Nursery Furniture
Happy Wednesday morning! I just finished grading my last online discussion posts of the year—whoohoo! Final exams…well, those will have to wait until next week. The end is in sight, ladies and gents! Although I’m not sure if any gents actually read this blog…maybe my dad? Little bro? If so, welcome!
Blogging has clearly been at the bottom of my list lately, but I thought I should update y’all on the nursery. It’s done enough that if a baby came tonight—gulp—we would be okay. In all honesty, we would have been fine if the nursery was mismatched and chaotic, so maybe I should say that I would be okay. Haha. Perhaps it’s more about the mom feeling prepared…
We definitely made our biggest strides when my mom and aunt came out, as they painted walls and furniture, bedazzled curtains, and decked out the room with frames for art. My mom was a whiz at painting the room! I’m pretty sure she did it all within about four hours, and that included two coats of paint, plus painting the inside of the closet. But this post is about furniture, so let me get back to the point. Our nursery consists of used furniture, which we were extremely happy to receive, in addition to making a few Craigslist purchases. Buying a new set just wasn’t in the budget for us, and when it comes down to it, I thoroughly enjoy the process of making used pieces feel cohesive and new. Plus, I love it when a room evolves over time. Take a peek into our progress…
Remember how I bought this rocker off of Craigslist awhile back? (I was air-drying the cushions after washing them…)
As it turns out, the cover was much harder to…cover…than I originally thought it would be. My kind neighbor was willing to help tackle the project, but in the end I decided that it wasn’t worth the headache, nor the extra cost of upholstery fabric. Thankfully, I was able to resell the rocker for the same price I paid for it, and then a few days later I bought another rocker for $30 off Craigslist. This time, the rocker was pretty much everything I wanted. The owners took extra good care of it, and they even had it recovered recently in a fabric that I was happy with. To top it off, they were super nice people and we spent about 30 minutes chatting before I actually paid them for the rocker. It felt right.
All I did was prime and paint the rocker white (actually, my aunt did it for me—thanks, AJ!). Tadaa!
The other piece of furniture that needed some TLC was a table given to us by some good friends. Apparently they swiped the table off of www.freecycle.org when they first got married, so I didn’t feel bad taking it off their hands for nothing.
My original idea was to paint the table white in order to match the rocker and changing table dresser, but it looked pretty washed out. Mom suggested painting the top a darker color, so we just wrapped a garbage bag around the white base, gave the top a few coats of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, by Rustoleum, and then a few coats of polyurethane to keep it from getting scratched and beat up. I love the final result!
The dark top really helps to ground the table and ties it in nicely with the other dark brown accents in the room. It makes me want to find more free tables…they have so much potential! Actually, some friends called us the other night to tell us about a free desk that was on the side of the road. I sooo wanted to pick it up and give it a second life, but I said no. It’s getting harder to maneuver myself into the positions needed to paint, I probably shouldn’t paint right now, and with a baby coming soon, I need to allow myself a little time to relax. I hope someone else decided to redeem that desk!
In other baby related news, my sweet 7th grade students and their parents threw us a surprise baby shower at school yesterday! They went all out on food, décor, thoughtful notes of encouragement, and gifts galore! It was a blast, and we were so blessed by their efforts. They even gave us a huge lawn sign that we can apparently stick in our yard when the baby comes. It has a place to write the name, weight, etc. I guess it’s an easy way to let the neighbors in on the action!
My Favorite Things
Do you ever need to take a “count your many blessings moment”? This morning I woke to sun and birds, the sound of an early morning lawnmower, freshly laundered curtains stirring, and I realized that I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t taken time to smell the proverbial roses, to enjoy the stillness, to savor a line sung by Andy Pete, to inhale newly baked bread, to see with grateful eyes. In the midst of wrapping up the school year and baby showers and delightful weekend visits from family and baby preparations and reading about natural birth and parenting and and and…you get the picture. So today I donned the camera and soaked in a few of my favorite things—things that are around our house, in our yard. Tangible. Present. Small. Bright. Here. This isn’t a complete list of thanks, nor is it particularly deep or theological in nature. But today I found beauty in my surroundings, and I’m grateful.
Such a meager list…so much more that could be said…and yet my heart is lifted.
Mom to Bee Baby Shower
Last night my friend, E, and I hosted a baby shower for our mutual friend, B—who is due about 3 1/2 weeks before us.
A good time was had by all and I thought I’d share a few details about the theme of the shower, along with some photos.
B and her hubbie have decided to use Classic Winnie the Pooh as their nursery theme, so E and I decided to play off that idea for the shower. We went the route of a honey and bee theme, and it turns out there are tons of great ways to tie this theme into a baby shower. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of the invitations that we made, but at the top we wrote, “Babies and honey…two of life’s sweetest things.” We also got a little cheesy and made sure to let people know that it was a shower for the mom to bee…
For décor, we kept it pretty simple and incorporated some rustic elements, like hemp twine, tin cans, lots of textured cardstock, potted mums and sunflowers, and some handwritten Winnie the Pooh quotes scattered throughout.
E found all the quotes, and they were the perfect touch! If you haven’t read a WP quote lately, check out this website and you’ll find some whimsical words that might do your heart good. Here’s one to whet your palette.
While we kept the food fairly simple, it was really yummy and touches of honey were sprinkled in here and there. Our menu consisted of:
- Spicy honey chicken skewers
- Vanilla cupcakes with honey cream cheese frosting, topped with a blackberry
- Frozen grape skewers
- Melon fruit salad
- Cranberry scones with lemon curd and fresh clotted cream
- Vegetable pizza
- Jars of B’s favorite candy
- Honey sticks
- Tangy citrus and sorbet punch
- Orange and lime flavored water
Everyone took a Mom to Bee quiz and the winner received a honeycomb soap from a local downtown boutique. The second game was for voluntary participants, as it was a multi-tasking game to see who could do certain tasks the fastest while holding a baby; the winner’s prize was Burt’s Bees lip balm. All in keeping with the theme, right?
During the shower B’s friends wrote notes of advice and blessing on mini honeycomb hexes, which they pinned to a corkboard. B then drew one of the notes randomly and that person took home the mums.
I’m so thankful to live in a community of women who rally around one another during all seasons of life!
Closet Combining
Nesting. It’s apparently all the rage when you’re pregnant, although I think that I tend to nest even when I’m not with child…which means my nesting is slightly more neurotic than most…hence, my freakish desire to combine closets.
Whoever built our little 1947 house decided that closet size wasn’t a major necessity, and while I would love to say that closet space isn’t important to me because our material possessions are not our priority, I have to admit that I like having space for my shoes. And clothes. Bags. Belts. You know…girly stuff. But at the same time, I love that having smaller closets forces us to pare down and not hoard tons of extra junk. If I buy something new, I tend to donate something old. But I’m rambling. The point is that we have two bedrooms with small closets, so when we moved into our bungalow, Matt took the back bedroom closet and graciously allowed me to take the master bedroom closet. This system worked fine for quite awhile, but now that the back bedroom is being converted into a nursery, I decided it was time to truly unite as a married couple—it was time to share a closet.
Now some of you might say that a newborn doesn’t need a closet all to themselves, that we could get away with keeping separate closets for awhile longer, yadda yadda yadda. But I’m not good at doing things halfway. It bothers me. At some point there might be two kiddos sharing that back bedroom and then we’d definitely have to make the switch, so why not do it now and learn to live with it? Even if the closet isn’t loaded with clothing, I already have lots of baby items that will be making it their home, as there is nowhere else in our house to put them. So last weekend we bit the bullet and spent a good portion of Saturday morning paring down, moving seasonal clothing items to the basement for storage, and rearranging the master closet.
Here’s what the master closet looked like when it was just little ole’ me using it.
The back bedroom closet when Matt was using it…
And the combined master closet…
Here’s the now empty nursery closet (notice that the hubs converted that funky removable plumbing wall into a hinged door—yay!).
My goal is to paint the nursery closet a fun color (actually, I’m planning to have my mom paint it when she comes out to paint the rest of the nursery), so we’re not filling it up yet. We’re also replacing that nasty bar with a new white one, since we’re removing the closet door and hanging a curtain instead. The door doesn’t shut completely, takes up valuable wall space, and I like the idea of a cute curtain hanging in its place.
As for our newly combined master closet, I have to say I LOVE it! I’m not sure if Matt would agree with me, but I really like storing only the clothes I actually wear in the closet at one time. I was shocked to find that extra space existed after we combined our clothes, belts, bags, and shoes. That deserves a woot woot! We do have two dressers plus a stand of wicker baskets that hold stuff like t-shirts, socks, and our unmentionables, but I was even able to give up two of my wicker baskets so that Matt could store his socks in them.
Ahhh…freedom from clutter.
So a few tips for organizing/combining closets:
1. Have garbage bags on hand, that way you can create a stash of items for the thrift or consignment store. My rule of thumb is that if I haven’t worn it within the last year, I’m not likely to wear it again. Out it goes. Last year I experimented with hanging my clothes on backwards hangars; any hangars that were still facing backwards were clearly clothes I hadn’t worn in the past year, so they were thrown out (I made a few exceptions, but not many).
2. If combining closets with your significant other, be flexible and willing to share. This can be challenging, ladies, as you likely have a lot more stuff than your man. Thankfully, we were able to work together so it wasn’t too difficult. It also helped that we pared down to the items we are wearing this season and this season only. For Matt, that doesn’t change all that much throughout the year (guys have it so easy), but I definitely have different items for warm and cold months. At the moment, our closet pretty much contains only my prego clothes. Also keep in mind that you change over time, and therefore things that you used to wear may not be as important to you. For example, in college I wore a ton of bulky sweatshirts because I was always trying to keep warm on campus and in our old school apartment (love that tiny place). Now that we live in Colorado, I find that I wear more fitted fleece items which take up less space, keep me warmer because they’re designed better, and have basically replaced my sweatshirts. When I went through my stash, I ended up tossing several because I realized that my lifestyle has changed enough that I won’t likely be going back to sweatshirts anytime soon. I kept a few and ditched the rest.
3. Use the space underneath the hanging clothes. Several years ago we installed wire shelves on the lower half of the master closet, which provides space for stacking jeans and sweaters, along with stashing a few bins filled with hats, scarves, belts, etc. There’s even enough space underneath the shelves for storing a few pairs of shoes.
4. Don’t forget about closet walls. There are several inches of space around the edge of our closet, and we plan to either hammer in a few nails or a rack for belts and ties. It’s the perfect amount of space for hanging those long and skinny items.
5. Leave some extra space in your closet for adding items in the case of unexpected weather changes, the occasional new purchase, and simply because it’s far easier to find what you’re looking for when you’re not shoving aside a bazillion items every morning. A little breathing room also keeps clothes from getting wrinkled, which is certainly a plus in my book.
I was a bit ruthless when it came to my own clothing, but keep in mind that we’re still storing plenty of seasonal items in our basement, so I didn’t get rid of as much as you might think. Still, Matt did take an entire SUV full of stuff to the local thrift store (we pared down a few more items in the basement in addition to clothes and shoes). Part of me wanted to keep everything for a summer yard sale, but who am I kidding? I have a feeling a yard sale won’t be at the forefront of my mind when this child arrives… So we got rid of it.
And that’s the end—or perhaps the beginning—of our closet organizing adventure.
Back It On Up!
Spring break has officially ended for me, but in true Colorado style, this morning greeted us with a snow day! After a week of gorgeous 70-80 degree weather, it is now snowing big, beautiful flakes on April 3. Funny how it evaded us all of February and March… In between answering student emails about literary analysis and putting our new crib together (it arrived on our porch yesterday—hurray), I thought I’d fill you in on my latest bookcase hack.
Awhile back we purchased the Expedit bookcase from IKEA. I love the clean lines, chunky edges, and functional storage options. But after putting the bookcase together, the open back bothered me. Notice the three—yes, three—electrical outlets?
Not attractive. Not to mention that an open back begs for some applied creativity.
So I started brainstorming ideas. My first inclination was to purchase some thin pressed board from Home Depot for about $8, cover it in a cheerful fabric, and then adhere it to the back of the bookcase. Apparently this is a common solution to the open backing of the Expedit bookcase, along with wallpaper, etc. Sadly, after browsing the fabric at JoAnn’s and online, I realized that my favorite finds were a bit…pricey. Since I didn’t want to spend much money or time on the project, I decided to keep my options open. Enter: Target!
There is something about perusing the aisles of Target that never fails to inspire me. This trip was no exception. While walking past the placemats, these geometric vinyl mats caught my eye. Hm.
Hmm.
Hmmmmm…
I must have a thing for vinyl placemats, because while I can’t say I fancy them on the dining room table, I’m drawn to them as wall art. Remember these guys? They’re still gracing our living room walls in all their green, textured glory. I figured if I like framed placemats, I might like them as bookcase backing, so I snatched up eight mats at $1.99 each and bustled home to test my theory.
You know I love changing things up, so I was very happy to find that blue painters tape—which is easy to remove from surfaces—was all I needed to adhere the placemats to the back of the bookcase. It’s not a permanent solution, but I love knowing that they can be switched out at any time without leaving lots of holes in our bookcase.
I chose not to cut my placemats, just in case I want to use them elsewhere down the road, so the bottom ones on the very bottom shelf overlap a bit.
But unless you’re lying flat on the floor and looking directly at that spot, it’s not noticeable, especially since those slots are being filled with storage baskets. I think I secretly like knowing that I’ve jimmy-rigged parts of our house décor. A custom look doesn’t always require lots of time and money, which is good news for this gal.
A peek at the backside…
I’m not done styling the bookcase, but for a few “after” shots I threw in some baskets (also from Target—oops, forgot to remove the tags) and a few clearance items that I’ve been collecting on the sly. Mister Owly might be getting himself a new coat of feathers, as hunter green isn’t exactly my fav and I’m jonesing to break out the spray paint when my mom comes to visit. TBD.
So am I the only one who finds uses for vinyl placemats? This could be my new addiction…
Taos Trip 2012
The term “babymoon” has only recently been added to my vocabulary—and I have to admit that I think it’s a swell idea! It’s essentially like taking a honeymoon, only it’s usually shorter and means that soon your weekend trips will dwindle as a baby enters the scene. Or at least that’s what everyone tells us, so I’m starting to believe it.
Matt sweetly put this weekend getaway on the calendar for my birthday back in December, and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since. So here are a few highlights from our delightful weekend trip to Taos, New Mexico.
First, my boyfriend booked us Puerta Rosa (The Rose Room) at this adorable B&B, The Adobe & Pines Inn, on the south end of Taos.
The grounds are made up of quaint adobe buildings, which are basically private suites.
My favorite part of our room was definitely the spa bathroom, which was practically the size of our bedroom and included a sauna (which I sadly could not use). Adjacent to the huge tub was a fireplace—the stuff of dreams, I tell you. And yes, I made sure to enjoy the tub with a crackling fire every night. With bubbles—lots and lots of bubbles.
Although southwest décor isn’t my personal cup o’ tea, I can certainly appreciate it, especially in a local setting. I snapped a few photos of my favorite features…
I almost walked off with this massive dough bowl—almost.
And don’t you love the herringbone wood pattern of the built-in closet doors?
Of course, every room in the B&B had a unique ceiling of patterned wood, plus lots of colorful doors—eye candy galore!
Breakfast was also a fun affair, as the owner of the B&B is a gourmet chef—originally from the Bronx—and he served up the most stunning concoctions, like cheese blintzes with kiwi chocolate sauce. Yum!
And it didn’t hurt that there was a constant supply of oatmeal raisin cookies and hot chocolate just waiting for us every time we left our room…
Taos is an artsy town, and we enjoyed perusing the tiny shops—although I definitely liked the stores that were less artsy and more crafty/décor based. Matt humored me and even got excited over a few of the shops himself. Our favorite was Seconds, which is a store that takes used materials and repurposes them into something fresh and new. We actually made a purchase there, which we’ll be sure to share in another post.
Ultimately, though, our favorite thing to do when exploring a new town is to “discover” good restaurants. You could say that we sort of ate our way through Taos, which is also what we did on our first anniversary to Ridgeway, Colorado—a teensy hole in the wall town, consisting of about two streets. You wouldn’t believe the amazing food we found there! Anyway, Taos did not disappoint either, and we were super happy about it. One of our favorite places was Antonio’s, which served up Mexican cuisine that reminded us of Salsa Brava, which is one of our absolute favorite places to eat in Colorado Springs—although it’s a bit pricier, so it’s considered a special treat. Antonio’s tableside guacamole and king crab enchiladas were insanely good—and Matt tried mole for the first time, which he liked (I was not a fan, as it tasted like anise).
The Bent Street Café had adorable patio seating, where we soaked in some rays while listening to oldies music and munching on Mediterranean style food. It was a great spot for people watching, too.
But our absolute favorite-takes the cake-must visit if you ever go to Taos—the Taos Cow (it’s a little off the beaten path, but totally worth the trek).
I mean, how can you go wrong with a name like that? It’s like the cat’s pajamas, the bees knees…the Taos Cow. And it lived up to its name. We dug into sandwiches (Matt went with a Portobello veggie sandwich, while I stuck with a grilled turkey club—and for the record, I am not a mushroom fan, but Matt’s choice was suuuuperb—eeks, can’t believe I admitted that on the web)
and then true homemade ice cream (Matt went with chocolate almond and I gravitated toward the blueberry).
To top it off, they sell my favorite tea, Mighty Leaf, which I can never seem to find.
Oh, and they were featured in Bon Appetit magazine as one of the top ten ice cream parlors in the States. No, we weren’t paid to dish about the Taos Cow, but consider us hooked.
That same afternoon, while Matt was off taking pictures of the landscape
I snuck into a consignment shop and fell in love with this bamboo serving tray.
It was huge, sturdy, $22, and BAMBOO! Sadly, we thought the bottom might be too rough on our ottoman, and even though I probably could have rigged it to work somehow, we left it for someone else to discover and instead I consoled myself with a few snapshots (I think the owner of the store was secretly very proud that I was taking pictures of his second-hand bamboo tray).
Of course, we also hit up the great outdoors, although I’m not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, so we stuck with hiking a flat trail that meandered along the Rio Grande Gorge.
Those were a few of the trip highlights, in addition to stopping by the home of some good friends and grabbing burgers at Big K in Buena Vista on our way back to the Springs. It’s always good to get away and be refreshed, and I’m certainly savoring these final memories of being just a couple.
Detail Dallies
Happy Monday, all! Our weekend consisted of warmer weather, juicy hamburgers, games with friends, and a good old fashioned house cleaning. Oh, and I whipped up these tasty orange-chocolate-chunk muffins—one of my favorite combos. Hopefully you were able to relax and indulge in a bit of springtime activity. We’re thinking next weekend it’s time to tackle the garage, which is sorely in need of rescue…
While I haven’t written much about it lately, our nursery is progressing. It won’t be painted until my mom comes to visit in April (I’m actually saving up a bunch of mini-painting projects for her), but we’ve got some of the big pieces in place, which I’ll be sharing as they come into completion. This weekend I wrapped up the details of our changing table dresser. Remember this guy?
While I love cheery white furniture, I thought new knobs would add some pizzazz, plus the original wood ones were looking a bit chippy. I also wanted to cover the inside of the drawers in decorative paper for a fresh feel—and because who doesn’t love that tiny surprise of finding a pattern tucked into a drawer?
So other than giving the dresser a quick coat of white paint, I dallied in the details, which tends to be my favorite part of decorating.
During a trip to Hobby Lobby, I spotted these star-like beauties for 50% off and ran home to try them out.
Sadly, one of them broke as soon as it was tugged on, so I hunted down a new one on my next trip to HL and actually purchased a few extras just in case it happens again. Their tawny taupe color and slightly jagged texture definitely tug on this girl’s heart strings.
For the record, I’ve been having really good luck at Marshall’s lately—my second home—and found this self-adhesive drawer liner for a song. And it came in a two-pack!
I’ve been slightly obsessed with bamboo patterns recently and this was the perfect blend of bright, clean pattern to add to a boy’s dresser.
For some reason most of the drawer liners I’ve run across are floral and scented, which was not exactly the route I wanted to go. As a back up, I was prepared to go this route and use high quality wrapping paper with Mod Podge if necessary, but the self-adhesive liner worked like a charm. It was pretty easy to cut and lay out, since there was a grid to follow on the back, although it took some patience to make sure there were no stray air bubbles hanging around (I used our debit card to smooth the paper into place).
The final product…
Gotta love how those details give the dresser a unique feel. I keep opening the drawers and oohing over the “surprise” of the bamboo paper. (The knobs look really dark in the photo above, but they actually change color depending on the lighting, as they’re more of a translucent glassy brown.)
What are your favorite details to add to a room? Knobs? Drawer liners? Funky patterns? Lighting? A bold piece of art? Divvy up the details, please!
Behind the Scenes
Today it is 65 degrees and sunny, so we are headed to the zoo! I might even whip out my flip flops for the occasion. In other news, it’s time I update you on the whole staging business, as many of you have asked about it. Before I forget, let me say a huge thank you, as I received a ton of encouragement and support during this process. And now for the nitty gritty details…
Unfortunately, I don’t know how much I’m allowed to share on the web, since this house is still on the market and there are likely privacy issues involved. That said, I won’t be sharing many photos, but I will divulge a few of the projects that I tackled along the way.
As it turns out, staging is not interior decorating. It’s far more about minimizing, organizing, revealing the finer attributes of a room, and adding a few decorative touches here and there to enhance the space. In a sense, you are depersonalizing a space. The stager has to tactfully help the seller to part with their personal style, family photos, collections, etc. Can you see how this might be a…tender process? To get started, I met with the sellers one evening and completed a walk-through of their home. They went through it with me the first time to explain the ins and outs of each room, and then I walked through it by myself, taking copious notes. I also snapped some “before” photos for my personal portfolio and to remember what each room looked like when I was out running errands or brainstorming. Then I raced home and typed up a lengthy consultation report breaking down what needed to be accomplished in each room by the seller and the stager. I do love me a good list. : ) Before slipping off to sleep, I emailed the consultation report to the sellers and realtor. A few days later—after giving the sellers some time to get started on their end of the list—I popped back over to their house and spent a good chunk of time rearranging furniture (although being pregnant, the sellers did all the actual grunt work), organizing closets, and adding decorative touches from my personal staging inventory—which, at the moment, is pretty tiny.
It bears mentioning here that I really did not have much of a staging budget going into this. So I had to dig deep. And fast. My brain definitely worked overtime while I slept, because I would wake up in the middle of the night to write down ideas that I’d been dreaming about—and I’m normally a sound sleeper. Digging deep meant using several items from our own home (Is that weird? Turns out that many professional stagers actually did the same thing while getting their business off the ground). I’m praying this house sells fast—yes, for the sake of the sellers and realtor involved—but also because I miss my lamps and art work and bowls and…you get the picture. I’m pretty sure our neighbors thought we were moving out that week! Here a few of my piles wait to be packed up…
But I didn’t just use items from our house. I actually found some really cool art—textured and mountainesque—at a thrift store, so I snagged two pieces of it for under $15 total and then just spray painted the frames (Oil Rubbed Bronze by Rustoleum) to give it a more updated look.
This black and silver mirror was also on super sale at Ross, because the mirror was unattached from the actual frame. So I turned to my dear cans of spray paint (Oregano by Rustoleum this time—sorry for the horrendous final picture—promise that it looks really good) and also taped the mirror back into the frame. Hodge podge? You bet. Will anyone ever know the difference? Nope—although I tend to share my dirty secrets with you guys, so I’m counting on you to keep it quiet.
And of course, I raided Pinterest for other art ideas, which led me to this herringbone paint sample piece, which I’d been wanting to try anyway. It’s not a big piece, but it worked great in their entryway to add an interesting pop of color that tied in well with the green mirror.
Clearly this would make a lot more sense if I was showing you pictures of the entire space, but alas, the scattered details will have to do. At that point, I gave the sellers a few more days to finalize things on their end (more organizing, cleaning, etc.), and then I went back for a final walk-through. I made a few final adjustments and then took my own “after” photos. I also handed the sellers a very, very final “to do” list, along with a list of things to complete before each showing. I tried to make it as specific to their needs as possible by including items like, “Remove the strobe light from X’s room before each showing.” Yes, they have little munchkins who have special things in their rooms—you can’t take everything away from the kiddos!
Everything was finished within one week. The realtor called me a “workhorse,” which cracks me up! I’ll take it as a compliment—a trait I get honestly from my own parents. The sellers were great to work with and did a ton of behind the scenes work as well. They even rented a storage unit, which was awesome, as it allowed us to pare down and really simplify some of the spaces.
And yesterday I got my paycheck in the mail—woot! Today the mister and I are trying to figure out exactly how to break the paycheck down. So far we’ve split it into percentages for giving, taxes, replenishing our checking account with money I spent on a few items, putting a lot back into future staging opportunities so that I’ll have more of a buffer when I make future purchases, and then paying myself a small amount. (Note: We have a good friend who is a CPA, and she’s been super helpful, especially as we traverse the tangled web of taxes.) While we would love to save more of this money, we also feel like it might be necessary to put some of it back into the business side of things, as future staging opportunities have already been mentioned to us. Over time, we likely will not need to put such a large percentage back into the business side of things. Also, the realtors I’m working with are willing to purchase some items, so we’ll figure that out as we go. The good news is that anything I buy, I get to add to my small staging inventory—and some things I’ll probably use in our own house. We did purchase an earthy pendant for their dining room—which will stay with the house—but the realtor eats that cost in hopes that it will attract more potential buyers. It’s a tad tricky figuring out who pays for what, which is why I tried to be extra saver savvy.
Whew. I’m exhausted just writing about all of it. The good news is that I loved every minute of the process. Do we know if this will lead anywhere? Not really. I’m not sure if I can handle a kid, teaching, the occasional stage, and all the other things we’re involved in. I want to guard my time, but if there is one thing I’ve learned about being busy, it’s that you tend to get more done in the amount of time you have. I adhere to the old adage, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” There is something in me that loves to create, to renew, to inspire spaces and the people living in them, so for now, I’ll take the busyness.
