The last ten days

In the last ten days we have changed so much. J's family arrived and even with two snow days that didn't allow us to go outside ((it was FREEEEEEEEEEEZING!!!)) we managed to get almost our entire list done! We painted almost the entire outside of the house, added shutters to the upstairs windows and painted the trim from a barn red color to black. We also painted the front door which makes it pop on the front of the house. The house had original dove tail wooden slat columns that were rotting away at the base. The previous owners {{some of my favorite* people - Not really)) used drywall hole kits to try and fix them. They were awful and needed to go. We took them out and replaced them with 4x4 posts and then made a surround out of more wood to make the posts more substantial. They really opened up the front of the house. The posts were maybe 18" in diameter, but after removing them it seemed that they took up the whole front of the house. Dad and J's brother fixed some holes we had from a squirrel in our soffits on the rear side of our house and we also replaced the door going out into the backyard and we also replaced all four outside lights on the house and made them match.


Inside, we painted some accent walls to match the tan color every where else in the house. We had to paint several ceilings because we just stopped doing stuff after we got the walls and ceilings re-textured when we first moved in. J's dad and brother fixed our squeaky stairs and some other small issues inside and carpet is coming in tomorrow morning for the entire upstairs. One small thing a friend did made a HUGE difference in our sellablilty. He was able to figure the wiring in our house and managed to get my dryer moved to where it always should have been next to the washer. {{For two years now I have had to lug all of our wet washed clothes into the garage and put them into the dryer}}. We painted almost every door in the house to make them look nice and new and almost all of the woodwork.

In the midst of all of this we managed to get in a very good visit with J's dad & brother. Not only am I glad that they were able to help with the house, but it is so nice for Bug to get to see her family more often then every eight months. Since she just saw them at Christmas, I'm fairly sure she remembered them. After her initial shyness wore off, she realized her "Papa" was wrapped around her finger and then she had a new best friend. Several time while they were here she walked around the house saying, "Papa? Papa? John?" If they were outside. It was so sad when we got home from an errand yesterday after they had left and she ran to the front door asking for Papa. I have the worst mom-guilt that she isn't closer to her amazing family and it's so great that she got to spend time with them and loved them so much.

So, what's next? Oh how I wish I knew. We had one showing during all of our work that went fairly well and we have one this afternoon. I'm starting to panic a little about what will happen if the house really does sell quickly. We have no POA after the selling of the house and I'm trying my best not to freak about it... we'll see how that goes.