Is there a realtor in the house? (semantics: finished vs. unfinished space)

[zoom-zoom]

Between making room for my remodel and now getting ready to move I've donated lots of stuff. I really could not be bothered to list on Craigs, do the yard sale thing ... Just kept the receipts of the donation and keep track in:

http://www.itsdeductible.com/

Really helped my refund this and last year.

Ha, yeah...years ago we did a yard sale and I said NEVER again! Ugh, what a lot of work that was. I'd much rather itemize a list of things donated and then take the receipt. Or, heck, just even give it away to be done with it. We are finally getting around to selling our Denby stoneware, though. It got to where each broken piece was too $$ to replace and I like the much cheaper Fiestaware stuff better, anyhow.

[Koronin]

When I sold my house close to 2 years ago I had to put a ton of stuff into storage, and that house actually had decent storage. (It was built in 2001.)

[GLC1968]

If you don't want similiar issues, you need a house MUCH younger than you are!

Ours is only a year older than me (1967), but we too are fixing it up to list and wow, the things you find... We do have a ton of storage thanks to a basement and some renovations done by the previous owners, but there are a lot of hidden problems due to those renovations where they cut every single corner they could find. Luckily, the original house is solid and well-constructed...otherwise, we'd probably be living in rubble right now! We are currently without a fully working bathroom (we have two and both are partially down for the count...again) and we will be paying to replace the roof before we list. Ouch.

I don't have a ton of advice except that watching those HGTV shows are a big help. So is even watching 'House Hunters' and listening to the things the buyers are saying about the houses they view. You can learn a lot about how things are perceived!

[laura*]

The entire house was apparently laid out by someone with half a brain (on a good day).

It was designed for different needs and customs.

Wow, I think our downstairs is maybe 900 sq. ft...geez....

Aah-yup! It was built as a two bedroom house. The attic upstairs was the storage area - probably meant to be filled with steamer trunks and such. Hence, there's no storage on the main level.

Our current dining area is basically a glorified hallway and having even our small table in there is a major PITA, since the room has 5 entrances (living room, sunroom/office, kitchen, stairs, bathroom). To get anywhere in the house one has to walk around the damned table.

The dining area would have contained a stove of some sort. It provided heat and cooking. The area now take up by your kitchen, bathroom, and sunroom/office would have been the second bedroom and a pantry. The "bathroom" was out in the back yard.

we aren't going to do ANYTHING that involves knocking out walls or building new ones.

If that's the case, then why do the bedroom shuffle? If you need to vacate rooms to renovate them, then the shuffle makes sense, but otherwise not. Right now you could claim three bedrooms - one downstairs, two upstairs, an office, and an itty bitty storage room.

[zoom-zoom]

It was designed for different needs and customs.



Aah-yup! It was built as a two bedroom house. The attic upstairs was the storage area - probably meant to be filled with steamer trunks and such. Hence, there's no storage on the main level.



The dining area would have contained a stove of some sort. It provided heat and cooking. The area now take up by your kitchen, bathroom, and sunroom/office would have been the second bedroom and a pantry. The "bathroom" was out in the back yard.



If that's the case, then why do the bedroom shuffle? If you need to vacate rooms to renovate them, then the shuffle makes sense, but otherwise not. Right now you could claim three bedrooms - one downstairs, two upstairs, an office, and an itty bitty storage room.

The house was definitely designed by short people. The tallest room in the house only has 7' ceilings. Hubby used to hit his head coming down the stairs when we first bought the house. At 6'2" he's not excessively tall, either.

Yep, bathroom and rear mudroom entryway were definitely not original parts of the house. We're pretty certain that the sunroom was not original, either.

We do have to vacate rooms to repaint and do trim and finish some flooring, so rearranging rooms won't be a big deal. Our living room is currently too small for us to ride our bikes on the indoor trainers without taking one part of our (stupid) sectional sofa and putting it in an odd part of the room. Because our current bedroom only has one entrance we can put the sofa in that room in such a way that we have more room to use our bikes indoors or do other indoor workouts with weights and yoga ball. I'll also be able to store my workout gear in that closet, instead of shoved in a corner and looking unsightly.