Yes, still...

Like many of you in the blog world, lately it's been difficult to spend as much time as I would like writing, reading, and commenting on posts. The are a couple of reasons for this. One is this time of year is busy with holiday preparations and the other is we are pretty much still in the "all house, all the time" mode.

This is what I much prefer to pillows, comforters and paint colors.
Yesterday morning, we woke up to snow and this red-bellied woodpecker
at the seed feeder. This was unusual since there was a suet cake nearby.
That's what they normally prefer.

Actually, the latter is the bigger reason I haven't been posting. I got really tired writing about how busy I was and how stressed the whole house thing was making me. About how until we got the other house sold and some money back in the coffers, I was going to be worried. That was part of my money anxiety talking. Not always rational thought, but that's the way my brain works.  Although steady progress is being made, I am still feeling overwhelmed in the house area.

We are cleaning up the old house with lots of cosmetic work--painting, small repairs, cleaning, and staging. Staging. That's my new obsession. I decided that I could stage the house cheaper than the stager who would stage it and rent us her stuff for three months at a time. And we could use some of the things in our new house.

However, I've had to do a lot of educating of myself in this area. I'm not naturally gifted in decorating in the first place and I had to learn the difference between decorating to live in and decorating to sell. And that involves, among other things, taking away personal things but not making the place look too sterile. A fine line to walk for sure.

Aunt Martha and I went out recently, and started to scope the stores to see what was out there and how much it costs. We found out quickly, that we are behind the times in what is current in decorating, and our tastes are not the ones to sell a house. I am drawn to detailed nature themes and Aunt Martha is drawn to Southwest themes. Neither one is neutral enough for staging. In fact, we figured out that if we liked it, it probably wasn't appropriate for the job at hand. Ward went with me recently to do a little shopping in this area and figured out the same thing.

I am using all of our large furniture like couches, tables, beds, etc., so we haven't move those yet. It's funny how the furniture that seemed good enough when we were using it every day, looks pretty shabby when you look at it through a stager's eyes. Sofa covers, new comforters, and lots of throw pillows have helped in this area some.

But here's the frustrating thing with this process. I don't have the eye to perfectly visualize what I find in the store and how it's going to look when it gets in place or will coordinate with the other pieces that we already found. So there's a lot of buying, trying it out, and either keeping or returning. I am pretty tired of shopping for household goods.

But I have learned a few things. There can be individual parts of a room that I don't like, but when combined together make a very nice complete picture. And a couple of times when this has happened, it's been very satisfying.

So I'm still here and fretting about house stuff. But I'm trying to look at the positives and what an incredible amount we've already accomplished. And when I take a minute to let my thoughts slow down, I remember how fortunate I am to be fretting over something like getting a new house.

Until next time...

(You would think that I would have some pictures of all of this work to share, but I don't.)