The Joys of Selling Your House

Oh gosh! I would love to say the first person that looked at our house bought it for the price we wanted but the reality is they didn't. We started off selling selling privately but then moved on to a real estate agent simply because there is a time frame involved. At any rate selling a house has to be one of the most stressful things you have ever done. I'd like to say I'm handling it well but I'm not. I'm hanging on by the tail hoping for a favourable outcome much like anyone else selling their house.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Natural Odour Absorbers and Air Fresheners

Curbing indoor air odours is always a concern so manufacturers introduced a host of remedies ranging from aerosol sprays to energy using oil based scenters to scented stick-ups to scented candles. The problem with a lot of these scented products is they are actually health hazards. These products cause allergic reactions as well as being well known asthma triggers. Scented candles in particular use an insecticide as a scent fixative so anytime the candle is being burned insecticide is being inhaled. Electrical base units aside of putting artificial and health harming vapours into the air waste electricity. Aerosol sprays are not eco-friendly and use propellants that can cause health problems. In most cases a natural odour absorber or air freshener can do an excellent job of getting rid of indoor odours without any nasty side effects. Here are a few that work for us:

• coffee grinds - removes mold and mildew odours
• baking soda - a general odour absorber
• white vinegar - great paint and food odour neutralizer, general odour neutralizer
• lemons - natural air freshener
• pure vanilla - natural air freshener
• cinnamon - natural air freshener
• sulphur - strike a match then blow it out to take care of most bathroom odours
• charcoal - absorbs and neutralizes odours
• essential oil - can be added to burning soy wax candles for a natural air freshener
• beeswax - natural air freshener, when burning is a natural air cleaner
  

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Household Uses for Lemons

Lemons are naturally high in acidity making them a low cost, eco-friendly and healthy alternative to cleaning with harsh chemicals. Here's a few ways lemons can be used:

• Pour lemon juice where ants are found to get rid of them.
• Mix lemon juice with borax for a powerful toilet cleaner.
• Place sliced lemon in the refrigerator to absorb food odours.
• Mix lemon juice with baking soda. Rub on chrome or copper and let set for a few minutes. Wipe off with a clean cloth for a clean shine.
• Use lemon juice as a natural air -freshener and mood lifter.
• Cut a lemon in half then run it over a chopping block to disinfect.
• Squeeze fresh lemon juice onto stained surfaces. Let sit for 20 minutes then rinse.
• Sprinkle salt on a lemon wedge with a gentle scrubbing to shine the interior of copper cookware.
• Add a ½ cup of lemon juice to the wash cycle to brighten whites.
• Spray stained white socks with lemon juice then hang in the sun to remove the stains.
• Run a half lemon through the garbage disposal to clean and freshen it.
• Put ¼ cup of lemon juice in the soap dispenser of the dishwasher and run through the normal cycle to remove mineral deposits.
• Use lemon juice to clean grout around tiles.
• Rub lemon juice on brass to remove tarnish.
• Apply lemon juice with a sponge on glass shower doors to clean to a sparkling shine.
  

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

A Few Tips for Selling Your Home

Sometimes it seems like we have sold more homes that I really want to think about but we learned a bit from each one. The important thing to remember from the time you put your house on the market whether privately or with a realtor it is a disruptive experience. The biggest problem is while you are living life in your home it has to be in show condition with very little notice. Here are a few tips I've used to minimize the disruption:

• declutter - The more you declutter the more you don't have to later more and the easier it is to keep your rooms tidy in show condition. Be a bit brutal here with anything out the door if at all possible. First on the list should be donating and giving away even if you have to freecycle with the last resort being throwing out.
  
• do a major cleaning - Selling a house is very different from having company over. You want everything squeaky clean, sparkling, neat, tidy, dust free and in short able to pass the white glove test in even the spots no one would ever look.
  
• omit all smelly cleansers, air fresheners and scented candles - No house should smell like it has just been cleaned when being shown. If someone can walk in your house and immediately smell a cleanser then it can easily turn them off but worse yet could trigger an allergic reaction or an asthma attack.
• do a 15 minute daily shine - Your house is neat and tidy ready for showing so do a 15 minute shiner every morning. Walk through the house with a spray bottle of alcohol and wash cloth. Shine up every shiny surface. Wipe down sinks, tidy towels, and take the garbage out.
• the 5 minute rule - Spend 5 minutes each day in at least one room in your house. Remove/declutter what you can or straighten or shine or whatever you can do in that room within the 5 minutes.
• everytime you leave a room - Pick up one thing that doesn't belong there or that can be eliminated and remove it. This takes only a few seconds but can make a huge difference.
  
• tread lightly - Stage any room that you can. These are rooms you can get away with simply not using. Have them set for showing then leave them alone until after the sale of the house, dusting if necessary but nothing more.
• cook lightly - Cooking can become a huge issue when selling a house because you don't want the mess or the odour. Rely on your freezer for homemade freezer meals and the outdoor grill to keep odours out. Cooker easier to prepare from scratch meals to keep your routine. Immediately after doing any cooking place a bowl of white vinegar out to neutralize any cooking odours. Don't rely on take-out that can be expensive and give tell tale signs to potential buyers.
  
• make your house appealing - Aside of being squeaky clean which is a must put a couple of vases of fresh flowers out. Soft music can be appealing as can a fresh baked loaf of bread or cookies cooling on a rack in the kitchen. Do not bake anything that has peanuts in it such as peanut butter cookies. Light a few candles but only if 100% beeswax or soy wax candles with no scent. Beeswax cleans the air and neither beeswax or soy wax candles will trigger allergic reactions or asthma in potential buyers..
• pets and signs of pets have to go - Sorry but this is a must! Some such as myself viewing a home are highly allergic to pet dander. This can trigger both allergic reactions as well as asthma. In addition to this the lovely smells from the kitty litter box is not quite the smell most potential buyers want to smell. If at all possible board your pets out or have a friend take them while your house is in the selling stage.
  

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

More on Updating Vent Covers

The sad thing about selling your home is all of a sudden you become extremely critical of every single little detail. All those little things that you've lived with and overlooked become the things you focus on. In most cases they cost little to fix, take little time to fix but somehow got overlooked because other repairs and maintenance became a higher priority. I keep thinking what a shame we didn't just get to the little things like replacing or paint vent covers, changing out electrical outlets and changing out those ugly light fixtures earlier so at least we could have enjoyed them while we were here. Ah well, live and learn.

Painted

Forced air heating/air conditioning (HVAC) have two types of vents. The larger vent covers are for the cold air return. As cold air settles near the floor it is drawn back into the heating system to be heated then returned through the smaller heat vents. Any vent cover on a vent that comes up through the floor takes a fair amount of abuse. Metal vent covers will get scratched and/or bent from walking on or being hit by furniture. They develop rust in areas where they get wet.

If the vent cover is in good condition and not bent, remove it and wash well. Dry well. Remove any rust spots with steel wool then use a tack cloth to any dust. Place the cover right side up on top of a cardboard box in a sunny location outside. Spray with alkyd enamel paint. Let dry then spray on a second coat. Let dry well then put the vent cover back into its place. This is a very low cost way to spruce up metal vent covers and one that can easily be done anytime needed or if you want to custom match a vent colour to a room.

Plastic

The downside to sprucing up the details is you find more things that need to be sprucing up. I decided the vent cover (top) in the entrance hall needed to be replaced so used a plastic cover (bottom). The downside to plastic is they only come in certain colours but there is Krylon spray paint available for painting plastic. I don't know how well it would work on plastic vent covers.

The replacement vent cover highlights the flooring issue. The kicker here is we have ceramic tile sitting in the garage ready to tile the floor except waiting for weather we can do this as it would put the side door out of commission for at least a weekend. The realtor said not to worry about doing the tiling so I will be onto plan B.

I'm going to strip the floor using household ammonia to remove all the wax build-up. I know there is a wax build-up because any standing water leaves white marks. Once the wax is removed I will use a liquid wax to bring up the shine. The floor itself is in good condition just a bit dated so hopefully this will make the entrance look good for showing.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Staging a Room for Selling a House

I like watching HGTV shows and one thing that I noticed on any of the shows where they are selling property is they like to stage the rooms. In come areas there are even companies that will come in to stage your house to help make the house or property sell quicker. Staging works well for those families who do not have to live in the house while it is the process of showing. Living in the house presents a new set of problems because it is very difficult to keep every room looking pristine for showing on short notice. This disrupts you entire routine and every aspect of your lifestyle. The best way to deal with this situation is to declutter as much as possible and stage any rooms you can feasibly not use. That way there will always be a couple of rooms that you don't have to rush around doing last minute straightening before a short notice showing.

Room Staging

If you recall we have been working on putting the bedroom that was being redone into a craft room just a day before finding out new that would see us selling this house. We finished painting the room, installed a new light, installed laminate flooring and changed the floor vent out. The last thing that remains to be done is updating the electrical outlets (top) for the European style. Since this will take little time and make minimal mess I took a few moments to do a bit of staging. We won't be actually using this room before we move so it can be left this way until the house sells.

I staged the room simply using the items we have on hand for our grandchildren. This included a crib, rocking chair, high chair and a few toys. I thought the outcome staged the room nicely to give the idea of a nursery. The rocking chair is rather special as it was the one I used to nurse all of our kids. Hopefully it brings good karma to the room!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

A Great Carpet Spot Remover

I don't do paid posts and never have so I want to make this very clear, this is my opinion on the following product. I paid for the product myself, I used it and now I'm passing on my experience to you.

My husband and I do not like carpeting. We had intended on removing all of the carpeting in this house but after being caught up in more urgent repairs then deciding to sell our house, well we just didn't get around to it. That meant for showing the house we needed to deal with a few small carpet stains without going to the expense of having all of the carpets cleans. In some cases to sell a house one of the best investments you can make it to have the carpets cleaned before the house is listed but in this case it really wasn't necessary. There were a few very small stains in the great room carpet that likely no one would have noticed but I knew they were there so I asked my husband to pick up a carpet stain remover.

Spot Shot

If you have been following this blog you will know we don't use toxic cleaners in our home. My husband came home with a product called SpotShot, a non-toxic carpet stain and odour eliminator that is safe for children, certified biodegradable, never tested on animals and earning the Environmental Choice seal. So this product really had my attention. I wanted to know if it worked as promised.

Using the product was as easy as spraying the stain then blotting up the stain or rubbing. I have to tell you I was skeptical. I tried it on a stain that almost instantly disappeared before my eyes. I tried it on another thaat did the same thing. The only hint that I had used the product was a bit of darkening from being damp. The next day I vacuumed to find all signs of the stains were gone. I was very impressed. As the product says it does work on older stains as well. However, it did not perform well on a small rust stain. It did lighten the stain but not remove it entirely.

I used the spray on a few spots the size of a quarter and smaller. I don't know how it would perform on larger stains. I found that spraying the stain then blotting worked best and the results improved with vacuuming when the spot was completely dry. The smell of the product is not offensive and it did not trigger my asthma. This will be a product I will use to keep the carpets spot free while trying to sell our house.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010