A week ago we made the decision that we would go all out and try to get our house ready for sale so as to capitalize on the fact that the people we’re buying from are in the market for a townhouse.  Simple decision, but it had a massive impact on our lives.

Our house is only 6 years old so it’s a pretty clean canvas but we’ve certainly dressed it to meet our lifestyle needs.  I knew going in that to get it ready for sale it would mean packing up at least 2 thirds of our possessions.  Easier thought then done.  It ‘s a massive task.  We had 6 meters of bookcases to pack let-a-lone all the crap we’ve got stored in the cupboards throughout the house.

As usual I wrote a task list of all the things I knew we’d have to do to get the house ready and then HUBBY and I set about completing those tasks.

We had let our back courtyard get a little out of control. (A little may be a little bit of an understatement…) It had knee high weeds, a mountain of dog poop, a broken down canopy, big holes from where the dog had tried to immigrate to China and weather worn pavers.  HUBBY did 99% of the work in the back courtyard.  He weeded, filled the holes, pressure washed everything in sight, lugged 2 cubic meters of red wood chip through the house and replanted the pots that we’d let go.  He scrubbed down our entertainment setting and made everything look respectable. It was a huge effort and I’m so amazed at his awesomeness at getting it done and in such a short time frame.

To make it all a little easier to do we sent the puppies on a little vacation to the kennel.  I felt so bad the day they left but it made a massive difference.  I’m so looking forward to getting them out of there and having them in their own yard with room to move and play.

On the inside of the house I packed nearly all of our possessions in to moving boxes and stacked them in our garage.  Unlike a normal clean I couldn’t hide our stuff away in cupboards; apparently people like to look in the cupboards of their potential new home.  So as I packed it all away I cleaned the inside of the cupboards and drawers.

Once I’d finished stripping the house of anything and everything I then set to the task of “staging” it.  This meant getting our hands on 2 double beds to put in our spare room and then nursery.  It sucked so bad to pull the Little Man’s room apart and put a big person bed in there, but if it’s what it takes pulling that room apart so that we can move him into a house that he can grow up in I’m happy to make the sacrifice.

I cleaned the house to sparkling and put new white towels in our bathroom and ensuite.  I potted some new plants up and dressed up our entrance.  I potted some more plants up to bring green into the house. I purchased new cushion covers for the couch, the bench on our balcony and the beds. I purchased new curtains for all the rooms.  I made some new art pieces for the house so that the walls didn’t feel as bare.

We finished all the chores with 30 minutes to spare before the first person was scheduled to view the house. Nothing like working right up to the last minute.

Our Real Estate Agent has organised for the couple who own the house we’d like to buy to come through one after each other. Then in a pure coincidence he’d run into someone who’d been through Unit 3 at a open home the morning of our viewings.  He then asked them if they’d like to see through our unit.  So we had three groups go through.

That was Saturday. Then Sunday morning he rang to ask if he’d be able to bring the 3rd group back through our house.  We said yes – I mean what are we going to say, “Hell no, we want our lazy Sunday morning to ourselves.”  So we had a revisit.

And that brings us to today. Waiting (im)patiently for everyone to show their hands. I’m just hoping for a Christmas Miracle so that we can be in our new house by Christmas. Nothing major, you know – just sell and buy a house before 1 December… no biggie.

Stay tuned for further updates…