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The House Attack Process

February 15, 2013 By Erica Deuel 10 Comments

the house attack

I love the House Attack phrase because that is literally what it feels like we are doing.  We are attacking our house.  Usually on Fridays, I share some special craft I have completed, and although I will share one with you that I’m working on, the real craft this week is trying to declutter and get my house ready to go on the market.  We want to move.

To date, we have donated 13 bags/bins of stuff to Goodwill.  We have filled our trash cans up way before trash day, so we are now borrowing my in-laws trailer to fill up to take stuff to the dump.

junk trailer

We have already filled this guy up.  The process of decluttering is emotionally exhausting.  As we pick up literally everything we own, there is this moment where we have to decide if we will toss it, save it, donate it, store it elsewhere, or where it goes if it gets to stay.  As a side note, we tried to sell our house five years ago and nothing happened with it, so we decided to stay.  Caleb was a baby.  We have never tried to sell a house and move with three little kids-who are homeschooled.  We are in our house all day most days.

I have watched enough HGTV shows to know what helps with selling a house, so we are trying our best to clear out cabinets/closets and make our space look bigger.

bathroom closet

bathroom sink

hall closet

throwing out books

Going through books and closets were pretty easy.  It is perfectly normal to use jars to store things in bathroom closets, so they look nicer, right!?  What was hard was clearing out my craft supplies and inventory from art shows out of my bathroom shower.

spring cleaning

It is pretty normal to use the spare shower as a closet, right!?  Hahaha our little three bedroom ranch is tight.  Even as I show you these pictures, I realize that if our house wasn’t going up for sale, it would have been good to simplify our life and get rid of stuff.  It has always been so hard to clean up, because there is nowhere to put stuff.  Every closet and cupboard have been full.

clean shower

My bathroom’s shower can now be shown as a working shower, and I am so proud of my self for getting rid of fun jars, shells and other cute crafty things that I can collect again at another point in life.

My in-laws are being so sweet and letting us store stuff we don’t need now (but don’t really want to get rid of) in their basement.  I think I have sent over two truck loads with them already.

chairs

The kids’ cute rocking chairs and other chairs that have been taking up floor space have been cleared out to make the floors look bigger.

taking down frames

packaging up frames Pictures are coming down and getting packed away.  In that picture of huge wall pictures of my kids, you can see my DIY Feather Wreath gets to stay, and my craft I am slowly working on is being stored right inside our front door.

making a rugI hope to have the rug done by next Friday, and I will be sure to show you how I am doing it.  It is perfectly normal to be trying to pack up a house and also take on a huge craft that you think will help “stage” your house better for showings, right!?  I am feeling insane.  I know I should be packing or something else right now, but writing all this out will help me remember these days and is an outlet.  I think I would be going insane if I didn’t have an outlet for me during this time.

I had a cupboard full of fabric.  Although I threw a lot out, I sent the rest with my in-laws (except for a few pieces that I have plans for if this house doesn’t sell right away).  It was hard to let it go.  I kept thinking I hope this house sells fast, but clearing out a fabric cupboard gave me room to put all the homeschool manipulatives and school stuff that was once on the shelf hidden away.

homeschool room

school supplies cabinet

We are buying a dvd case to throw all those DVD cases from our movies (in the above picture) out too.  Have you done this yet?  I know it’s probably good to throw out the cases, but it feels weird too.

The biggest thing we have accomplished this week is replacing our 53-year-old ovens.

replace old ovens

antique ovens

53 year old ovensI say “we” but Matt is responsible for really all of this.  He researched the size, tracked down two new-er ovens on Craigslist that would fit the SMALL space (these are not normal size ovens), built a box for the new ovens to rest on, and installed them.

building a box

process of switching out an oven

I did help get the ovens inside, but my brilliant husband came up with this leverage way to hoist the new ovens up into the hole, so we didn’t break our backs.  He’s a genius.

switching out ovenscompareing ovens

The difference in the ovens is remarkable!  We still need to close out the hole at the bottom and give it a little paint, but it is crazy how that oven updated our kitchen so drastically.

Today, I am thankful for my mom to come and take the kids for a few hours so I can go through their rooms and all the toys without little “persuasion speeches” being made on behalf of broken or forgotten toys.

I know the list is still long of all we have to do, but I am encouraged to see all these pictures together of what we have done.

It’s hard to know how this will play out.  We have such a range of opinions coming at us.  They range from how our home “is in the best location” and we “could have a contract in three days” or even how there could be a “bidding war over the house” all the way to “an inspector will go crazy on your house” and “your house wont sell for what you are asking.”

This is emotional.

This is personal.

This is hard.

If you feel led, please pray for us as we go through this next week.  As I am sure you know, stress and crazy to do lists can easily bring shorter tones and less patience.  Above all of this house stuff, I want to love my little family well and grow tighter together through this.

I hope you have a good weekend!  We will be busily continuing with the House Attack.  On Monday, I am so excited to share with you what is making us do all this to try and sell our house.  To follow more closely with our daily process, you can follow my instagram or my husband’s.

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A piece of my quilt for YOU!

July 17, 2012 By Erica Deuel 5 Comments

***This giveaway is now closed.  Stay tuned for more giveaways from Dancing Zebras!!***

Today, I want to say thank you to all my new “bloggy” friends, blog readers, twitter followers, and FB “likes”.  Thank you!!!  I have loved reading your comments, blog hoping, and joining “craft parties”!  I’m still learning the lingo, so please forgive me if I called something the wrong thing!  I have gotten to read and see some incredible blogs, and it’s fueling this little fire in me.  There is something so fun and attractive about the blogging community.  I’ve had this blog for about four years now, but I am just now branching out and discovering all that is possible with a blog.  I love it!  Thank you for your support and encouragement as I have fun!

As a small thank you, I want to give away three little hair bows that I have made with scraps from my rag quilt.

I heard so many sweet, encouraging comments about my new quilt.  I thought I could share a piece of it with three of you, by giving away these bows.  The yo-yo flowers were made with scraps from my quilt, and I then threw in a little tulle and a button to top them off.

Each one is fun and could give a little vintage or shabby chic taste to an outfit!  I hope you all like them as much as I do!  Reagan is going to need some new hair bows after I post this post.  🙂

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment saying (in order from most to least) which bow you would like to win!  I will than randomly draw three of your names and the first person picked will get his/her first choice, second person might get his/her first choice or his/her second/third choice. It depends on what the first person’s first choice was.  It’s the same process for the third name drawn.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, three of you will WIN a hair bow!

For additional entries, go like my Dancing Zebras facebook page and let me know you did on here!  Good luck!!

This contest will end one week from today.  Tuesday, July 24, 2012 will be your last day to enter to try to win one of these bows!  I will announce the winner on Wednesday, July 25, 2012.

Thank you to ALL of you once again!!  I feel so honored and humbled that people would want to give some of their precious time to read what I have to say.  Thank you so much!!

And on a little sidenote…My beautiful niece, Charleigh, (whose mama, Olivia,  I run Dancing Zebras with) is one today!!  Happy birthday sweet girl!!  I adore you!!  Sis, give that baby a kiss from me!!

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