Table Dancing

You might want to show off how big your dining room is by taking the leaves out of your table and pushing in the chairs.  Your thinking may be that the room will look bigger because there is more free space around the table.  In fact, as long as there is enough room so that the chairs can be pulled out, leave the leaves in the table.  Most Buyers want to know if a crowd will fit around the table at Thanksgiving. 

Now look at the floor, do you have hardwood or tile with a puny little rug under the table?  If you pull out the chairs to sit down, do the chair legs come off the area rug?  If that happens then your rug is too small.  It will make your dining room look off balance and odd.  The fastest and cheapest correction is to remove the rug.  Remember, your house will be a product not a home for you when it is For Sale.  No Buyer will care that the rug is there to catch all of Junior’s dropped food. 

When it comes to dining room tables and area rugs, size matters.

 Whether dancing or eating off of it, your table should be big.

Photo credit:  dining room 3

Moving a Family Member to A Seniors’ Home

My friend Judy Klem works with seniors in Connecticut.  She wrote this post for her site on ActiveRain.  It is so relevant that I have re-blogged it here so that we can all benefit from her advice.

  

From my Email In-Box: Replace Mom’s Moving Panic with Familiar Comforts

Moving is always stressful, no matter your age or health. But when the person moving is elderly, becoming frail, and perhaps exhibiting the early signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s, the stress can easily escalate to full-blown panic. Downsizing from a home where they’ve lived for decades, followed by facing the confusion of waking in an unfamiliar home can cause a real downward spiral.

Fortunately, the techniques developed by Senior Move Managers can really ease the situation and help replace potential moving panic with the familiar comforts that mean home.

 Email Letter - moving Mom

First, although it’s easy to think you’d be better off taking on all the work and letting Mom – or Dad – just sit and relax, this is not a good course of action. To the extent that your parent can make decisions, involve them wherever you can.

Sorting through the accumulated belongings of a lifetime is a large topic, so I’ll address the details of doing that in a separate post. For now, let’s look at what you do once you’ve got the essentials for your parent – and what those essentials need to include for Mom or Dad to feel comfortable in their new home. 

Kitchen Cabinet Snapshot

 To create a sense of familiarity, observe the day-to-day activities that are most important to your parent, as well as their favorite objects. Take photos of these objects as well as things like the insides of cabinets holding essential objects, and make lists, room by room, of the belongings they’ll need.

You’ll use both the photos and the lists to develop a plan to create a comfortable home environment in the new home. For example, the plan would include these:

  • Try to have the bed positioned so that access to the bathroom is in a similar orientation to that at the home she’s leaving.
  • Make sure the bed table is on the side she is used to, and includes the things she normally keeps there. Her bedside lamp, perhaps a spare pair of glasses, the book she’s been reading before going to sleep, and so on.
  • Get the bed ready first in case the move is really exhausting, and your Mom would like to have a nap.
  • Be sure to include artwork and photos that were in her bedroom before.
  • Set up the medicine cabinet in the same way it was in Mom’s previous home, so she can find everything easily. If prescription meds will be handled by staff, be sure to get all the correct information and medications to them.
  • Hang towels and bathrobe, and any other things your parent is used to seeing in her bathroom.
  • Include artwork from the previous bathroom.
  • Be sure to include the pillows and throw blankets, as well as the things needed for your parent to continue the activities they normally enjoy.
  • Books, music, crossword puzzles, knitting, crocheting, magazines. Anything your parent uses regularly and
  • gets pleasure from should be included and set out in a similar way so it’s all easy to see, and feels familiar.
  • Be sure to include photos of family and friends. Mom or Dad will enjoy looking at these, and this activity can help when there are some memory problems.

These are just some of the ways you can help replace the panic that can ensue from moving house with a sense of familiarity and comfort. Your senior move manager can be a good resource for this type of information, and can also lend a hand if the work proves to be too much for family members to complete on their own.Remember, there are many sources for help and information available to you. You don’t have to go it alone!

From my Email In-Box: Replace Mom’s Moving Panic with Familiar Comforts

 Thanks so much for visiting!
Judy Klem

Did you like what you read here?  Subscribe to my blog!
 - and hit the Suggest button.

Information and content in this blog is Copyright © Judy Klem

Transition Stage LLC header

Visit Judy’s website

 

Four Granny Factors that Slow House Sales

Realtors know what the Granny Factor is.  Buyers know it to see it.  The Seller cannot see a problem.  The Granny Factor is anything that says it was purchased in the 1960s or earlier and has not been updated.  Why did the owner not update?  Because good money was spent on perfectly good things.  What are these things?  Let me throw out some ideas:

1.  The fuzzy bath mat, toilet tank cover and matching toilet lid cover.  Subject of a previous post and here is what one persons decided was a better use for the bath mat….

2.  Lace curtains (unless you live in Ireland).

3.  Doilies.  I bet you thought they have all been tossed but not so.

4.  Outdated Appliances.  Yes, those avocado green appliances are alive and well and living at granny’s.  

 Photo credit:  Welcome Bath Mat? 

 Photo credit:  Lace Curtains

Photo credit:  Swan Doily

Photo credit:  Husqvarna green stove

Dead is so yesterday

Buyers talk about finding ‘the’ house, about a feeling when they are in some homes and sometimes they talk about karma.  What they are really saying is that the home appeals to all of their senses,  If you are putting your house on the market, look around your home for anything dead in the house and either toss it or pack it away for your next home.  What should you take away?

Make your house overflow with life and vitality.

Photo credit:  Hearst Castle – Stuffed Owl

I poured Spot Remover on my dog.  Now he is gone.

Feather your nest

When you are selling your home, Buyers need to find every room as perfect as you, the Seller, can make it.  Sometimes a room just needs a little punch of colour and/or texture to make it attractive.  Paint is the cheapest way to get the biggest impact – but work is involved.  The next way is through accessories. 

Buy some toss cushions.  Target / Winners/ Homesense / TJ Maxx stores have great pillow selections.  Watch for the sales as some can be dirt cheap.  These will freshen up the living, family and bedrooms.  Here are a couple of hints: 

When it comes to staging and decorating…… 

Lay down your weary head.

The Palace of Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors

Unless you are living at the palace, having a wall of mirrors in your home ages the decor.  Do you have mirror glued to the wall?  A passé decorator choice was mottled mirrors.  Now they just look like a Buyer’s nightmare.   

Buyers will look at a wall of mirrors or a bathroom with glued on mirrors and see big bucks and danger to remove them.  If you have the time and patience, you can remove the mirrored yourself before putting the house on the market.  You are going to need some supplies (tarp, tape, goggles, gloves and a metal ruler/crow bar) and time.  Check the Internet for detailed instructions. 

Once removed, patch the wall.  There will be some damage no matter how careful you are.  Take you time.  There is going to be a nice return on your investment.   

Mirror Mirror off the Wall, Make my house the fairest of them all.

Photo credit: IMG_9162

Blue Boy and Pinky

Nothing says “Grandma lives here” more than the needlepoint pictures of the Blue Boy and Pinky.  You may have inherited these pictures.  They are dear to your heart.  To a Buyer they just say – old, tired and dusty.  Any old pictures, needlepoint or paint by number, that were completed 40 – 75 years ago need to stored before your house is on the market.  

Let Blue Boy have his day in hallways at the “home”.

Chachkas and knickknacks

These are those many, tiny decorative bits that we spread around our homes.  When the house goes up for sale the chachkas need to be boxed up.  One or two are fine but take away the myriad of little vases, picture frames, biddy animals from Tetley tea and grandma’s porcelain flowers.  They collect dust and distract buyers.

Set your goal for clear clean horizontal surfaces.

Zinger 120

Slow cooker

Avoid putting your meal into the slow cooker before having an Open House.  No matter how good the food will smell to you, it will not be to everyone’s taste.  If you want, put a few apples, a bit of water and some sugar and cinnamon in the cooker.  Apples have almost universal appeal

Make sure your house sale isn’t a crock.

Zinger 118

Have you ever wondered what professionals are saying about – FUZZY BATH MATS AND TANK COVERS?

Well, now you can find out.  Yesterday I posted on ActiveRain about why Sellers should never have fuzzy bath mats and toilet tank covers.  I received over 80 comments from the 740 readers (plus over 25 of my responses) on this post.  Now it is time to share with my website readers…….  Here is the post:

Don’t flush away a sale

Get rid of those fluffy toilet tank covers and any floor mats or carpeting. 

There I have said it. 

What?  If you, the Seller,  have them and your house is not on the market, okay enjoy.  But…..  They have two huge negative factors going for them: 

1.  The Granny Factor – You know, Grandma had the tank cover, the toilet seat cover and a floor mat all in the same colour.  She also had a Barbie doll stuck in a roll of toilet paper with a crochet skirt.  Do you want people to think your house is so outdated that you have not moved away from the 50s.  A half century later and Barbie lives. 

2.  The Yuk Factor – when it is your house and your body bits in the carpet, who cares.  When you have your house for sale, get rid of any type of floor carpet.  It just turns Buyers off. 

There are some easy and cheap fixes for your house and the bathroom is likely the least expensive room to update with the biggest impact.  I found the photos below on Flickr that nicely illustrate the point.  I might have removed the throw mat.  Enjoy.

Photo credit:  Bathroom Metamorphosis @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexik/422735652/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Here is who commented: 

Wow, it’s funny to find a discussion based on my bathroom :) I am the owner of the above home; I’m glad it helped you illustrate your point Valerie! I lived in that house for 5 years and gradually did the work you see above. Disgusting toilet covers aren’t the only thing that should be destroyed though, don’t forget to replace all the cheap brass 80′s fixtures and door knobs. Swapping out ivory outlets/switches for pure white also makes a subtle but big difference.

All in all, renovating that house cost about $10k (the largest expense was Pergo flooring.) But in a neighborhood of un-remodeled homes, I was able to recoup that on the sale 5-fold.

(Also, Ellen, pulling down the wall paper was a royal pain in the ass!)     Alexi

 

Comments received as of 8:00 AM this morning.  I encourage you to go to the  site  and read through everyone’s comments.  Funny and instructive ~ just they way I like them 

← Previous Page — Next Page →