For those out of the children's books loop, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is the first of a series of wonderful books. We came across it the other day as Scotty was packing away some books to save. The plot is simple: if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk to wash it down. If you give a mouse a glass of milk, he going to want . . . Surely you get the picture.
Well, this idea can also be applied to other areas of life, and right now I'm in the midst of my "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenario. A real estate agent friend came by the other day, and as we looked around the house with me pointing out what I was doing and what I wanted to do, she said, "You know it reminds me of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Once you paint the walls, you notice the baseboards need paint too. Then the doors and you just keep going."
TTFN. I'm off to Lowe's for more paint.
6 comments:
Boy is this true with home repair. The key is to know when to take action and when to let it go. I think that's what some of the "Sell this House" type shows are good at doing. Helping people prioritize what is important to repair and what can be forgiven. Hope you don't have too much more added to your plate!
My sister and husband are putting their house on the market to find a bigger place, and their agent told them to paint over a complex finish they'd done on their kitchen cabinets -- kind of a whitewashed look. They thought it looked great, but the agent thought it was too "funky." Lindsay painted over it and Alex couldn't bear to watch because he'd put so much work into it. I thought they should have waited to paint in case they did have a buyer who liked their modern taste. who knows.
Yes Natalie, that's a big question. With the kitchen laminate flooring, I decided to leave it as is and offer a credit to the buyers to replace. That way they can choose a tile that suits them instead of me buying some cheap stuff just to get by. I am painting the baseboards which looked kind of sad. The den walls will have to wait for the buyers but I hate that on close inspection, I see that the previous paint job was half-ass. My big thing is that everything be really clean and I'm just going to have to have faith that there will be someone willing to love this old house with the attention she needs.
Unfortunately one thing leads to another when you start doing jobs on the house and sometimes when you paint one thing, it shows up something else! You can go on forever!
Naomi, I have discovered this fact the hard way. I am desperately trying to get myself out of a wallpapering project. If I had known now what I spent hours discovering, I'd have lived with as is.
I think a clean look is all that matters. I agree with your decision on the floor.
Natalie, I think you are definitely right about clean. And add cluttered to that too. When you look at a house that's dirty or clutter, you don't get much beyond that to see the possibilities.
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