Work is well underway! Bathrooms – pretty much painted and completed. Master bedroom – painted. More packing – done. Stairwell railing – painted. Hallway walls – patched and ready to be painted. I’m on fire! (Except that I’m totally putting off the biggest project: painting the hallway which connects to part of the kitchen which in turn also means painting part of the dining room. Totally procrastinating on that one.) I also need to prime and paint one dark royal blue wall in the boys’ room, and I’ll be painting the entire laundry room. The other bigger-ish inside project is the bathtub – bleaching it and regrouting/touching up grout in it. Isn’t this just SO exciting to read about? It’s a little crazy how all-consuming getting your house ready to sell is.

I’m pretty sure I’ve said the word “carpet” more in the last five days than in my entire life before this. The debate was whether or not we need to replace the old nasty thing. Yes, the house could use new carpet. We’ve once been told (by my mother-dear) and I quote, “You could boil this carpet and make soup!” Paints a pretty picture doesn’t it? I know that we need new carpet, I know that replacing the carpet before we sell could make us sell faster, could get us more money, could really be the best way to go….BUT…The thought of moving out all of our furniture, having a hard deadline for getting the painting done, having to disassemble the boys’ loft beds, it just kind of left a huge pit in my stomach and I couldn’t shake that “gut feeling.” In the end, after a lot of research and discussion (between Mike and I and with many other knowledgable peoples,) we’ve decided to go against our realtors’ suggestion and NOT replace the carpet, and I can’t tell you how happy it makes me. Yes, when we’re on the market for possibly extra time, I may be a little frustrated with the ‘having to keep the house perfectly clean and show ready at all times’ thing, but I can guarantee you that I won’t, for a second regret not pulling our house apart to get new carpet first! Phew! I feel like the rest of the house work is very daunting, but do-able and we’ll manage, whereas the carpet situation could’ve really pushed me over the edge! Scary house Jenny is never a good thing!