And Baby Makes 3

A pretty good month for Ruby. She learned to babble and stick out her tongue. Looks like a Thighmaster "Before" picture too as she fattens up. She's wearing 6-9 months clothes now.

Upstaged

I promise real pictures of the new house once we close and get moved in. Let me get past the inherent panic one feels over a big purchase, then maybe I can write about it. One thing I can write about and is oddly fun is the process of getting my house ready to sell. Each of you pause and look around your house. Look at it as a potential buyer instead of a homeowner. It is bizarre. If I look at my house normally, I see the day to day work I need to do. Wipe the floor, dust the shelves, put away dishes. If I look at it as a buyer, I see worn door nobs, scratched kitchen cabinets... a whole new array of work. Argh!

As we get ready to put our house on the market, our realtor advises us to "stage" the house if possible.

Here is a nice definition of staging a house.

Home staging (British English: House doctoring) is the act of preparing a private residence prior to going up for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly, and for the most money possible by attracting the most amount of potential buyers. Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest amount of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale. Staging often raises the value of a property by way of reducing the home's flaws, depersonalizing, decluttering, cleaning, improving condition items, and landscaping. For vacant homes, rental furniture is used to create a living space the buyer could "see" themselves in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws.

In reality, staging is the process of making a home look like that guy from 'Sleeping with the Enemy' lives there. Why this makes a house more appealing, I cannot say. Do potential buyers see an unfurnished house and find it unbelievable that furniture could go there? Or do they perhaps wallow in confusion over what the purpose of a room is?

Potential Buyer: Honey I just don't know about this house.
Buyer wife: I agree. Our couch would never fit in this room with the sinks and the toilet. How could we possibly live here?

I think the only argument that holds water is if someone is that OCD about every little thing, they must have taken excellent care of the house. The interesting line to walk is leaving enough stuff that it actually looks like someone is living there. Well, regardless, its a tough market and if having a few pieces of furniture around help sell it, great. Jamey and I can live with a bed and a couch for awhile. We will be moving Ruby's furniture. I haven't decided what to do with that room yet that would be believable and wouldn't require me purchasing anything.

Potential Buyer: Look at this room! Let's get this house.
Buyer wife: I agree. I've always wanted my very own Tupperware Display room!

Hoody Towel of August - late again!

I DID take this picture in August, but am just now able to make a post. We have an offer out on a house (more on that later) and if it goes through, I will probably not have many posts this month. However, I hate to leave my adoring fans with no odd baby photos, so here is Ruby pretending to be a frog.



In other news, her daycare has a curriculum each week. This week is learning about ducks. I sure hope next week is something more useful like learning to sleep through the night. Ruby has regressed and my sanity has suffered!