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Category Archives: Home Staging

Pink, Yellow, Black, and White

My inspiration room.

Since we are about to embark on a renovation of a 50s-style house, I’ve been thinking a lot about the color schemes for the bathroom and kitchen. Now that our contractor is back in town, we need to set up the Scope of Work for the Nash house, and I’ll need to decide whether the pink and yellow tiles stay or go.

The Pink Bathroom

I looked around on Pinterest and elsewhere for ideas. This blog article from 2011 declared the pink bathroom is “back,” and has some cute pictures. The author actually tore out their tile (boo) but did share the image at right of what I’m kind of leaning toward, pink and black with lots of white. Luckily, the Nash house pink isn’t quite so pink, and I’ll be able to do a neutral floor. I am thinking of black fixtures, though.

Lots of white balancing lots of pink. The black floor I’m not sure about.

Somehow, I think black really neutralizes the pink and makes it less overtly feminine. Besides, I hear pink flatters everyone, so no matter who you are, the bathroom pink would help you look your best first thing in the morning (I wonder if it would have worked for me today, when I had curly purple hair sticking straight up?). The photo at left is of the bathroom of someone named Robert, and it’s manly enough, I think. I’m glad we will be replacing our pink toilet, and I’m sure he wishes his pink sink coordinated better with his tile.

I’ll put a few more inspiration photos at the end, but let’s move on to the yellow.

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A Short Respite

Why no blog posts for a few days? Lee and I (and Anita) fled the state of Texas and drove to central Florida with the goal of taking a real break. So many of our travels are work related that we just needed to rest and refresh.

Construction as far as the eye can see.

Of course we have had some real estate observations. How much the Orlando area has grown shocked me. I know Austin has done the same thing in the last 20 years, but I didn’t get the same shocking impression there, because I’ve been there.

It used to be solid greenery, with a few lakes, out here.

Here, I clearly recall there being nothing but trees out here in the area close to the giant attractions. Now I can sort of see some trees way off in the distance from up here on the 14th floor.

We’re staying at a condo at a resort, mainly so we can see some friends. We’ve come to the conclusion that the designers chose the furniture mainly for the way it will look in photos, not for usability.

Not exaggerating here. This truly is the most poorly designed and uncomfortable chair any of us have tried to sit it. Even Swampy the gator is sore.

That’s a good lesson to learn in our business, too. Don’t just renovate a house to look good. Make it work well, too!

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What?! Multiple Offers?

I’m darned happy. Even my avatar is happy.

You know, when you watch those television shows about the “flippers” and how they make a beautiful house, then have multiple offers to decide on, you think that happens every time. Well, followers of our team know pretty well that it does NOT happen every time. We had all those offers fall through at the beginning, then have had a couple of painful sales that got messed up by things outside our control, which I will not go into today…

BUT

The Russet Valley house, while not an official Hermit Haus Redevelopment project, was worked on by our team, and it’s a WINNER. We had an offer right after the first open house, when we weren’t even finished getting the lawn and garden in shape. By yesterday, we had two offers. There is a rumor of a third coming in today.

Bidding War!

Just had to share this one more time. What a transformation!

No, that’s not happening. Instead, Carol is doing what any ethical listing agent would do, and she has given all interested parties until 4 pm today to get in their best and final offer. That saves everyone the pain of going back and forth endlessly. We are quite excited to see what lucky family will get to live in this great home.

And I know I keep saying this, but wow, has this project turned out well. It also helps that it’s on a corner lot in a quiet, friendly neighborhood. No wonder it’s so popular with buyers.

We will update you tomorrow on how things come out. Thanks for sticking with us, friends.

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Some After Photos for Russet Valley

Here are some of the pictures Carol took after she finished staging the Russet Valley house. I can see now why it’s so popular with buyers! She did a great job, especially with the living room and kitchen.

Remember, you can still make an offer on this house: 512-807-8777!

 

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Finally Floor and Backsplash for Washington!

Jennifer and I finally had time when the weather was not horrible to go pick flooring and backsplash for the Washington house. We went to a new place, for us, Surplus Warehouse.

They didn’t have a huge selection, but the prices were great. The guy who helped us was knowledgeable and friendly, too.

Jennifer had brought a granite sample, which helped with the tile decision. We were afraid white would be too, well, white, so we went with this reasonably priced herringbone gray with crackles.

Tile up close.

Once she got back to the house, Jennifer said white might have been okay, but this looks pretty great, too.

Yep, the granite is in. We will have more photos tomorrow!

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