Getting Ready to Sell

I have always criticized people that wait until they sell their homes to do improvements. Well, I am now one of those people. Now in my defense, I have only been in this house for a year and a half, and it was a fixer upper. I also did not plan on moving only after being here for less than 2 years. The tricky part is what changes do you invest your money in that you think you will get the money back out of it? Who the heck knows?

We picked 3 thing that we were going to update/fix anyway. The first was the master bathroom. When we bought the house we were going to change the tile for sure, and maybe the lighting and cabinets. These changes were on our schedule this Spring, but now we are leaving and so the bathroom just got freshened up. We had a company come in to deep clean the grout, fix any grout problems and remove and replace all the caulking in the entire bathroom. They did a great job and the bathroom looks great.

Secondly, we had the company that replaced our front walkway come and repair loose stones and grout on our basement patio. Very expensive and not loving it, but it is done. Outdoor grout/mortar is hard to match, so you can see the difference. We will hope for rain and sun to tone it down, lol.

On the left hand side of the picture you can see the new grout and it looks yellow right now. Getting a good rain today, so maybe it will look better tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Hope the buyers just look at the beautiful view, Right?  Or the cushions I made for the chairs, they turned out great.

Lastly we replace and fixed some windows. One had a rotting sill, one had a chunk out of the frame and we had one of the side windows beside the front door replaced because the lattes that was inside the window was crooked. All three of these projects were priced great and the outcome was fab. Just a little disclaimer on the windows. I did call the manufacturer while they were still under warranty right after we moved in, and they did not respond with all the information we needed for months and by that time the warranty ran out. SHOCKING!

All the work is done, house is on the market and now we just wait. Well, by wait I mean live in a house like it is a museum. Someone please buy this house so I can stop cleaning everyday!!!

Finding a Realtor

After the Relocation company gave us the go ahead to pick a Realtor, well I mean pick from the two options they gave us, we made the appointments and we were on our way. Realtor number 1, was a very nice mature woman, takes one to know one, and seemed to know real estate marketing. She was very complementary about the house. Loved my sewing room! We watched videos about her company, looked at comps in the area and took some pictures. She did a market analysis and sent it to the Relocation company.

Realtor number 2 came two days later. Younger man who seemed to really know the housing development and even went through a few of the houses for sale in the neighborhood before he met with us. Very impressed! He talked a lot about us, our house, the market, his company and we did a walk through, took pictures and gave us hope. After the last move we needed that the most. He did not like my sewing room the best, points off, he did like the garage, points from my husband. He did a market analysis and sent it to the Relocation company.

After Realtor number 2 left, my dear sweet husband looked at me and said, "Gigi, What is that on your shirt?" Well, I had just put the shirt on before the Realtor came, because I had painting clothes on. It was a new shirt that I just pulled out of the closet and there in all its glory down the front of my shirt was the Med size sticker. It was on my shirt the whole time I was talking and giving a tour to Realtor number 2. Of course my husband waits until he leaves to tell me. I was soooooo embarrassed.

The next morning I told my daughter about it on our morning phone call, and she thought it was hilarious. Until she called me yesterday afternoon. It is very rare that I get a call from her on a weekday at lunch time, so I was concerned that something was wrong. She said, "Mom, Remember the sticker on your shirt story? I have one better. I went to work today and after being here for several hours I walked past a mirror and realized that I didn`t finish putting on my make up this morning. I didn't even rub in my foundation all the way, and I looked like I had a skin disease. I am on my way home for lunch, and to finish putting on my make up".

She wins!

Oh, just in case you were wondering, we picked Realtor number 2.

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,
   I have some wonderful news to share. After 31 years of living away from our families, we are moving to Texas and for the first time in all those years we will have family near by. You have always been my shoulder to cry on all those years when I lived away from my family. The calls where I would cry because I was homesick, or just upset because no one came to visit. You always understood those feelings because you had them when you moved away from your family.
  It was hard raising a family without any extended family support, but you and Pop were always so good about coming to visit and even traveling to babysit so Alan and I could have a break every now and then. We grew up being the grandchildren that lived away from our Grandparents and never had that closeness with our Grandparents that our cousins had. Then I moved away and my kids had that same distance with their Grandparents that I had. You and Pop were such special guests when you came to visit and my kids cherished their time with you. Still, I was always jealous that my siblings, nieces, and nephews could see you whenever they wanted. I know you knew that feeling because you too experienced that with your family.
  Now my kids are following in my footsteps and they too have moved all over the country. Jackie is experiencing that awful distance from family now that she has her son. We are going to break the cycle! The thought of being able to see my sweet Grandson whenever I want is so exciting words cannot express the joy I feel. But the joy would be heightened if I could only share it with you.
  I know you will never see this blog and know that you may never understand how important it is to me that I share this news with you. Our communication methods are limited and while moving will take me closer to my family, it will take me farther from you. No matter where I am I take you in my heart. I miss you and love you dearly.

Air Dancers

Labor Day weekend my husband and I went to the Baltimore Grand Prix. This is a street race and it is held in the middle of the city of Baltimore.  They close off a large section of the downtown area and have a big party for this race.  We had a great time and the weather was blistering hot, but they had the paddock (garages) in the convention center where it was air conditioned. It was so nice to be able to get out of the heat and into the paddock area to cool off and to see the Indy cars and their drivers.
 Also in the convention center was an area for kids that had entertainment, go carts, those bouncy buildings and so on. Unfortunately the only way to get into the Paddock, that was closest to our hotel, was through the kid section, and that door was guarded by Air Dancers. Who in heavens name thought up this crazy device. I was dodging those silly things every day, three or four times a day.

 They look innocent enough until you try to walk past them and out of the blue they would lose air, drop down and slap you in the head or the face. While I enjoyed watching other people getting hit and thought it was funny, I was scared to walk past them and it was like trying to walk through a gauntlet everyday.

I honesty think my husband got a bigger kick out of me walking through the Air Dancers than seeing the race cars. OK, maybe that`s a stretch, but he did enjoy it a little too much.

The Bridal Bouquet

                                                                                                                                             
 I had always had the dream that one day my daughter would wear my wedding gown. This is not a unique dream, after all TLC has a series based on the notion called, "Something Borrowed". My daughter was a sport about it and tried it on, but lets face it, long sleeves and a high neck line is not what this modern bride was looking for.
 If we had thought about it early enough we could have had the dress altered for her rehearsal dress, but that idea came way too late in the process. So, I decided that we would just have to incorporate parts of my dress into the wedding.

 As you can see from this picture (Oh, we were so young) I had beautiful cuffs on my gown. I though if I could remove one it would look lovely covering the stems of my daughters bouquet. After 28 years of marriage (now 30) this dress was a symbol of "marriage success" to me, and taking scissors to it was extremely  hard.
 First, I cut one cuff off and left it  in the tube shape with the snaps left on to keep it closed.  We took it to the florist and asked them to add it to the bouquet.  Beautiful!  

 We also took a piece of lace from my gown and sewed it to the inside seam of my daughter's gown.  This way she would have a piece of my gown with her all through her special day.

 Who knows what the next step for my wedding dress will be? Maybe a Christening gown for my grand kids. You never know! 

Bar Stool Covers

   I have been getting furniture together for our Son's first off campus apartment. We had two bar stools that we picked up at Bed, Bath and Beyond to use in our new house, before we had our furniture moved. They had dark brown legs and a vinyl brown seat. The colors for our Son's living room and dinning room are red, black, and gray. I took the seat off the legs and spray painted the legs gray. (Thanks Debbie for turning me on to the art of stray painted furniture.) After three coats of gray, I put two coats of polyurethane spray on them. Beautiful!
   My dilemma was what to do with the seats. Leaving them brown was not an option.

 First I thought I would reupholster them with a red vinyl, but that would be way too much work, because they have buttons on them. If I reupholstered them with vinyl or cloth I would have to take the old cover off, repad them, and then try to cover them keeping the shape and strong structure .Plus they have such a small boarder under the seat to staple, there was just not enough room. After talking to my daughter about it she suggested a drawstring cover. SOLD!
  I took the seat, laid it on the same fabric I am using for the couch cushions and marked it by adding 7 inches on all four sides. I cut out the rectangle, ironed about one half inch hem, then folded it about one to one and a half inches all around to make a casing. I took a ribbon from one corner, laid it in the fold, pinned it so it would stay toward the fold, and then sewed the casing along the edge being careful not to stitch the ribbon. I tacked the ribbon down on one end and left a long piece out the other end for tying. I hate stringing ties through casing, so this took that step out of the process. When I was finished two opposite corners had the ribbon tacked down and two opposite corners had the ties coming out each side.

Next, in the middle of each long side I tacked down a thicker black ribbon, making sure not to sew the ribbon in the casing. These ribbons are used to tie the sides together under the seat.

Now it is ready to go on the bar stool.  Just lay it on top, pull the draw string on the opposite corners and tie in a bow.  Then I tucked the strings up under the cover to hide them. Tie the ribbons in the middle under the seat to keep the sides tight and not droopy.

DONE!  Love how they turned out and great for a college student because you can take them off and throw them in the washer.

New Name,New Address and New Look

Well I tried the anagram as a title and no one got it, so now I am changing the title to Busy Geemaw. When my daughter was pregnant with our grandson, my boys said I should go with being called Meemaw. Their love of the "The Big Band Theory" was the guiding force in that decision.  So, my older son and I decided to take the Gigi and turn it into Geemaw. Now all we have to do is to see if it works for the baby when he starts talking. I have a while to wait for that.
Just like the title I have been very busy.  Our youngest son transferred to a new college this year, and I have been busy refinishing furniture for his new apartment.  I will try to keep you updated on all the progress and ideas I have to make this kid a nice apartment on a shoestring budget. It`s what I do!