My Old Country House goes on the market April 19.

We are currently away on spring break. Thank goodness. I was exhausted.

I spent the better part of last week painting scrubbing, fixing paint chips, scraping, and readying our very lived in house to be put on the market. I do not need to tell you that this process is bittersweet. We are only the second family in this house since it was built in 1880.

I have loved and worked on every inch of this house and I say that without exaggeration. I have raised my family in this house and I’m sending children off to college from this house. It is the most wonderful house I have ever lived in. But I do believe that the time is right for us to move to a smaller home. Though knowing so does not make much of this process much easier.

We have a wonderful realtor who is working with us to ready our house to be put on the market. I moved every three years as a child, so the steps come second nature to me. But here is my list of things to do to get your house ready to put it on the market.

I am going to skip all of the obvious things, for instance if you have visible signs of damage – broken staircase slats cracked ceilings all of those things we need to be repaired/replaced  first. You may remember that last year when we contemplated putting our house on the market, we had a lot of structural damage that need to be addressed….Once those things were all fixed,

and the exterior of her house is painted, I fell back in love with my house and to be decided to postpone selling.

MY TOP TEN “TO DO”LIST

1. Touch up all paint chips and refresh worn areas of paint – walls and trim
2. give the kitchen cabinets a good cleaning and touch up paint where needed – inside and out
3. freshen the paint on the kitchen floor.
4. clean out all closets of extraneous things, and do the big purge. ( I filled my minivan TWICE. With items to donate )
5. clean out kitchen drawers
6. scrub floors, taking care to remove all paint drips
7. . ( this took the better part of the week)
8. Pack away to storage most of personal photos, big cluttered gallery walls etc, while leaving still some photos because after all a family does live in our house.
9. Dust and Wash windows, baseboard and crown molding
10. Pack up and take to storage extra pieces of furniture, and books, throw blankets and hanging coats which only serve to diminish the openness of the spaces
11. Repaint paint on front and back porches, touch up doors, repaint shed doors.

Damon took charge of the outside cleaning up rubbish and old twigs, fixing up the landscaped areas and putting down bags and bags of mulch. We also have fresh gravel put on our driveway. And bought loads of fresh flowers to put wherever needed.

Spring is a great time to sell, all the dogwoods and tulips are in  bloom and the natural beauty is a bonus.

There is much to do upon our return from spring break. We will need to style each room, freshen up the spaces. But hopefully the hardest and most physical work is behind us. For now I am off to enjoy the beauty of Puerto Rico!!!!

I will be back next week with an update on

My Old Country House!