To bark or not to bark

When Karen the stager was here, she said our goal is to get people to say "Wow" when they walk in the house and when they walk in each room. Well, the photographer came today and he said "Wow" three times when I gave him a tour of the house. I am hoping that's a good sign.

Now that the pictures are taken, I think all we have left to do is have the carpets cleaned and figure out what we are going to do about the back yard. You may remember that our back yard is covered in sharp, ugly, white rocks.


The previous owner used to live in Las Vegas where residents get discounts on utility bills if they remove grass from their yards. By the time the lady moved in here, she had developed such a distaste for grass she ripped it out of the back yard and replaced it with the rocks. We would put sod in if we were going to stay, but doing it now would not get us the most bang for our buck.

Karen the stager suggested putting a layer of bark pieces over the rock. Not my first choice, but it will definitely be more aesthetically pleasing than the rocks. As it is now, you are blinded when the sun shines on the rocks and it detracts from the pretty things in the yard (rose bushes and other plants). I think the bark will blend in a little more. And the dogs will certainly like it better (what dog doesn't love bark? har har). The rocks hurt their their little feet.

Successful Staging

We had a very fruitful meeting with our stager, Karen, on Wednesday evening. After looking around a bit, she complimented our decorating taste and then went on to explain the difference between decorating and staging. As I mentioned before, I de-cluttered quite a bit before she came in, but I learned there was much more to do. I knew a large part of staging is to make everything more spacious, but I didn't understand that it was okay (and necessary) to sacrifice some of the decorating in the process. We didn't quite have the right balance yet. I felt a little overwhelmed with the list she left us, but our realtor, CJ, said Karen usually takes a day to compile the list of "to dos" for her clients. She was able to generate ours before she left our house, so I told myself we got off easy.

We worked extra hard on Thursday and Friday evening getting everything crossed off our staging list. We wanted to be ready for the photographer who is coming Saturday to take pictures for the websites and the virtual tour. When Karen was here she took "before" pictures and she'll come back next week to take some "afters." I think she will post them all on her site later, so I'll put up a link here if she does. It should be interesting to see the difference.

Home for Sale

We chose a realtor last week and the house is officially going on the market this Thursday. Our agent is bringing in a "stager" on Wednesday evening who will look around and give us tips on how better to present the house and (particularly) make it look more spacious than it is. I moved many many times as a kid and watched my mom get houses into shape to sell and I have sold two houses FSBO, so I feel like I have done a pretty good job staging this house, but I am anxious to hear her suggestions.

Our realtor is also giving all the agents in her office a tour on Wednesday morning. Their comments I am not so anxious to hear.

When people come to see the house during the day, Jammer and Archie will be outside in the backyard. I really hope they behave themselves. Quite often if Archie is outside and wants to get inside because he thinks something exciting is going on in there, he will belt out a high-pitched, ear piercing howl. He also does this if Jammer starts playing through the fence with Coco next door and won't include Archie. It sounds like someone is squeezing his tiny pigfoot in a pair of plyers and I could see where it might be a turn-off to prospective buyers. We thought about sticking our dogs next door with Coco, but then the prospective buyer would hear three spastic dogs next door, one of them probably screeching like a banshee, and would surely decide quite quickly that ours is not the house for them. Let's just hope most people visit in the evening so we can remove the dogs from the area entirely.

Making a Move

Hello, everyone!

As most of you know, the Browns are moving back to Memphis. I don't know what to say about it except that California is just not for us. Well, not for Scott and me anyway. Ev loves it. When we talked to him about the possibility of moving, he wasn't thrilled with the idea, but said he would be willing to do it as long as we moved back to Memphis where he has lots of friends. However, he is feeling much more enthusiastic about the move now that he has spread the word among all his old friends that he's coming back. I think he is looking forward to an enthusiastic welcome home. Our goal is to leave in mid-June when Ev gets out of school.

We have decided to sell our house here, even though the market is in the crapper. If it does not sell by midsummer we will probably hire a property manager and rent it. We have been working diligently getting it in shape to sell. And we have been interviewing realtors to find one we like. I think we are just about ready to list it. Wish us luck.

After the move, Scott will continue to work for Microplace, the company he is with now. He had offers from companies in Memphis, but when he told his current boss about our plans, she completely understood and said she wanted to do whatever it took to keep him as an employee -- even if he is in Memphis. So, his job responsibilities will change a bit, but he will still be working with the same team (which he loves) and he will keep all his benefits, stock options, etc. Needless to say we were pretty happy. This does mean we do not have a relocation package, but the other perks we keep will more than make up for it. I am not sure what I am going to do in Memphis. I probably won't decide that until we get there and get settled.

Things should be interesting over the next few months. I'll keep you posted.