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Thursday, August 05, 2004

Have been very busy taking and retaking and editing photos!

I've also spent an inordinate amount of time searching, lately, for the ideal packaging for the kits, and ideal seems to be unattainable at this time, but I did come up with a nice enough replacement idea. When I'm searching for something, it consumes me, until I've exhausted all possibilities. I don't take no as an answer - there's always gotta be a way!

Hubby resurrected our 20-year old air conditioner, which we though had finally given up, and now we have cool air in the family room and my adjoining 2 work/office rooms. That's a relief! Between the Phaser, which needs between 200 and 1000 watts, a desktop, my laptop and lighting, it gets warmmm in here, on top of the summer heat and humidity.

Got the seams on the cabled jacket done, and began one cuff last night. Would like to get both cuffs and the front edging done today, but we'll see! I have pattern proofing to do and have just got back the first batch of edits to do on the Gazette. Gotta interrupt it with errands later - 5 stops to make and none of them any too short - Sears to go over the house paint colors in their Weatherbeater Ultra line and get, oh about 20-30 cans, if they have it, then to Lowe's for crown moulding, then to Staples to check out their binding machines - mine is the simplest model and not capable of doing what I need to do - more on that later!, then to CVS for a whole slew of things, then another place, I think for something on hubby's list.

It's 95 degrees one day and in the 60's the next! I've had to close a couple windows and don a cardigan. The storm really did cool it off - unusual for August storms - they never cool it off here.

Now, as for that binding machine - I got the most wonderful news yesterday and was in shock all last night, as I never thought it would happen - Unicorn Books has been kind enough to want my 4 booklets for distribution!!

Ack! she says, as she ponders the immenseness of the work ahead of her, all to be done in the next 3.5 weeks!!!

So, if I neglect to write in as often as I have been, please DO forgive me, I'll be printing and binding gazillions of booklets all day, every day, well into every evening, as well as printing, stapling and shipping over 500 Gazette copies, *besides* taking care of regular business and home. So, when I read my Aries horoscope this morning, which said "The stars set your life on fire...", boy have they!
Posted by: Dawn Brocco / 8/05/2004 11:18:00 AM
Comments:
Wow, congratulations on the Unicorn deal, that is great!! They have such a far reach as a distributor, don't think there is anything in comparison.

Say, I wonder, why are you fixing up house to much when you want to leave it? I never quite followed people doing that. Biggest thing I ever did was paint a cute picked fence in white, two lean coats no less and it looked wonderful. We sold the house in record time, the new owners took the fence down first to build a driveway in front of the house...

I rather fix up and spend energy on my newly aquired house than do stuff for other people. Maybe that's selfish??
# posted by Blogger Maus : 10:44 PM
 
Hi Maus,
Thanks for your congrats!

As for the house - as this is a restoration-in-progress (house is 150-200 years old), it will sell faster, and at a better price, if some major things are done - the kitchen HAS to be done and the outside HAS to be painted. It hasn't been painted in ages and, so, has far less street appeal than the inside has. We knew this even before the agents told us this - we're aware of the aesthetics of things. As a designer, I better be! and hubby is a perfectionist, he's no slap dash kind of craftsman, like the previous owner.

It's a waste of time to try and sell a house when people might be turned off by the outside and not think it's worthwhile to see how lovely the inside is. And the house is sited nicely on the property and is at the peak of a hill as you come around a bend in the road past the ordinary bi-levels and ranches in the area, so it has the *potential* to give a very striking and appealing first impression - if it was painted!

With hubby doing the paint job, it'll only cost us about a grand, but painters want $16,000 to do the house, so if we left it alone, an interested buyer would need to haggle us down the $16,000 cost of a paint job, as most people, who would buy this price-range house, don't do the work themselves, they hire it out. So, we earn $15,000 by doing the work - actually hubby has earned every cent of our prospective profit from this house as he's done 70-80% of the work, instead of paying for plumbers', electricians', carpenters' and contractors' labor!

The only other things we're doing are small interior jobs - fresh paint, clean carpets, new closet doors as the old closet doors were a definite negative in that room. You don't want people to go through a room and say, "oh it's nice, BUT..."!

If you've ever seen those shows where they spend $2000 to get a place looking more appealing, so that it will sell - it's apparent that people can't look past poor decorating choices and clutter, as I can't - it's too glaring. Once harmony has been created in those places, they are now seen as new homes, by the same prospective buyers that saw them before. It can make all the difference.
# posted by Blogger Dawn Brocco : 10:00 AM
 
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