"Sucking It In"

Our house went on the market today.

WOA.

It wasn't that long ago that we were planning on moving to California.

Then that was off.

We were SUPER glad (when all the dust settled).

We were constantly talking about how much we loved our simple little house and our simple little life that involved not moving. 

For about a week.

Then we decided that maybe it was still a good time to sell our house and get into something different.

 And before you know it, there's a "For Sale" sign in our yard.

People are fickle.

My how fast things change!

I have been a LOONEY person trying to get our house super clean. I wanted to have everything looking awesome for the pictures that our realtor was posting online. You never get a second chance to make a first impression...it felt like a first date! I scrubbed, cleaned baseboards and even polished the stainless steel bathroom trashcan-I was in it to win it. Our realtor kept emphasizing that people understand that houses are lived in and don't expect perfection, but I wanted to put our best foot forward at least. Who wants to only go halfway?! It felt like my Super Bowl. (I'm getting all re-amped up thinking about it). These days, pictures are what bring people to your house.

For days I've just been trying to hold back the mess and chaos with sheer willpower. I knew it wanted to creep back in, but I wasn't going to let it ruin all of my hard work before the "big day." (aka "picture day"). It kind of felt like someone sucking in at the beach or for a picture, until they were blue in the face...just to keep up a certain "perfect" appearance on the outside. But you can only hold that for so long.

The photographer came today. 

All those mornings of starting the day at 5 am scrubbing, and ending the nights vacuuming and stuffing our crap into closets all paid off. Our house was gleaming. I was so glad that someone was there to capture it it's glory on "film." It was a sight.

Was, being the operative word.

Within just a short 30 minutes of the photographer being gone, our living room is now home to a "boat" of couch cushions (with a broom as an oar). Mimi is hard at work catching mermaids to be her friends with carrots and snacking on grapes.

Ahh. I'm okay with it. Poor girl. She's been on the receiving end of MANY talks over the last few days about putting things back, not dumping her drawers, and of too many "hold on!'s and "wait a minute"s to count...Our house IS lived in. There's a time to care and a time to let up. Me "letting up" felt like that deep exhale of the guy on the beach holding in his gut. It felt good.

(I also treated Mimi and I to a yummy breakfast at LePeep this am for all of "our" hard work in getting the house ready. This is Mimi's "I'm sorry for being a basket case about cleanliness lately" hot chocolate):

 *****

 (p.s. This picture is entitled: "What's in YOUR closet?" because this is where I shoved our blender (and fresh fruit and other things) to get them off the counter. The whole process of getting ready for these pictures was just an exercise in trying to make our house seem so "perfect." Like an illusion. Just shoving our crap into dark corners of our house...(there's a life lesson in there somewhere). So funny. And weird. Here we go!