The house is ready. I think. Maybe.

The front of the house...  the living room.

Most of our stuff is already in our (formerly known as) "snowbird" house.  We would haul more and more to our winter home when we would come back for some Iowa time.  
 
At this point, only the bare minimum household stuff, and a car, is still here but we have been completely fine with it. 
But this trip become more than just a visit.  We had previously discovered that we were not the snowbirds we thought we would be.  So when a family event caused us to re-evaluate our desire to keep a home in Iowa, the decision had to be  made.

Its a pretty large room...
 and I love the wood floors and the HUGE rug.

I had not previously been "ready' to sell the house and car.  I have always needed a back up, so to speak.  Apparently, that had changed somewhere in the last 3 years. 
 
Maybe my need for a backup plan changed because having the 2nd home was a constant stressor for me.  It could be that I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. 
 
And it could be because we DH and I talked about it, he mentioned me having the funds for a new longarm if I sold the house.


Whatever it was, I was ready to let go.  We sold the car.  Now the house.,,,
 



I decorated the back room as a baby's room
with a cradle and rocking horses. 
I am making a lamp for the room... 
I will post a photo when its completed.

The stairwell looking up
.  I painted the walls white, the stairs gray,
 the trim on the walls is gray,
and the railing and coat rack at the top is red.
I want to paint red arrows on the walls pointing up... or down.

The downstairs full bath. 
This was one of my favorite major changes to this house.

While it was a lot of work, it was a labor of love.  I loved this house and I am not completely thrilled to sell it...  but I do know that its the right thing to do on so many levels.
 


The downstairs bedroom. 
We only have one bed at this house
so I made a fake bed for this room.
 I hope no one sits on it :)

The furnace/storage room. 

But because I am me, I couldn't just clean it and sell it.  I knew that the "thingy" needed fixed and the "whatjamacallit" needed replaced.   I also knew that the room over there needed repainted.
 
So I did it.  All of it.  I took care of it - rather DH and I did it.  I want to stand in front of the pearly gates with the least amount of regret.

The laundry room.  I LOVED doing the floor.









And I didn't go over board...  I used paint we had on hand (the $5 rejected gallons of paint from home improvement stores) that I had bought to paint the rooms before I decided to sell it. 

I also did a few fun things that relieves the monotony of doing projects like these one after another after another.  I didn't take photos of all the rooms and it seems I do still have a few things in about every room but I am pretty pleased with how the home I love looks. 
 
I just can't help being one of those pride-of-ownership kind of girls.  It makes me happy.
 
And on the upside, I get to spend the kids' inheritance now, rather than haunt them while THEY spend it!   :)