SAYING GOODBYE TO THE HOUSE

I am saying goodbye to the house brush stroke by brush stroke.  I havn't been an avid HGTV watcher for nothing.  In my lifetime I have probably watched more HGTV than I care to admit.  It is the perfect do nothing time filler. I usually watch as I clean the TV room or the bedroom, my favorites are the house shows.  I love looking at the houses with prospective renters or buyers and telling them which one to get.

The advice that I hear most often is "make your house neutral, so the buyer can see themselves in it."  I am heeding the wise advice.  I am painting all the walls in neutral white, with each brush stroke I am whispering a thank you for housing us so well, giving us shelter and being our home.  Our home has been anything but neutral over the years.  I painted nudes all over the bathroom and they stayed until one of the grands put his little finger on a nipple and said "chi chi."  They were under Tuscan hued plaster the very next day.

A typical light switch in the house we live in.

The house sits smack dab in the center of 5 acres.  It was actually two shotguns moved from the next larger town and re-worked into a single house.  There was an additional master bedroom added at one time and then a kitchen dining room added later.  It is 3200 square feet of cavernous space.  The land has gone commercial and the house will probably never be used as a home again when it sells.  Poor thing is now just an investment according to the appraiser...and to me.

Mini mural that has been there for about 12 years.  One of the first I attempted.

The plan is live at the beach Tuesday through Friday (where, gloriously, the grass, weeds and other jobs are the domain of someone else) and return to the house, finish the unfinished, neutralize the Catherine out of it, making it ready for the eventual sale.  No small job, but now relegated to week ends.

Pot mural on kitchen wall.

Wisteria on kitchen wall.

Doorway to master bedroom at the end of a very long hall.

Mural in the bedroom.

So I say good bye house, thank you house, please sell soon house as I paint me out of here.

Out of the corner of my eye though, I see children playing, hulking football players eating everything in the fridge, a volunteer fireman dashing down the hall,my daughters outside wedding shower, another daughters pool party and grandchildren learning to walk.  I love you house, you were wonderful house, I will never forget you house.