It's Perfect Then You Leave

As I said earlier, we moved from Illinois to Florida a few years ago. It actually will be four years this June (which is crazy)- but I guess you can say it"s true about time flying. So as anyone who has moved before can attest to, in order to get your house ready to sell you end up doing all the little things around the house that you always wanted to get done but somehow never got around to doing. For our household it mostly meant going around touching up the paint, decluttering, and of course trying to keep the carpets clean which means weekly shampooing with kids and dogs. That was a lot of work but I have to say that I became a pro when it came to shampooing carpets. The biggest job, by far was my stairway and hallway railings in our house. We had oak floors which I liked except for the finish...it was that all too overused honey oak. Not a fan, but I could deal with it on the floors. On the railings was an entirely different story. It was too much and just looked dated (in my opinion). So of course I was going to paint it all, and by all, I mean ALL of it. Our house had a crazy amount of railings...we were "blessed" with an upstairs hallway that looked over the family room area and then on then opposite side it looked over the front hallway. This means there were a lot of spindles, like a billion of them. Well maybe not quite that many but it definetly felt like that to me. So I've gone back and tried to dig up some pictures of them before I started painting them and some after shots. Of course I either can't find them or I may have forgotten to take more pictures. I did find these though and even though it was a HUGE job to take on and it felt like it took forever, it was so worth it. The painted railings really updated the house and brightened everything up. When we were showing the house to potential buyers we got a lot of positve feedback on them too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm glad I did it and if you're ever thinking of taking on a big job on like this, go ahead and do it. Take your time or maybe even put yourself to task and make yourself have to get it done by a certain date. I know that's what works for me, but do what works for you.....you will be happy that you did it. Oh, and one last thing, our current house in Florida has iron spindles :). The first two pictures are the railings before I started tackling them...

The rest of the pictures were taken during this big job. When I started I originally used chalk paint but I didn't like how it was turning out, so I ended up using trim paint ina glossy finish. I wanted to make sure that it would hold up to everyday life. You can also see that I had to use a ladder for most of the work...fun times. I'd do it again, if my current house had those old railings but thankfully it doesn't. The previous owner had upgraded our stairs, making them wooden and redoing the railings in iron, so yup.....I'm a happy girl now. So...I ended up with the railings that I always wanted and the house exactly as I always pictured it, only to sell it and leave. The house looked great, but it wasn't ours anymore. As a result I'm trying to get things done around our current house in a more timely matter, we aren't planning on moving again for years, but what I want is to get the house the way I want it now, or at least most of it, the stuff I can do myself or afford. I want to be able to have my home reflect who I am and be able to enjoy it now.....not someday.