So when we first walked into 50 Midland, we were wowed by the cathedral ceiling in the living room and horrified by the kitchen. It was broken up into three awful and unusable chunks. One with a cute Bavarian style booth, one with the primary space of the kitchen, and one giant pantry (with a window in it! Uh, wha?) and on the other side of the entryway (behind a wall and separate from the kitchen) a refrigerator. This isn’t the half of it but you get the idea.
Photo credit: Sean Sime.
Suffice it to say, Sean took everything down to the studs, knocked down walls, ran all new electric to bring the thing into the 21st century, put in a beautiful sustainable wood floor, custom cabinets, the works. We got a few bids from contractors just to demo the space, not one was under $50K so despite being seven months pregnant. I did the demo myself:
Okay, I’m just kidding. Sean did the demo with some help from friends and they quickly learned why the bids were so high. This place is built to outlast Armageddon. Seriously, inside the plaster walls is not your typical chicken wire with concrete slabbed on but sheet metal with some holes gouged in it AND THEN the concrete on top.
It took three months and change to complete. A baby came during the process, we moved in sans our über amazing Bluestar range, but it all worked out.
The door frames have since been stained and some other little tweaks happened but there it is all pretty and done. The dishwasher and refrigerator hide behind custom cabinet faces and everything looks really clean and finished.
Next post: bathroom renovation!!
No open house this weekend, Happy Mother’s Day! But the house is available for showings by appointment. Call Jeff Kinglsey: (917) 767-4519.
Who knew there was such a thing as a national open house day? Well Jeff knew, of course, and our house will be open this Sunday from 1pm-4pm. Come have a look-see.
So Leah, our stager, saw my last post and asked if I wanted some of the before shots of the house before she and Lindy worked their magic. I did want them! And now I”m sorry I said yes! In the effort of full disclosure of this crazy process I feel compelled now to post them but I’m horribly embarrassed! So, I will post one or maybe two but I will also say this. We were cleaning up, clearing out, donating, boxing, getting rid of AND doing it all with two kids on hand tearing things apart at every turn. With that said:
Living room/book shelves before
Living room/book shelves after
Deck before
Deck after, and it now looks so much nicer with the grape arbor leafing in. This arbor was one of the things that hooked us on the house. It is nearly 30 years old, fruit bearing and just gorgeous. The profile pic for the blog (to the right) is of me, six months pregnant and lounging while Sean started the first kitchen renovations in fall 2007.
Stay tuned, the next post will show you before and after of the kitchen renovations, including, aforementioned pregnant me, with sledge hammer.
A few of those, I guess, would be neighbors or the generally curious, but between the open house and scheduled appointments on Saturday we had 34 sets of eyes look at the house. According to our amazing realtor, Jeff Kingsley, there were a lot of “wow”s if no out right, “I’ll take it!”s. So I think for four days on the market we’re moving along pretty well.
If you’ve had a look at the photos of the interior you’ll notice everything looks pretty darn nice (if I do say so myself). We have Leah Gomberg of Sweet Life by Design to thank for that. She has a really wonderful ability to take our things and make them look beautiful in a way we would never have thought to do. And then she brings in her things to fill in the gaps. Check out her web site: www.sweetlifebydesign.com.
My most favorite thing that she did was rearrange our bookshelves. As a book publicist, among other things, to say I have a lot of books would be the most ridiculous of understatements. I have nearly 15 years of book projects, most of which I have completely fallen in love with and kept for posterity’s sake. Alas, many are in boxes in storage at the moment but the rest look just fantastic after Leah and her assistant Lindy got their hands on them!
Photo credit: Dan Morris
Photo reply with pictures of your bookshelves, bed side table, what are you reading and how are you arranging your books?
5 showings so far today!
As a publicist and a social media person I couldn’t help myself when posed with the opportunity to social media market my own house. Today it went on the market with the broker open house from 11am-1pm. Forty-one brokers showed up and the excitement was palpable.
So it’s official, we’re on the market. Have a look. Comment, circulate, reply and tell me what crazy project you’ve promoted online or send me your suggestions for promoting this one.
Stay tuned to see photos of the renovations in progress, information about the amazing people who brought the house together and prepared it for market, and more about the lovely town that is Maplewood, NJ. And(!) what it’s like to try and sell your house when you have two small children with full-time in-home childcare, and you and your husband both work from home. Let the insanity ensue!
Yours,
Sarah
To visit the listing: http://www.weichert.com/42284306/
photo credit: Dan Morris
First open house: April 22 from 1pm - 4pm
Buyer inquiries: Jeffrey Kingsley, Weichert Realtors, (917) 767-4519.