There's nothing like listing your home to force you to examine it with fresh eyes and obsess over tiny flaws. While we know our home is fabulous for the price and we made a conscious decision to stop renovating at a certain point, I still wish we had a perfect home to show our prospective buyers.
The real estate agent in me tells me that we're priced well and should have no trouble selling, but the seller in me is a self-conscious, neurotic mess. I'm trying to let my real estate agent side win... I mean, I do this for a living and guide buyers and sellers through this process all the time, right?
I'm now seeing how different it feels when I'm the seller. My agent is a trusted friend and colleague who understands that it's challenging for me to step back into the role of client. But I still have to stop myself from saying crazy things to her, things like: "I know those buyers said they liked it but did they like like it?" or "I know they just started their search but can you explain to them that they are definitely not going to find anything better?" Luckily, I've been doing a good job of keeping all my crazy thoughts to myself so my agent is still speaking to me. :) This definitely supports my idea to list through another agent so that I could be a little more removed from certain parts of the process.
Anyway, part of this listing craziness is the sudden realization that your home is FILLED with minor imperfections. Seriously, they're all I see lately. I know most sellers go through this and I know most buyers would never notice (or even care) about these minor details when the rest of the condo is in such good condition. I KNOW these things, but that still wasn't enough to stop me on Sunday night (after both Corey and I worked on Saturday and had to keep leaving the condo with Barkley for the 4 showings we had on Sunday) from busting out a tube of silicone for some touch ups to the ensuite powder room. The fact that it was about 6:00pm on a Sunday night after a crazy weekend should justify the glass of wine in the picture. That's my DIY wine!
As you can see, we have a little powder room in the master bedroom. Before I put a halt to our renovations, I had plans for double sinks in white quartz and a bamboo vanity but we would not have seen a return on that investment so we are now working with what we have. It's actually not too bad and we painted the vanity a creamy white and the walls a pale sea foam green. The effect is pretty tranquil except for one thing I noticed and now can not seem to stop noticing...
The vanity is clearly trying to break free and run away from the wall! I don't know why it's making a break for it (probably Barkley's snoring,) but it wants out of here and I needed a quick fix to waterproof and fill the gap. Note- I was going to call this post "Sunday Night Caulking" but that sounded a little inappropriate.
Luckily for me, Corey has tons of goodies in the storage closet and I found this white silicone for kitchen and bath. It seemed perfect so I grabbed some paper towel and some wine and I began what turned out to be a pretty messy 30 minutes. Note- Corey read this and said "Ooooh, so all the 'crap' in the storage closet becomes 'goodies' as soon as you need something. I see how it is..."
After trying a few techniques (like squeezing directly into the gap and smoothing with the nozzle,) I found that it was easiest and most effective to just apply a dime sized amount of the silicone to my finger and drag my finger across the crease, smoothing it with my nail. I'm sure there's a more professional way to do this, but it was easy this way and I didn't mind the mess. I could have looked around for the "proper" tools but my finger gave me plenty of control and I would rather get the job done than procrastinate it because I don't have the right tools. Last Note (I promise!)- I just made a real connection and this is probably why every once in a while one of my recipes tastes like garbage: I substitute. Oops- sorry Corey!
Then I use the paper towel to clean it off the counter and wall. You may need to use a flat object like your nail to scrape it off the wall a bit. I was careful not to let any part dry for more than a couple of minutes before going over it with the paper towel and the excess silicone came off pretty easily.
And, we're done! Sorry about the weird glare in the photo. I tried to zoom in to show that it's not perfect but it's certainly better than it was before. Unfortunately, wet silicone is pretty shiny and it's caused some weird distortion. Anyway, I didn't do a perfect job but you can only tell up close and you would need to be really looking for faults. It actually makes the entire room look better and more finished and, more importantly, we no longer need to worry about moisture getting in behind the vanity.
I thought it was time to relax so I made my way to the kitchen to make a tea and ... I could have sworn we had a cupboard door there this morning!
As it turns out, Corey had his own pet peeve caused by a loose cupboard hinge in the kitchen. He decided to fix it while I was siliconing the powder room.
It was a busy weekend but the place was nicely back together for our 5 showings on Monday and Tuesday (even more if you count the rest of the week) and we're both feeling like it's a small step closer to perfection. We want our buyers to love our home and, while they may not notice them at the time of purchase, we know the details will make a difference once they move in.
It's funny that the tiny details can really drive you nuts if you're looking for them. Was there anything about your home that you didn't notice until after you were listed?
