Upcoming Holiday Weekend

I am really looking forward to the coming Memorial Day weekend. Since we have yet to sell our house, we will be hanging out here. One of the downsides to listing a home For Sale By Owner. If someone wants to see it, you are on the hook to show it. And Open Houses? That’s up to you. The good thing though is that we can Open House it every weekend if we want to. Try and get your real estate agent to do that.

Not that I have anything against real estate agents mind you. My mother in law was one for a long time and we adored our real estate agents who we bought our house with… just wish their commission and brokerage fees were a little less than $13K… that’s a lot of money and so far, worth our time to put into selling it ourselves. We don’t get the traffic that homes on the market with an agent do, it just requires more diligence on our part.

Since we will have a three day weekend without houseguests and with no major plans other than swim lessons, a playdate, a pedicure (much needed by me) and an open house, I am thinking this is the perfect opportunity to sink further into our living quarters. I still have boxes stacked in regions throughout the house and I really need to get those emptied. I have loads of boxes in my formal dining room that are full of wall hangings – art and photographs.

This is where I start trying to figure out cart before the horse and egg before the chicken issues.

I want the boxes emptied.

I want my art on the wall.

I want my photographs on the wall.

I also want the walls painted that will house many of these items.

Do I put them on the wall, then take them all down when I get around to painting and put them back?

Or do I leave them in the boxes, paint, then put them all up on the wall.

My inclination is towards the later. While AB (my tired of painting husband) leans towards the former.

I am currently fighting a very ambitious notion of painting my entryway this weekend.

Not the whole entryway, and certainly not the very, very tall area.

While my mom and stepdad were here this past weekend they helped me line out what to paint and how. I am leaning towards an olive green in the entryway where AB and I think some of our black and white photos will go best.

This is the foyer area:

I am not a big fan of the stenciling here.

So I am leaning towards an olive green - mahogany/Japanese maple color - and creamy white combination for the formal dining room and office with foyer and half bathroom region. The olive green an Japanese maple in more accent roles.

Office:

Formal Dining Area:

So what do you think?