SUMMARY: (WORDLESS WEDNESDAY) We sold my parents' house April 20. This weekend, May 28, new owners had it on the block again. With some differences. Well--OK--everything's different! Most of the walls are in the same places, though--
(Each photo of My Parents House is followed by roughly equivalent of Remodeled House.)
(in following, fridge was on far side of stove/counter)
(Sorry, on this one, the preceding isn't taken from the same angle as the following; fireplace is in the same place, just done differently.)
(Following garage photos taken from different angle; door is in same place)
(Two following looking up at same place, latter is just closer)
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Although the changes to my mom's house weren't as extreme, by the time we were finished prepping it for sale, it didn't feel like the same house, quite. We also saw it staged, and then after the new owners had settled in. The less it looked like our house, the more comfortable I felt. That doesn't mean it was easy, though, or that it ever completely stopped feeling weird.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much the way it has been for me. Once the house was empty, it was no longer the same place--reminded me only of when we first moved in, before furniture arrived, and it was a fun and intriguing place to be, filled with possibilities.
DeleteAlthough the changes to my mom's house weren't as extreme, by the time we were finished prepping it for sale, it didn't feel like the same house, quite. We also saw it staged, and then after the new owners had settled in. The less it looked like our house, the more comfortable I felt. That doesn't mean it was easy, though, or that it ever completely stopped feeling weird.
ReplyDeleteThough the baths seem to have some improvements, I don't think removing towel bars counts, let alone grab bars. Where the old garage door lites gave lots illumination over the whole of the garage, now the "dramatic" ones light only a corner. Also, the laundry has them newfangled, low water, no soap appliances, 'cuz there's no place to put a single cleaning product. Everything looks like it just came out of an IKEA box. In short, I find it puerile, as well as sterile.
ReplyDeleteI kept thinking, "if I were a potential buyer, I'd be turned off by the lack of storage space in kitchen and laundry at least." And the new windows replace what was all glass with framing inside the original frame, reducing the available light. Also, as one of my sisters noted, apparently landscaping cleaned up by someone who doesn't like flowers (roses & wisteria are gone, for example). We had originally planned on simply painting all the existing cabinets, which were quite serviceable. Ah, well, we're not buying it--and , as you can tell from the for sale sign out front, we're not the intended market.
DeleteI'm most sad about them painting the beautiful wood banister....
ReplyDeleteThat kills me, too. But then, I'm apparently not their target buyer.
DeleteSome of the changes I can understand- when you are not cooking for 7+ people you hardly need all the food and dish storage space and I understand that nowadays two career couples haven't time to cook anyway. Daylight in the garage is only needed if you are planning to do more than keep your cars in there, otherwise the automatic opener light is enough. The original decor, both built in and added by parents was based on an east coast aesthetic rather than East Asian.
ReplyDeleteHowever, no shower enclosures? No storage in laundry? No gate on the right side of the house? And of course the loss of the flowers.
I kinda like open showers--but only in a stall with no lip (as in wheelchair accessible) and that would have to be in a larger room anyway. My thought was that leaving it open offers the new owners the choice of shower curtain or enclosure, whichever they prefer. Missing gate is really odd--I paid extra when I moved in to have someone come and add a gate to the side missing one--and everyone else (that I noticed at the time) had 2 gates. But, yeah, we are SO not the target audience.
DeleteYou know as well as I that the history is not erased. The history is the story in all it's variations.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting a lot of grief for that statement, darn it. I meant that the house itself has grown, changed, adapted (by humans, of course) over the years, and that's all gone from the house itself. Yep, floor plan is the same. They even used the deck that Sharon & Coop redid--big kudos to our team ;-). But as a whole it looks completely different. Which is fine by me; would have been harder if it looked mostly the same, at least for me.
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