Oh the chores...

Moving is exciting, but it can also be quite exhausting. Especially when you have like a 72 hour notice to get your house on the market. Let me just enlighten you on the last 4 days of my life.

This past weekend Matt had a previously planned trip to Oklahoma for recruiting within his company. Obviously, he wouldn't pass up a chance to visit his family while on a company-paid trip, so he decided to stay through the weekend. He left Thursday night. Friday we find out he got the job in Alaska - while I'm subbing for a junior high orchestra class. Let's just say that it was thrilling to be hundreds of miles from my husband and with 13 year old strangers on a Friday afternoon as I get informed of such exciting, life-altering news...but that's beside the point. What did this mean (other than the obvious?)? Well, we need to get our house on the market. So...busy to work I went to complete the long list of 'never getting around to doing until you go to sell your house so you don't actually get to enjoy it' chores.

First, curb appeal is everything. So, I fought the crowds on a beautiful weekend morning to purchase flowers for our yard. One thing I do not enjoy is yard work and sunburns (both of which happened). So going to a plant store and trying to figure out which of the millions of flowers to buy all by myself was not exactly my cup of tea. But I sucked it up and purchased them and planted these...

...and these...

...and these...

(...and many others...) Let's just say that I'm quite proud of myself - for this and the other hours of bush trimming, weed pulling, rose pruning I've put in. Unfortunately, I still can't say that I enjoy yard work.

I also painted the trim on the outside of the house in areas such as this:

Then I re-stained the front door. The people before us (as mentioned previously) were not the most brilliant and I think actually used just regular old paint for the front door and it was all peeling off. So I sanded it down to this....

And restained it to this...

Again, never done it before, so I'm quite proud of myself. I'm just thankful for the workers at Lowe's and the hour I spent on the 'wood stain' aisle trying to figure out the best way to do it. I just wish someone would have warned me that I maybe should have worn gloves, covered up my recently painted door trim, or that it took like 18 hours to dry...but you know, live and learn.

I also got the carpets cleaned. Maybe the better of $130 we've spent to sell this house. They look wonderful! Much easier than replacing it!

I also touched up the paint around the house on the baseboards and doors and walls. This my wonderful husband painting the ceiling, because my 5'3" frame couldn't reach.

I'm currently in the middle of doing a deep cleaning of the house...and needed a break. But back to work I must go...I only have about 3 hours before the realtor arrives.

If anyone thinks that just because I do not have a full-time job right now I'm not working...please have them call me.