Redwood Street house staged

Hi, my name is Rachel, and I've clearly forgotten about my blog. I wanted to get the staged house pictures up for a while, and here they are!

I worked my butt off for months to get my Birmingham house ready to sell. I'm not the neatest person, and I have a furniture and home goods addiction, so there was a lot to do to get her in tip top condition. I couldn't have done it without the army of friends and fam that came to my rescue!

For the outside, the carport was cleared of the everything. There was a TON of wood in there for art projects. Pine straw was also laid in the beds, along with some weed pulling/general bed clearing. 

Of course she looked adorable from the cutest paint colors that were done a couple years before.

You walk straight into the den from the front door to see the glorious 16 pane window. The walls were painted a light gray, a little different from the very pale pistachio color that use to be on the walls (which I couldn't match to do touch ups, so I changed it). 

One of the show stoppers was the Coca Cola sign. A couple of the offers that came in included leaving it in the house. I would never, but it was nice to know it's loved.

I switched the lamp shades from the red painted chevron print (one of my first DIY projects) to these cloth ones with a slight gold shimmer from Target. I ended up wrapping a red ribbon around the bottom of the shade to bring in a bit more of the red without being too overpowering. 

I took the mid century dresser out that was the TV stand, and made this bench to make the room appear bigger. 

I left up a bunch of my artwork. They say to take out personalized pics, and there were only a few down here to put away.

 I took the blue dresser out of the dining room and built the table under the mirror to, yep, make the room look bigger.

I also switched out the IKEA maskros big white round light and replaced it with this one. It was a bit large and had a certain look everyone might not've been on board with.

With the dresser out, I was able to turn the table 90 degrees and put the ghost chairs against the window wall. 

I didn't have to do much in the kitchen besides giving it a good scrub down.

I also spray painted some letter magnets and wrote "Welcome Home Y'all" on the front after taking down all the other ones that cluttered up the fridge. 

 I moved the blue dresser from the dining room to the back right bedroom. Luckily I had extra bedding to makeup this bed, and my sister had an extra mattress to throw in here to stage. 

Roomie Carl paired down his room to a bare minimum to help with showings in the back left bedroom.

In an effort to make the wood room look like a den, I put the love seat in here along with a dresser from my room. I clearly have a dresser addiction.

Most won't agree, but I looooved the 1953 original green bathroom!

That hex tile on the floor gives me all the heart eyes. 

Upstairs, I put the yellow chair from the den in the place of the dresser that I moved down to the wood room.

Probably a view I haven't shown before, but the staircase door opens in front of the white dresser below. To the left is the master bedroom, and to the right was my "cloffice", aka closet and office. It was a MESS pretty much the entire time I lived here. I got her into great shape for showing though and wished she had been this clean the whole time.

When I bought the house, this was a nursery, and I never updated the lavender color. It's not my favorite, but I decided to save some $ and not paint it.

I hope you remember the glorious bathroom renovation. She looked good as new for showings!

This post was a year and a half in the making! I'm all settled in Santa Rosa Beach now, but I wanted to get this post out of my blue beauty before I started posting about my new digs. I think I'll cliff notes through 2016-2017 to hopefully get caught up.. (yeah right).

my navy blue house

If you've spent any time around me, my casa, or this bloggie, you'd know that I looooove color. When I moved into this house, I loved the colors that were already in here with the green dining room and the red kitchen. The outside was.. meh. A grayish blue that wasn't bad, but wasn't me. Well I noticed the paint was chipping on the front of the house and knew it would have to be repainted sooner or later. I chose sooner. Why would you paint right before you move out?! I wanted to enjoy this for a few years (or however long I'll be here). 

When I thought of what color I would want to paint the outside, there was only one answer in my head: NAVY. I did some google searching and confirmed that I loved it. I found that it looks best on wood sided houses (check) with white trim (check). Here is a mostly before shot:

I say mostly because the painters had pressure washed it at this point, so the paint really chipped off the front and trim. This was definitely not a DIY job. I didn't have all the tools, and I probably would've killed myself climbing on a ladder to the second floor. Also, I researched it to see if I could do it, and everyone I found that attempted their own houses said they would never do it again. Besides, it took me about 3 weeks to paint the staircase.. I'm sure the neighborhood would've enjoyed watching me paint the outside of the house for 19 weeks. 

You all know I like to skip steps sometimes, but I knew this was not the place. Do not do not do not pick out exterior paint colors without getting a few test pots of paint to try out. They're only a couple bucks each, and you get a lot of coverage. Here are three colors I tested out. We put the first two on the left up first and I wanted to see was an in-between color would look like so I went and bought the third.

I tell ya, it took me a while. I'd look at it up close, from the road, from the side, when the sun was on one side of the house, and then the other. The winner was the grayish navy on the far left! It's called Night Tide by Behr. 

They started off with painting the trim and shutters white. 

This is the back door by the side porch that has been scratched up by the dogs. With sea foam green paint underneath..

Little did I know, it looked like the ENTIRE HOUSE had been painted sea foam green. Say what?!? I really need to find a picture of it back in the day to confirm. 

Progress! I was already in love! 

Oh what's that back there?

A yellow door! EEE!

So I was conflicted at this point. Leave the shutters white, or glaze them to look like natural wood? I felt like it was too much white if I left them that way.. 

So I went the natural wood route! 

Some more shots, shall we? 

That weird side door in the den.

Cotton loves it!

The back door and the laundry room door.

And at dusk: 

Ten points if you spot Diesel. 

I love it! Of course now, this makes me want bright green boxwood hedges out in front. Anyone giving any away? Har har. 

Here's a before and after:

I need to add the flower boxes back to the windows. Any suggestions on what to do with them? I can't leave them black! Perhaps cover them with some barnwood? Whatever I do to the outside, I think I'll put something bright green in them, or something with yellow flowers.