...But having friends and family who love us, made it a lot easier.

Back when Eric and I were getting our house ready to put on the market, we decided that we would get our house all packed, clean, and staged (easier said than done) and then take our kids (who ocassionally make messes) and leave our beautifully staged home, and visit family and have some fun while it was up for sale. Before we could leave for a fun vacation, however - we had a LOT of work cut out for us in order to get our house sale-ready. A. Lot. Of. Hard. Work.

But luckily we have many family and friends who are generous, loving, serving, wonderful people who were willing to help. Our work was made much lighter by people who love us.

My parents love us.

We began our perfect plan, with a whole week of kid-free house preparation. We drove our kids up to Lubbock and my parents graciously kept our kids for a whole week while Eric and I drove back to Austin and then worked our tails off getting our house ready for the market. For one whole week, we woke up early, worked all day, and went to bed late. Everything from sorting junk, touching up paint, minor house repairs, to the oh so daunting task of making my house look beautiful. We worked so hard, but all the while I know my mom and dad were working hard too, taking care of our kids. Playing "mom" for a whole week is tough work (I've got first-hand experience), but for a set of tired grandparents, it's even tougher. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We have stylish friends, who love us.

I've never been a decorator, so I had to call on the help of several of my good friends. Oh how I love my good friends! I have some really great friends. I had a few friends come and help me clean and organize and gave me great ideas for staging my house. One friend even went to the store for me and bought new, colorful towels for my bathrooms and other items I had on my "to buy" list (a sub-category of my never-ending "to do" list). She helped me put the towels stylishly in the bathroom (who knew bathtowels could be pretty?), helped me tie some ribbons, made my bathrooms look glorious and then sneakily left before I could pay her for the goods she bought. She is an angel.

I have another friend with a serious eye for staging and decorating that came and worked miracles in getting my house really, truly staged. This friend of mine has ADHD, and does more in a single day than I can ever fathom. (She strongly believes ADHD is a super power). She moved furniture, made fast calls on decorations, cleaned out corners, brought over lamps and finishing peices, packed boxes, and worked herself till she (and her family who came later) literally dropped. Awesome friend, I tell you. Awesome.

My house has never been 'decorated,' so for staging purposes, I borrowed lots of pretty accent pieces from a generous friend's pretty home to make my home temporarily look gorgeous. Beautfiul ficus treese, wall hangings, glass decorations, vases with flowers... all items that I would never have in my home because,
Number one - I'm too cheap, and
Number two - I'm sure that they would all be destroyed by my succession of what I lovingly call tornado toddlers. But with the kids far away in Lubbuck, I placed the decorations all around, until my house looked like something out of a magazine. It's so nice to have stylish friends.

I was so incredibly grateful for the help of all that came that week. There's no way we could have accomplished what we did, without their help. When it was all done, we were extremely satisfied with the results. Our once simple, kid-friendly, kid-messy, 'lived-in' home was transformed into a clean, beautiful, and completely unlivable model home.
(thanks, Jonny for the pretty photos!)

House for Sale.

Our house went up for sale, officially on Friday, June 28. Although it looked beautiful, it all the sudden felt more like a house rather than a home. Our personal belongings were packed up, our kids were gone, our dogs were gone, pretty things had taken over our once comfy home... and the house was - perfectly clean! (and that's just never happened)

Sometime during the transformation, I became detached from the house we once called home. It was time to go. House for sale!

We returned to Lubbock on Saturday, and spent the next couple days trying to catch up on our sleep. I slept hard - full of gratitude for aweseome friends and family.