Show Time!

     After getting last week's blog posted early Saturday morning, and adding some photos to our Craig's List ads, it was back to getting the house ready to show.  We had four phone calls on the house, and someone coming at 3pm Sunday to look at it.

     It was just 30 hours till "show time."  I knew I had my work cut out for me.  I wondered how often play productions, or any show for that matter, kick off before being completely ready.  I remember presenting some class lessons at school that were less than well prepared.

     I was glad we had spent a lot of time on the outside, and that it was fairly ready to show.  It was the inside that had me worried.




     Britney had taken the SUV and small trailer to town to help a friend move.  Once she was back, Joe went to town for a load of gravel. 


     Daniel came out in the afternoon and before he mowed, he helped Joe with spreading gravel down the lower end of the driveway while Britney drove.  I continued work in the house and kept tabs on everybody. 



     In right photo, Britney loves on Roni while Brother loves on her.  We took the "kids," including Mike, to Teddy Buckman's for dinner.  It was fine dining, except they only had a salad and one vegetable offering on their long side order list.  It was good eating otherwise.











     We all came back to the house and horsed around for a bit.  Courtney was not really dressed for this activity.  She did finally get Zorro to accept a kiss.

     Joe was using apples form one of our trees to show off his juggling skills. Amiga was quite impressed, that or she was waiting for him to drop one.






     I had Courtney and Daniel look through a few more piles of stuff to claim anything else they wanted.  Once they headed to Courtney's to play Magic... Britney, Joe and I watched a new show called "Staged To Perfection."  It is about a company in California that does house staging of vacant homes to get them to sell.  I got some more ideas, but it was not realistic for us, because these were million dollar homes, some in the Hollywood area.

      Not willing to completely do away with the large fake plant in the kitchen, I down-sized it using my North Fork Pine, which opened up this space more.  The artificial plant is now in storage and with this pine gone from it's old spot, by the roll top desk, (see photo below) it now opens up the view from kitchen to living room.











     I did remove all the little knick knacks and art work from on top of this side table and put out one larger item of more interest... as suggested by the show.  I still need to de-clutter the top section of the china hutch, leaving a few of my nicer items in it.

     I woke up at 2am Sunday morning and couldn't get back to sleep.  I had too much to get done, so got up and started working at 2:30 in the morning.  Joe was up and left for work at 5am.  By the time Britney and I got to first service at Church, I feared I might fall asleep, but actually stayed tuned in the whole sermon.  I went shopping while Britney attended a missions prayer meeting.

     Once home, it was back to work getting ready for our mid-afternoon showing.  Too our horror, the family (with three children) showed up 2 hours early.  They had tried calling Joe, who didn't hear his phone because he was weed whacking. 

     The show must go on... ready or not, it's showtime!  I had Joe show the family around outside while Britney and I went into super fast "clear the decks" mode.  We had cleaning supplies all over the place and last minute junk sitting around.  We had just
finished staging Daniel's room, except
my desk was cluttered.  Photo to right shows it done... notice his head board is gone and the bed is a little more like a day bed.  I was glad that Britney had loaded a bunch of stuff in the SUV and trailer to go to storage, however, the garage was still a huge mess.

     Britney took Kaysha for a walk when the family came in for me to show them around.  The couple did not spend much time looking inside, nor did they have much to say. They were distracted by their youngest boy who had chased chickens when outside and was after Abbey inside.  He also started to help himself to the candy jar.
                                                           Ha ha ha.  The kids loved the place.

     As soon as the family left, Joe finished with the weeding and Britney and I ate lunch and watched a Love It or List It.  Then the three of us went to the pool for sun and swimming, after first dropping
the second load of stuff off at the storage unit.
We all showered at the Replex, thinking it would make for less to clean back home.
This is going to get old fast.   In the right photo, Abbey has found a new place to hang out.  There used to be boxes of doll house furniture on this shelf.   

     A man and his son came to pick up the 55 gallon fish tank and oak stand they bought from us.  That helped clear out the garage some.  After eating a huge carry out pizza for dinner we went for a nice walk in the country.

     Joe, Britney and I needed to walk off our starchy meal.




      We took turns getting photos of each other and of the countryside.












     Britney also wanted to capture the sky
and cloud formations.


     Coming home we watched the sun set.  Another day, filled with God's blessings, to be thankful for.






     I was thinking, once this house is completely staged, I will return to country life, especially riding more.  Oh... the lady interested in Roni was concerned about him having a metabolic problem because of his weight issue.  The diet continues in more earnest and the exercising must start again.

     I overslept Monday morning so skipped Water Lilies, opting for tea and computer time instead.  I hadn't sat at my desk all weekend, so did some catching up with e-mails and Facebook. 





     Then I had to get to work cleaning my saddle which I was taking to Farm & Fleet to show a prospective buyer.  Just before lunch, I hit the road because it was show time!  And...
my saddle sold much to my relief, which makes for a little less clutter in the tack room.

     I unloaded some feed from Farm & Fleet and items from Wal-Mart and then got back to the tasks on my list.  I baked brownies, did more cleaning and organizing, and attempted more "decorating" in our bathroom with the new towels I bought.  Abbey was inspecting Dan's cleaned out closet and decided it was clean and spacious enough to take a nap in.  To finish the day, I took Britney to the park she runs at, I walked there and then continued on towards the Johnson's for Bible study.



     After Tuesday's Water Lilies, I was back home cleaning and packing more things up.  The FSBO photographer was coming to get pictures of our house and put up their sign, so I had an afternoon deadline.  I cleaned off my desk, seen in a photo I put earlier in this blog.  I also worked on the kitchen... de-cluttering the counter tops.  Many of the old glass containers with the aging corks went into the recycle bin.  I even staged it using an opened cookbook on the counter top.

     I had tried different combinations of new towels to go up in our bathroom, and didn't know which was best.  I conferred with Carol (by way of photos) and the FSBO lady once she got here.  You can see my final decision on towels in the master bath photo on our FSBO listing.
At the end of the listing, there is also
access to our house location on a map.  If you click on "satellite" and zoom in, you can see our property.  We do this with every prospective house we look at in Tennessee.  Gives you a feel of the neighborhood.  I have even discovered hidden paths that go from the end of one cul-de-sack to another, and can be used for walking.

     Daniel came over for some grilled chicken and to square away a few things before leaving the following morning for two weeks at Camp Atterbury in Indiana.  It was also an opportunity for he and Britney to bid each other farewell.

     Cows coming in for feeding time.  Kabob is really growing.  He has dirty knees like most little boys on the farm.

     The dog woke me up barking at 3am Wednesday.  I thought it was because of a storm.  So I got up to medicate her.  First I took her for a walk to check out the weather.  There was no thunder or lightening, and it wasn't even very cloudy... the stars were shining.  The dog did go potty, so maybe that was why she woke me. 

     Being wide awake, I decided to start my day extra early.  So as not to wake Joe and Britney, I went out into the garage to start removing clutter and cleaning.  I got tools and workbench picked up and even swept cob- webs from walls.  We had a 10:00 showing to prepare for, and a plumber at 11:00.  Dragging by 7am, I did Water Lilies to get reawakened & refreshed.

     In one of the house selling articles I read, it cautioned sellers to not make it a requirement that they have twenty four hours notice before a Realtor can enter their home.  You might lose a potential buyer.  The more flexible you are about showing the home, the greater the chance of getting potential buyers in.  The show must go on... regardless of timing or warning.

     Britney left for a panel discussion at the McLean County Chamber of Commerce on immigration reform and I ended up showing the house to two different families Wednesday morning.  Just after my scheduled people left, a man and his wife came up the drive with questions about the house.  I invited them to come on in, and showed them around.  The plumber came and fixed several issues so we could pass the plumbing inspection with no problem... And, he didn't come until 12:00, so all the "showing" business and busyness was over when he got here.  I did a lot of cleaning up after the plumber left around 1:30.  The photo above is actually the "cleaned up" stage I reached out in the garage.  The two card tables are full of picture frames I still needed to sort through and pack up.

     Awh... finally some time to relax.  No!  Wait!  I need to fill the deck fountain with water.  And there is more hair collecting in the corners.  And that window is dirty again.  Ughhh.  The days of soaking in a hot tub are over... um, actually I never took time for that anyway.  I did sneak in a short nap though.

     I had found two catnip mice while moving furniture and Abbey fell asleep while playing with this one. 

     The first lady, who had been so excited about our house and property, scheduled an evening visit to come back to show her husband, two sons, a girlfriend and her niece.  They waited to come look until after a short rain shower had ended, but then while we were showing them around, another random car came up the drive.  It was the daughter of the couple who had looked earlier.  So, once again, without an appointment or any warning, we showed her around too.

     Thursday was a leisurely morning, with no where to go and no one coming.  Joe and Britney were out the door about the same time, with her going to the Global Leadership Conference.  I worked on this blog and took some extra time with the horses...

 





     I put on their fly masks and grazing muzzles (seen on Roni to the left and Amiga above, but not Zorro).  Then I lead them out to the front pasture. 

     The Becks workers have been busy bees lately.  They are getting ready for their annual show, because "show time" is next Wednesday.  Joe moved this sign from the front (since the FSBO sign is out there) and put it by the corn crib for the Beck's patrons to see when the trams take them by to view Becks fields.  They get several hundred people through there on their open house day, which might help us catch an eye or two.

     I worked out in the garage sorting through 2 boxes and 3 stacks of wall hangings.  I loaded many frames into my car to go to Goodwill, after first taking the photos out of them.  I kept the wall hangings I really liked and re-boxed them for storage and the eventual move.  Finally the garage looks less cluttered.  Next... the stuff overhead and then the garage shed. 

     Courtney came out to work and ride Zorro.  Before we even got started, there was a commotion out on 150.  Two of the neighbors horses got loose and were running all over the place, including down to our front pasture, and Brian's road.  Courtney and I quickly grabbed halters and lead ropes and went to see what we could do. 

     There were cars stopped in both lanes and traffic backed up because the horses were running back and forth across 150.  With the help of some friendly motorists, we finally caught the horses and lead them back to their pasture.


     After the "horse show" was over, we got down to business with ours. 




     I helped Courtney with Zorro first.  Then I joined her, riding Roni.  Too hot, tired and short on time, we didn't work long, but still had fun. 

     Friday morning Shelly picked me up for Water Lilies since Britney had my car again for the leadership conference.  The morning progressed quite similar to Thursday's once I got home from the pool.

     This is a view from the dining room window as I sat and worked on this blog.  You can see all the signs Becks has put up. 

     We never did get the offer we were expecting from the lady who so wants to buy our farm.  They were going to write up a purchase agreement after meeting with their banker.  We suspected they had difficulties getting financing. 

      I try not to look into the future or make big plans... because I really don't know what God's plans are for us.  I try to be patient and let God work His plans on His time.  Try is the catch word here.

      Well, we (Joe and I with the two girls and Mike and his mom) are headed to Peoria for dinner and then a moonlight sightseeing cruise.  We will be traveling up and down the Illinois River  aboard the "Spirit of Peoria" paddle-boat.  It will be Show Time once again, this time with God as the creator, actor, and director of the show.