Home Staging for a Quick Sale!

Welcome to John and Debbie’s home.

These are the dear friends who bought our home before we even put it on the market.  Over the last few weeks they’ve been working non-stop to get their own home market ready and I’ve had a great time working alongside them doing some painting, advising, home staging, etc.  It all came together last weekend just in time for their first Open House.

Come on in and I’ll give you the grand tour!

Beautiful living room, yes?

The first thing I want to say is that my friends put a LOT of work into their home to get it market ready before the staging could even begin.  Some of the projects included all new interior doors and trim, a new counter top in the laundry room, new sinks in the kitchen and master bath, new flooring in both baths,  a new mirror and painting the bathroom cabinet in the “kid’s bath”, trimming out a plain bathroom mirror in the master bath, installing a new shower door in the master bath, taking down family photos, clearing out cabinets and closets to make them more roomy, hauling extra stuff over to the guest cottage at my house (to store there until they are ready to move in), cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.  Am I forgetting anything guys?

The second thing I want to say is that there was a whole team of people involved in the actual staging.  The first day of staging my friend Deanna and I spent a day moving things around, taking things away, and beautifying the nice things our friends already owned.  The next day another friend Kate and her daughter Madison came in and added the finishing touches that gave this home the “Wow!” factor.  It was great to have a twenty-something on hand to give everything a fresh new look!

You can see the underlying “traditional” style has been updated and made fresh with pops of color (orange is so “in” right now), bold graphic prints in the pillows, great new artwork and new modern light fixtures.

This house is very open with vaulted ceilings, making it light, bright and airy.

As Pastors, my friends are always having people in and out of their home so this open concept has been great for all of their entertaining.

The family room/study is right off the dining room.

With it’s free standing gas fireplace it is such a cozy place to read a good book on one of our dreary Pacific NW days.

The kitchen is clean and open with new stainless steel appliances.  The cabinets are all in really great shape so they just used a little Restor-A-Finish to brighten them up.

Madison suggested leaving the counters completely clear to show off the amount of counter space available for food prep.  Good call Madison!

The main bathroom got a new coat of paint on the walls and cabinets, as well as new flooring (you’ll see the same new flooring in the master bath).

This cabinet was repainted with a new type of paint called Reclaim (similar to chalk paint in that you don’t have to prep surfaces) that has a built in sealer.  I’m anxious to try this paint out myself sometime.

This is one of the kid’s rooms.  You wouldn’t believe the difference after painting over the navy blue walls and ceiling!  We used Valspar’s Cream and Sugar in all of the bedrooms and baths.  All of the bedrooms also received new bedding and artwork on the walls.  By the way, this little bed was found at a garage sale and was Debbie’s first piece of chalk painted furniture.  Isn’t it darling?

Here is another kid’s room.  No more multi-colored walls or Zebra stripes.  Sorry hon 🙁

The master is bright and airy with a walk-in closet and a linen closet.  Simple new shades for the lamps made a huge difference.

Along with the new paint, the master bath has a newly framed mirror, new sinks, new flooring and new shower door.

Step into this private backyard retreat.  Backing up to a home on acreage it is very quiet and park like.

My friends added the beautiful deck with built in planters and benches.  They’ve also created several small “rooms” in their back yard.  So great for entertaining.

Wonderful stairways down three sides of the deck.

This is the front of the house.  Haven’t they done a great job adding curb appeal with these gorgeous hanging baskets?

My friends had a very successful open house with many interested parties, even before it hit the MLS listings.  It is expected to sell very quickly because of the great location and the good price point.  At one point I asked my friends if all the work they did to make their home market ready made them want to stay.  They’ve always loved their home and are only moving because ours became available.  They said that in spite of how beautiful their home looks with all of the updates they are still more than ready to relocate to our lake house.  Phew!

It has been so much fun helping our friends get their home ready to sell.  I know my pictures don’t really do it justice as indoor photography is something I haven’t yet mastered but I intend to learn.  One thing I do know, being online almost daily looking at homes for sale, is that my photos are better than many of those the real estates use on their listings.  It makes me wonder if I could learn enough about indoor photography to actually find a market for my skills.  Hmmm . . . it’s a thought anyway.

I can’t wait to see what person or family gets to move into this delightful “new” home!

7/23/14 Status Update: SOLD!

Blessings,