shopping for home

it feels a bit odd to be shopping for a home. a home is such a personal thing, i feel as if it shouldn't be dealt with the same way as acquiring a new pair of jeans is. but how else do you find a place to live?

i've been on craig's list everyday now for the last two weeks. just last night i came across a listing for a place i'd previously written off but when i showed it to M, he became as wooed by it's granite countertops and wood floors as i was.

and so i called. there's something about actually making contact with a poster on craig's list that makes this whole process very real to me. i have to actually reach out of my comfort zone and interact with someone i know nothing about, asking questions that could possibly determine where i spend the next 2-3 years of my life.

M also made a good point last night, i work at home. while this seems like a stating of the obvious, it means that where we end up moving will be what i see all day, every day. if it's only 700 sq ft, well then i will live in 700 sq ft every day. sometimes you can deal with where you live b/c you get to escape it a bit when you go to work. but this is not the case for me. my home is where i am nearly 24/7. and in that case, maybe it is worth a couple more dollars to make it nice.

moving

it's been exactly a month since my last posting. so sorry for the delay. between then and now, we found out that we're moving to the windy city! while that sounds extremely exciting, do you have any idea what goes into getting your home ready to show buyers? i found out this past week.



our first order of business was to steam clean the carpets. that was an undertaking and a half. i really should have documented it because at one point most of our furniture was crowed into our kitchen or our entry way. i had to perform complex acrobatic movements just to get from the cabinet that holds our glasses to the fridge that holds the juice when i wanted something to drink.

next was organizing and boxing. luckily we're both fairly neat people and so i actually enjoyed this step. we boxed up lots of closet goodies and ended up with about 20 boxes total. these went to very kind neighbors who were willing to lend us some garage space to store things in until we moved.

then came the true "staging" of a the place. so when it comes to selling, it's all about first appearances. we set the table (as you can see), added fresh flowers, put linens in nice lined baskets (cost plus world market... baskets galore), uncluttered our mud room and on and on. the place has seriously never looked so good. it's a bit sad that i'm only going to get to enjoy it this way for a few more months.