that I have mentioned we rent out to my brother and sister in law.  Tony is the wood worker that I always refer to, hence the big pile of wood at the foot of their bed.  The last thing you see is Matt’s office that Tony and our friend Zach helped create.  Its one of my favorite places on this property.

Well, there you have it!  That is our home!  I will be back soon with lots of pictures and some DIY of items you saw featured.

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Preparing a House to Sell {with kids}

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incorporating kids in process of moving

I feel like I have been going and going.  The house preparations to have a for sale sign out front on Friday have kept us crazy busy with lists of to do lists.  I literally have four different lists going.  The good news is we are making progress.  At times it has felt like I don’t know where to start, since there is so much to be done.  So, in the middle of working on one project I get side tracked onto another project.  It all has to get done, so it doesn’t ultimately matter  that parts here and there are getting done except that it drags out crossing something off as DONE.  We all like that step.

It really has been fun to feel the change in the house in the decluttering and simplifying.  To date, we have now taken 21 bags to Goodwill and filled two trailers of junk that have been hauled off to the dump.  That is a lot of stuff.  I’ll spare you pictures galore, but a few things we have done this week are:

  • switched out light fixtures
  • gone through more closets
  • found the boys’ room and brought it out of the dark pit state that it was in
  • cleaned out the kitchen cabinets
  • taken a picture gallery wall down, repaired holes from screws, and repainted
  • painted the front door
  • layed pine straw in the front yard
  • spray painted like everything (railings, mailbox, etc)…Matt said it was probably a good thing when my black spray paint ran out.
  • repaired rotten boards
  • painted most of Matt’s office
  • added siding to Matt’s office
  • created a Welcome Sign for back door
  • made a wreath for the front door

I know I am missing some stuff, but you can get a feel for what its been like around here.  I have felt bad for my kids and missed hanging out with them as they have  not gotten the quality time they are use too.  I have tried to include them in as much as I can.  They have helped sort through clothes and toys, and even helped paint their daddy’s office and trim the bushes.  They are excited, but there is only so much they can do as well.  This week, I have aimed to give them my mornings.  I didn’t want to do anything but school and hang with them.  It’s been fun to see the change of things we are talking about as we prepare to move.

Over the weekend, we took a good look at our front yard and door, and we decided that the dead plants in the planters on the front steps would have to be replaced.  We talked about beauty, color, and life and what we would get for our pots.

old plantersOn one of our many trips to Home Depot this weekend, we picked up some new plants and the kids helped me plant them.

plants at Home Depot

winter flower planters

We talked about the different parts of a plant and what they need to live.  We got plants that required the right amount of sunlight for our steps, and I truly hope we can keep them alive for a little while.  I don’t have a green thumb.  All this talk lead to us looking through books and learning more about plants yesterday.  We talked about the three parts of plants and all the variations of plants.

learning about plants

This led to us talking about stories we knew with plants, and ultimately we referred to Jack and the Beanstalk.  Since I couldn’t find our book of Jack and the Beanstalk (hopefully it didn’t end up at Goodwill!?), I knew we could find some readings of it on You Tube.  We went to the computer and spent a while browsing and watching different Jack and the Beanstalk videos.  This was so fun.  The boys were interested and were comparing and contrasting the different versions of the stories without realizing they were remembering/reciting details and doing so many other great reading tools.

watching a you tube video

Our favorite video was by Debbie and Friends and you can see it here.  I think we watched it four times and the boys laughed out loud every time.  After our videos, we painted our own beanstalks.

brothers painting

painitng jack and the beanstalk

jack and the beanstalk painting

All of the sudden, I realized we had done a whole unit of study on plants and all because we were preparing our house to go up for sale.  It is so fun to study and learn about life in what is the everyday manner and routine.

studying plants with jack and the beanstalk

I love enjoying my kids, and I am very thankful for the gift of being able to step back and gain perspective.  We all needed time away from the to do lists for a bit yesterday and just laughing together.  Do you ever find yourself annoyed and irritated by the very things that ultimately give you the most joy?

Today, is our last BIG push on projects, cleaning, and packing up all the tools and supplies.  We have our first showing tomorrow.  Yes, the day before the for sale sign is out!  Ahhh we are praying the Lord keeps directing us each step of the way.  Thank you for your prayers!  I am not sure if I will have a post ready for my usual Friday post.  Please forgive me if I step away for a few days/little bit.  I will be back and I will be checking messages.  I spent a long time last night re-reading all your messages and ended up in a heap in front of my computer in tears.  I have the best readers.  Thank you for being in this with us!!

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Ps.  I am so sorry, but I am taking a break from my All About the Kids Link Up party.  Please visit one of my favorite link ups from last week. Dollie with Teachers of Good Things gave a great list of tips on how to build attentiveness in toddlers and preschoolers.