Home tour

As part of our "get the home ready" for the big for sale sign in the yard (May 13th is the day!!) I took some pictures of the house for our listing. Some of these pictures you may have seen before, I have done "photo tour" link ups in the past. Most of the pictures were taken by me, the ones that look like a "fish eye" were from my very talented friend Amy Aiello Photograpy, she did a photo tour of my home a few years back when we wanted to sell, but since I have changed some things, I wanted to update most of the pictures!

Back entry way, this is how we enter the home 100% of the time.

Kitchen, was completely gutted and remodeled when we bought the house

Downstairs bath. I believe it once served as a pantry. When we bought the house, there was a full size tub and shower in it, but I wanted it gone, so the room appeared bigger.

Dining room (staged as you may remember from recent posts!)

I can not wait to get a new comforter set! This one is U G L Y !

Acilia's room

Miles' room

"Bonus room" which was listed as a 4th bedroom when we bought the house.

Upstairs bath

Hubby put a stackable washer/dryer in my upstairs bath, I will admit, I won't like if  our next house doesn't have this option!

Staging

As you know, I've been wanting to sell our house for atleast 5 years, I've spent most of that time preparing it for sale, so now, that the time is here, there isn't all that much to do. (THANK THE GOOD LORD!!) I had decided that we would not be bringing our dining room set when we move, so when that SOLD my husband suggested we should probably put *something* in the room, so it's not completely empty. As much as I was enjoying the empty room, I knew he was right. So I set out to find something to put in the room, I was looking for accent furniture of some sort, I struggled a bit because I didn't want to buy anything that would match this house, because I am not sure how we will be decorating the next house and I didn't want to buy furniture that we wouldn't use for more than a few months. I have a favorite consignment boutique that sells housewares, so I thought it would be a good idea to look in there. Lo and behold, I found something! A little table with two chairs set. It doesn't match the house, yet it doesn't NOT match either and I've made it work I believe! :)

Now that our dining room isn't bare, I decided to move into the family room. That room was mostly decorated, but it needed a little toy clean up (we stashed toys behind the couch and that had to go!) The toys are cleared and I moved the couch away from the wall. There is a new wall hanging behind the couch and now I thought it would be nice to put a floor lamp between the wall and the couch. Ambiance right?

What's great is that the items I have purchased to "stage" the house, can easily be used in the future, because it's all neutral enough! And, better yet, it didn't break the bank! The Table and Chairs set was only $164. The shop marked it down while I was there!! (SCORE!) and the lamp was only $80 from Homegoods, where most other floor lamps I saw there were $200! (SCORE!!)

Stay tuned for the day we put the sign up in the yard!! I can't wait!!

Ups and downs

Life has many ups and downs. One day, one hour, one minute could be filled with joy, then like a light switch, it can change for the worse.

Easter was wonderful this year, not for any special reason, just because it was nice to see family and see the joy on my kids' faces and church, it always delivers wonderment for me!

And then comes the "down". I remember I am still me, completely and utterly imperfect. Most days I am cool with the fact that I am not perfect, because I am not a perfectionist, however there are things about myself that no matter how hard I try to change them, I fall short and end up feeling as though I am "pretending" and that is the exact opposite of the "authentic person" I want to be.  There is this thing that gets in the way, it's called emotions. Yes, I feel and notice a lot of good around me, but I tend to get caught up in the fact that life is not all good and not everyone is in the same place in their journey as I am, and I on good days, I am understanding of that fact. On bad days, I can't comprehend it and I start to think that it's *my* problem and I then fall into a spiral of thought and emotion. This morning is an emotional day, no one would know it looking at me, I still have that optimistic smile, however inside I am questioning myself and what I can do differently to navigate through this crazy thing called "life". Ultimately I want to be the best I can be, and I have so many aspirations and at times I get so overwhelmed by what I *want* to do, that I turn into a lazy bug that is paralyzed into doing nothing more than sitting at my computer. The good news is, I am not in denial about it :) I *know* these things and I *know* I want to change, and I think we can all agree, that's the first step right?