In the beginning .....

Our dream is coming true!  In early May we began work on our house to "perk" it up so we could put it up for sale.  The painting took two weeks as the painters recommended adding a texture coating to the walls and ceilings.  This house was built back in the early 50's.  The walls were plaster and with multiple "patch" jobs having having been done in the past due to earthquakes and other modifications, the walls were not completely flat.  On top of that with the earth under our feet continuing to move here in Southern CA, we had newer cracks that needed repairing.  The painters started with repairing the cracks and spraying on the texture coating.  Next came the actual painting and then the final touches of baseboards, doors and trim.

This first picture is of our kitchen...how it used to be.  No, that trash can wasn't always there, just when I was throwing a way a bunch of trimmings from doing labels.  My desk is to the right of the bakers rack that held, not only our regular printer but a lot of soaping supplies and equipment.  Just a little history on our trash can...it has an automatic lid with a sensor in the front so you never have to touch the lid of the can to throw the trash in...I'm gonna miss that trash can!!!

 This is the same kitchen getting it's facelift with texture coating on the walls and ceiling, along with a beautiful coat of white paint.

 This picture is looking the opposite direction from the actual kitchen area to the dining area.  This was one long room because Mark and his dad had long ago removed the wall that separated the two rooms making it so open and beautiful.

 Equipment, equipment and more equipment.  This picture is the back bedroom with the big air compressor on the left of the picture...it was so loud!!!  We won't even talk about the amount of dust for days and days, even after they had completed this job, the cleaning and dusting by us went on for at least a week.

 This picture directly above is of the back bedroom...its turn to hold painting paraphernalia.  The picture to the right is of the front bedroom.  The painters repaired windowsills too...they were very thorough.  We had taken off all the closet doors but we were afraid they would forget to go back and paint them, so Mark put all the doors back on...just in case.





Here are a couple pictures of me working hard on the computer. HAHA!  I was probably just checking email and chatting with my family and friends on Facebook and the Etsy soaping groups I belong to.  Hey, a girl's gotta keep in touch you know!!

 We had to change where we hung out while the painters were here each day.  When they were ready to do the next room, we moved elsewhere.  Here, they had just started the kitchen, so they just wheeled me from the dining/kitchen area to the living room.

And once the kitchen was done, they wheeled me back in there.  Instead of musical chairs, we were playing musical rooms. 





The following  pictures show the rooms as they were completed:

The wooden blinds were put back up, ceiling fan blades reinserted and what's left of the furniture was put back in place....AWAY from the walls...far away from the walls! 

Our bedroom.  Woe is me, reduced to living out of sterilite boxes and a mattress on the floor.  We didn't have the new mini blinds put up yet and we did this with the mattress because we had to pick it up and place it against one of the paneled walls in other rooms while the painters were here.  We needed to be as "mobile" as possible.

This is our bedroom finished and the angle is looking out through the hall into the living room.   The color we chose for all the walls, except for the kitchen was called Navajo White which was kind of a light beige.  All the trim and doors were painted in bright white.  This affect really made the color pop out and the white on the trim pop out. 

This is the main bathroom in it's completed state.  It came out so beautiful!  I took pictures of every room in the "before" stage but don't know what happened to them.  Just take my word for it, the changes were amazing! 

This used to be one of my soap storage areas.  I had two shelving units in this closet that held completed products, complete with labels.  It also held various molds and most of all containers.  I had bags and bags of jars of all sizes, bottles of all sizes and lids, pumps, sprayers to match, all in their separate, sealed large zip lock bags.  It was amazing how much "stuff" was in here when I started taking it all out.  This was only one of two closets that held soaping things.  I also utilized the bakers rack in the kitchen, one full cupboard, the entire utility room. 

 Ahhh, our front door.  I also had a before picture of this but lost it in the shuffle.  The door had scratches in the paint from our dearly departed fur baby Princess who would go ballistic when the mail carrier would put our mail through the slot in the door.  Consequently the paint on the brass mail slot was also scratched.  The whole door restored beautifully, as did the mail slot.

This final picture is of the mail hallway.  It still amazes me the transformation of this entire house in just two weeks' time.  We had done a few improvements as the years went by but nothing completely changed our feeling about this house until this painting was done. 







Well, this blog post has been a work in progress for some time now and I think our story is about done.  But actually our journey is just beginning because............

After we were confident that most of the necessary work was done on our house, we called our realtor, Steve and told him we were ready to put our house up for sale.  Steve had also sold Mark's dad's house after both his parents had passed on and we KNEW he would again work his magic.  We listed the house on Tuesday, June 7th and by Thursday, June 9th it was already in Escrow.  WHOOHOO!  This will be a short escrow too because it was a cash purchase.

Now, on to find the motorhome of our dreams and begin our mobile  journey.

Oh and not to forget...we still make soap and will continue to make soap in every RV park we settle in. 

We can still be reached on Etsy at:  http://www.TheSkinYourein.Etsy.com.  XOXOXO