House rehabing: the short list

I'm back in my house. It's nicer than I thought it would be. (Gee, I had good decorating sense!) It's good to fill it with my spirit and blood.

Today I touch-up painted as much as I could, repainted the bathroom and ran to the hardware store for a few supplies. The day is gone. And I have much to do.

The yard: a never-ending creator of rotting pears. Next will be rotting figs. Good thing I have massive yard waste bins.

Also trying to re-decorate the place with my few artistic things. "Staging" I guess is what it's called. I could have used my realtor's things, but mine probably fit better in my house. Certainly, the giddyup chair will help sell the house for me.

The list is endless, and it feels like I am not getting much done. One person, even crazy, insane me, is limited on what she can accomplish.

Add on to that, thoughts of Germany, moving companies calling, continuing the credentialling process and impending letter to renters with deposit refund to compose.

I don't have a minute to spare.

T six days and counting

Until I get my house back, that is.

And then one week of crazy frenzy will ensue as I prepare the house for sale. My beloved Portland house, which I bought just under four years ago.

I'm looking forward to filling the spirit of the house with me again before I sell it. Making coffee in the butler's pantry. Plunking the keys on the piano, filling the air with notes which acoustically dance in the high-ceiling'd architecture. Covering up the marks of renters who didn't love my house as their own, but treated it as a temporary abode.

While the advice of most is to retain the house: "Wait til the market bumps up again"- "Hire a property manager". The reality is that renters become exponentially more difficult with distance of the home owner.

So I am holding my breathe a little as I wait for the walk-through on the 31st of August. Hoping my little place will return to me as sweetly as I left her.