Now that I decided to try to sell my house, I really have my work cut out for me.  I mean really.   I've lived here for ten years, which means I have ten years of clutter to get rid of, ten years of accumulated minor repairs and cleaning and long-delayed painting to do, ten years of projects started but never finished to complete.

It's a huge project, especially if I am to get this house listed within 4 weeks, which is the timeline I've given myself.  I want to list it before labor day. 

I've never actually sold a house before, but I've seen enough shows on HGTV to know I need to make the house look as good as possible, and to maximize my sales price, I need to get as much actual work done as possible.

To make it even more challenging, as if selling a house isn't a challenge enough, I have zero money to spend and pretty much have to do all the work alone, by myself, while also working as many extra hours as I can to get as much money together as I can to either pay the past-due mortgage payments, or put aside to move once the house is sold.  Or foreclosed upon. I will use some of the money from the yard sales towards necessary items for repairing and repainting the house, I figure at best, I'll have about $300 to spend.  So a tight budget both time-wise and financially.

On the plus side, it's good exercise :)  Anyway, after doing a really hard look around my house, leaving the rose-colored glasses in the trash, here's my list of things to do to get the house ready to sell.  Be afraid, be very afraid *grins*

In the kitchen:

• Repair broken wall tile - it's "Tri-Bond" plastic tile that was installed in 1958. It's cracked, broken, missing, and just plain grungy.  I can't replace it all - I looked into that ten years ago, and it would require pretty much gutting the walls.  The plastic tile was mortared directly onto the sheetrock with this rubber stuff, anytime you attempt to remove it, the sheetrock comes off with it. done.


• Finish recovering the kitchen floor (started 8 years ago) done.


• Replace several out-of-code electrical outlets.  The house was wired for electricity in 1928, quite a few of the existing outlets and light switches are the original ones installed in 1928, made from "BakeLite" plastic.  Very nifty, very unsafe.  Fortunately, most of knob-and-tube wiring was replaced in 1956 (don't ask why they didn't replace the outlets and switches at the same time), I replaced the remaining 1928 wiring in the house about nine years ago.


• Install a GFCI


• Rearrange appliances done.


• Remove shelves, patch walls, repaint done.


• Declutter and clean done.


• Replace the shelf lining on every cabinet shelf (it's Con-Tact paper installed approximately mid 1960s).


• Replace the door handle on back door


• Clean the ceiling - since I don't have a proper exhuast fan, dust-laden steam has accumulated on the ceiling.


• Figure seven days of work.


• Added and done: Put shelves up in pantry to make it a proper pantry. 

In the living room:

• Get rid of futon that is acting as a couch - it's just too big, looks sloppy done.


• Rearrange furniture done.


• Patch walls, repaint three walls and the ceiling done.


• Remove the almost-room-sized carpet remnant (it's fugly, to say the least, but works for me) done.


• Clean and oil the gorgeous 100 year old solid oak flooring that is under that fugly carpet done.


• Get rid of the big dresser I have the TV on, repurpose smaller wood shelving as a TV stand.  Will look better, take up less space


• Remove shelves behind front door currently housing my DVDs done.


• Fix front door, it is starting to fall off the hinges (it is original door!)


• Finish the front window replacement - replaced the window five years ago, but never finished putting the molding up around it nor did I finish staining, varnishing and painting it.


• Rehang the doorbell


• Rehang the smoke detector


• General cleaning done.


• Figure two days actually took 8 days.

In the office/small bedroom:

The house is considered a three bedroom house, however, I converted the small front-facing bedroom to an office.  Since I already decluttered in here just before I decided to sell the house, there's not too much to do, fortunately.

• Pull the carpet out - carpet in here was installed in 1984, and it's threadbare, to say the least. 


• Oil the gorgeous solid oak hardwood floors laying beneath that threadbare carpeting


• Rehang the original door


• Stain the built-in shelves


• General cleaning. 


• Not going to repaint the office, instead, I will offer whoever buys the house the option of my leaving this room as an office (the desk and far wall shelves are all built-in, the desk is just plain gorgeous if I don't say so myself, considering I built it myself!) or converting it back to a bedroom.  If the potential buyers want it converted back to a bedroom, I will remove all the built-ins, patch everything, and repaint, before closing.


• Figure two days of work

The Bathroom:

I started to remodel the bathroom almost immediately after I bought the house ten years ago.  As is, obviously, normal for me, it's a project that was never finished.  It is, fortunately, almost done.

• Finish hanging the remaining two rows of ceramic tile on the wall


• Finish patching where the new wonderboard and the ceiling meet


• Grout tile


• Grout marble floor


• Paint walls, ceiling


• Hang remaining molding


• Stain the bifold doors


• Install locks on bifold doors


• Stain threshhold


• Hang medicine cabinet


• Hang towel rack


• Buy and hang mirror


• Install the new wall light that I bought a decade ago but never installed :)


• GFC was installed by electrician but has never worked properly.  Need to get it fixed.


• Declutter and general cleaning


• Figure three days of work

The Master Bedroom

• Rearrange furniture


• Get rid of ugly, falling-apart dresser, repurpose the white cabinets I pulled from the kitchen as a dresser


• General cleaning and decluttering


• Repaint entire room


• Check the CO detector - it's ten years old, probably should replace


• Install smoke detector


• Pretty it up, so it looks more like a bedroom and less like a place I read books and watch TV :)


• Figure just one day

The Utility Room:

• Remove the broken linoleum flooring, it's all loose and chipped.  Then just paint the concrete floor that will be exposed once the linoleum has been removed done.


• Clean the walls, if that doesn't do the trick, repaint the room.  Total hassle, hope it is not necessary done. Cleaning alone worked.


• Replace the lock on the back door


• General cleaning and decluttering done.

The Back Room

• Get rid of the piece-meal carpeting that is back there.  There is a bunch of various shapes and colors of carpet scraps on the floor, all mismatched and loose. done.


• TSP the floor, paint the floor (it's concrete)


• Patch all the screw holes from the dozens of bookshelves I used to have hung there back when I used the room as a bookstore.  Huge project :) done.


• Clean, declutter done.


• Paint walls, ceiling


• Clean windows


• Replace glass in small window (broken)


• Clean the thermal curtains, consider just removing them for showing house. done.


• Figure two days


• Added: Fix doggie door so it will latch securely


• Added: Fix the HUGE crack in the floor that I discovered when I removed the carpeting.


• Added: Recaulk all the windows


• Added: Repair/replace south windowsill that has dry-rot.


• Added: Repair broken wall panel below south window.

Upstairs:

Upstairs is a large attic that was converted to a large room in 1956, then remodeled/finished in 1978.  I actually have barely used the room at all during the ten years I've lived here... it's been kinda the junk room, and occasional spare bedroom for drunk friends needing a place to crash :)  However, it was occupied by the ex-boyfriend's 16-year-old son three summers ago, and he did a real number on the room.  We let him put a small window air conditioning unit in the window so he could stay cool ... well, he tilted the back of the unit "up" so that the cold air would hit him on the floor... he broke the 40-year-old cast-iron bedframe at one point, so the mattress was laying directly on the floor because I refused to buy a new bedframe.  Well, when he moved the AC unit, all the condensation started pouring down the wall and floor, instead of out the back of the unit and outside as the unit was designed.  This resulted in some serious water damage - I had to pull out an entire section of wall, floor, and carpeting that still needs to be replaced. 

• Finish replacing wall sheetrock


• Finish replacing carpeting and padding


• Repaint as needed


• Replace broken glass in window that he broke done.


• Replace window screens that he knocked out


• Replace insulation in the wall where it was water damaged (soaking wet insulation was removed at time of incident)


• Replace ceiling light fixture that he broke


• Replace smoke detector, it no longer works


• Tighten the handrail on the stairs, it's become somewhat loose


• Cleaning and decluttering, as needed


• Figure five days

The Basement:

The basement is more of a root cellar than a proper basement, it's small, only about 8'x8', enough room for furnace, water heater, and some storage. When the house was built in 1904 or 1910 (not entirely sure, both numbers show on various paperwork) the original foundation was done by rough pouring concrete using dirt berms as a "mold" instead of plywood framing as we do now, which means the interior-facing surface is rough and uneven, with up to a one inch difference in depth.  In 1958, the owners at the time had the house lifted and the foundation replaced, and they refaced the interior of that one wall by simply mortaring on another layer of cement, about 3/4" thick.  No adhesive used, no lathe, nothing.  Over time, that refacing has flaked off, re-exposing the original interior of the wall.  The exterior side of the foundation has never been sealed, which was never a problem as we really don't get much rain here... never a problem until this summer.  We've had a ridiculous amount of rain this year, the foundation has been seeping water through it into the basement.  Not a major problem, as structurally it's still sound, but it means I have work to do.

• Call Mark - a structural engineer friend - and have him inspect the foundation, double-check that the water issue this summer hasn't caused any structural issues (I'm sure it hasn't, but having a proper structural inspection won't hurt, and he'll do it for a home-cooked meal!) done. Good news, house is structurally sound!


• Seal the exterior of the foundation all around the house


• Added: Knock out old, loose mortar in cracks from improper/badly done repair job done probably in the 1950s and remortar the foundation cracks.


• Remove the remaining sections of the interior mortar refacing, then reface it properly


• Fix broken window


• Replace the window well (clean it out too, as it is leaf-cluttered)


• Patch hole in heat duct leading to master bedroom


• Rehang the duct leading to the office/bedroom that has fallen


• Consider painting the floor, or the walls, with sealant (ask Mark about this also)


• Fix crack in stairwell (not a structural issue, as it's just stucco) done.


• Replace the one wooden step that has cracked (but still sound, just looks bad) done.


• Declutter and clean


• Figure four days

The Garage of Doom:

• Get rid of all the crap left behind by the ex-boyfriend that is still in there done!!!!


• Get rid of all my own junk that has accumulated


• Get garage door realligned so it closes properly


• Fix garage door lock


• Figure one day, plus one or two yard sales just for the stuff in here

The Potter's Shed:

• Fix broken window


• Fix door so it closes properly


• Clean and declutter


• Figure one day


• Added: Repaint around the windows and along the ground, as paint has chipped away due to weather damage.

The Exterior:

• High-pressure wash the exterior, clean the windows


• Install gutters.  I have no gutters. Got quote of $680 for gutters - OUCH! Need to price materials and talk someone into helping me hang the gutters myself.


• Fix the one steel siding panel on the front porch that has fallen


• Finish the exterior molding of the front window that I replaced


• Mow, rake, clean up done.


• The privacy fence is falling down.  I don't have the money to fix it properly, but need to look into some sort of repairing. Front fence done, still need to do south yard fence.


• Figure four days

Well, not too intimidating... I am lucky that I'm such a pack-rat, I have most of the materials and tools already that I need to get this all done.  And when I'm being honest with myself, I realize this is all stuff that I would need to do anyway should I continue to live here - or frankly, should have already done!

How the hell I'm going to get it all done by myself with no money in four weeks ... but I'll get it done.  Somehow.