Unfortunately, that's a problem homeowners have, if they've got renters! It's really dumb when the owners themselves act that way. I tried to see one house twice; and this was when I still had a 150 mile round trip to the area! The first time, the homeowner had some excuse not to let us in at all .. like she hadn't straightened up (the appointment had been made the day before), and the second time she was sick in bed, so the realtor let us see everything but the MBR! The house was pretty awful anyway, and when I drove by the other day, it had been replaced!

Bobbi, that is a very pretty room. I love the way you have covered the stool and the same fabric round the mirror. Very clever!

judy please tell me that you've found a mirror..because i'm obsessed with looking online now! I'm throwing these your way, just because they are pretty awesome! Not that they would work for this situation, but whatever! maybe for another client one day. just thought they were nice! :)
First is RH, they had a lot of nice gray/zinc mirrors FYI, West Elm is the second and I don't know where the 3rd one was from ??? But this is what I had envisioned, but with a textured fabric instead of wood kind of thing. Or the 3rd one painted whatever color you had in mind. I'll shut up now I promise.

gotta get ready to get the boo anyway...be leaving work in a sec.

Thank you busylady! I appreciate your kind comments very much. I think the mirror might be a bit 80's with the fabric, but it looks ok in person. Thanks!

Astraea, the whole house had been replaced? Wild!

MP, personally I like the West Elm one. Good job.

bob, the thrift store dresser/nightstand? That should stay that color I think. and i think the tall cabinet thingy would look good in ochre too with black knobs! (don't kill me for saying you need to paint something else please! HA!) It looks fine in the white as well, but my first inclination is to say paint it too.

guys, love ya mean it...gotta go! take care and have a great weekend, if i don't talk to you until monday!

Thanks MP, I'm not sure.....should I live with it for a while before taking the painting plunge?

Have fun with Boo!

Bobbi .. don't know if they tore down & rebuilt, or just tore it apart & built up .. just that the assessed value doubled!

Where is that flowered fabric going? I must have missed that ..

The flowered fabric I used to upholster the little bench and to cover the mirror frame. It was originally the on the headboard.

If you had bought the house, would you have torn it down? But you never got to see it, right?

Astraea, I have a sad story. There was a house right up the street, corner lot, that had to of been over 100 years old. It was sitting on a ton of property but the house was more towards the street. It had been on the market for a long time, one day I looked it up just curious what they were asking. The MLS said $250,00 for land and $0 for house. They claimed the house was inhabitable but in very poor shape. A few days later I saw an older gentleman on a walker go up to the mailbox and a younger man (assuming a son) moving some of his things out into a truck that I had never seen there. What I assumed the situation was an older man that had to get into assisted living that couldn't keep up with the home. It looked like one of those homes that had been in the family forever. There used to be a lot of farmland out here that has slowly been taken over by development. Well, it finally sold but right after it sold it was bulldozed. Broke my heart.

I know it was in bad shape but it just had a calling to it...like it could have been so much more. It was one of those old southern colonial styles but you could see what it once was. Now there is this normal looking new build house (run on of the mill home you see out here) that would probably value at $500-600K without land. In my mind you could have put that money into the existing home and really made something special. It always tugs at my heart when I see a home bulldozed because that was a family's home at one time and now it's all gone. I wouldn't want someone to tear down my mom and dad's house. They have been there since I was 5, holds a ton of memories.

I can't believe it, cleaning is completely done!! Now, if I could only put a plastic bag over it to seal it from dirt, dust and messy kiddos/teenagers. If only once I would love to have someone else clean my home...ugghhh. I don't know what my least favorite is: mopping, vacuuming stairs or cleaning bathrooms.

Bobbi - I saw most of the house, and what I saw I didn’t like! It was listed as an “expanded ranch”, but was really a small cape. It had a single car garage accessed by a curved driveway with high retaining walls on both sides .. scary! Small lot. Its only “claim to fame” was that if the people across the street didn’t expand or build up, you might be able to see the river behind them!

Tras – I hear you, but fixing an old house can be a lot more expensive than building new. You start tearing things apart, and find all sorts of additional problems, you didn’t realize you had. That’s probably where the expression came from, “You can’t go home again.” Sometimes it’s just too depressing to see the changes.

Bobbi...the headboard is beautiful. Love the linen. Once you put the fantastic wall ornaments it is going to look great.

Stationary panels on the windows would make the room feel finished imo.

I like the chest and the tall cabinet, but think they would look good in the deepest shade of pink from the printed fabric. Something like this: http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/floridapink

Janis, thank you so much! I love that florida pink, gives me ideas of pink flamingos. And I think I will do the staionary panels in the pink linen. I got 6 yards of it for $5!!! Good deal, very wide fabric, but 6 yards is a lot. I need to make good use of it!

Oh Astraea I know, you never know what's behind the walls but when you look at the money they spent on the new one you've got to imagine it could be done...to each his own but with the man still alive I'm sure it probably crushed him. I don't know, I'm just saying it was sad to watch it come down. We have an amazing area on Ward Parkway going towards the plaza where the streets are lined with historical homes. Those open houses are really something to see. Most have been gutted at sometime or another, really fun area. It's known for old money, the homes are huge and breathtaking. My sister and I love to go on the weekends just to snoop through. I love it when the floors creak and slope and all the old moldings and door casings.

What a bargain! I am especially fond of natural fibers, linen, silk, etc.

If they really care about the house, they can tell to sell it for its historic value. But in the end, most people go with whoever will pay the most, and that might be a developer, who expects to put a much larger new house in. When I was on my old town's zoning board, we had an application by a builder who had a large historic house smack in the middle of a very large lot. He wanted to split the lot in two. The trade-off was that if he knocked the historic home down, he could easily build 2 new houses fully in compliance with the codes, but because of the placement of the original house, if he cut the lot to save it, the other lot needed variances .. and we negotiated very carefully, so the old house wouldn't be torn down.

Good morning all............... well it was morning when I started reading this, but it is now half gone and as usual I have missed mp. I love reading about Boo Mappin, reminds me so much of Miss 6 especially and how much I miss her.

So to start wading through everything here - Bobbi first (duck)

I'm glad you changed the headboard, I was waiting for a clearer photo before I said too much, but I just felt that floral, pretty as it is, was too small and didn't have enough oomph. It will definitely look great on the mirror and bench. All about proportion to me. I love the effect of the pink now, totally different room, I love the screen and I feel the softer colour makes that look part of the room now. I know you are desperate for your red ochre but does it really go with the pink?? I think you would have to be in the room to really feel that. Would a cushion in the floral work in lieu of the ochre or would it be getting the room too bitty with the bench and mirror? Ooops, just saw the bench and mirror - WOW even better than I thought, you can see how the size of the floral is more in proportion and a cushion would reflect in them - I rather like that. Love those ornaments, they are a very me kind of thing.

So if I ever get to LA I will definitely have dinner in your dining room - love it. I would have plants everywhere if I could (much to everyone else's disgust) and I love the floral chair cushions with the tiles. Very unusual these days but you have really made it work and I didn't even notice the three different timbers, that would normally stand out like a sore toe, maybe I'm too busy drooling over your plants.

Hi Roo, glad I'm still on the computer (almost 8 PM), to see you! Usually when I get on in the AM, you're heading off to bed!

I actually thought that was a guy; that was the one with the first phallic comments!

Thank you roo, I love hearing your comments. I knew you would be honest with me and I'm (really) glad you like the changes. The headboard did not feel right to me and sometimes it's all about the feel.

Love the drawing from Miss6! Quite a little talent you've got there. Did your DD email it to you? And pray tell what the teacher said !!!

Astraea, it is now noon here and I have done next to nothing, this time difference does not work in my favour.

I only attend open houses in my suburb as to compare homes anywhere else wouldn't give me realistic price ideas. The majority of homes here are in the mid $900,000 to around $1.6m. Some go above and over the $2m but not many. Most homes were built in the 60s - early 70s too so you can make good comparisons. It is interesting to see what homes have been renovated, what haven't and quite a few have had partial renovations over the years that results in quite a hodgepodge. We rarely have more than 4 or 5 homes on the market at once and open houses seem to be an easier way to sell all round, I guess for the owners to only have to decamp for an hour one morning a week is less stressful than having people call at all hours of day and night and having to always be ready for it.

Judy - those frames were at my $2 shops, one-off Made in China, the sort of thing you have to buy when you see or they are gone forever. They were around $AUD30 each. Normally I would have bought one and worked on finding a place for it but I have pulled myself back from that sort of behaviour now in my efforts to really declutter. I really liked them and how the profile was staggered too.

Holy Moly, I will have to find that masking tape for BH. He is the absolute KING of masking tape. Have you ever seen those joke photos usually labelled "I can fix it" and there are just the most ridiculous male fixits all done with masking tape. Trust me, I have them all in my home. It would be so nice if I have to put up with it to some something attractive to look at. When I have more time I will tell you what he did to his car.

Roo - My experience selling my house, is that open houses are for the nosey, rather than serious buyers. If the market is hot, buyers want to see new listings as soon as they come out .. not wait for an open house. was in a small town of 8,000 people before, and in a smaller town of under 5,000 now. The housing market hasn't recovered yet, although the inventory has dropped from a high in 2010 or 11.

Yesterday was the first time I drove thru the Manasquan beach area, since Hurricane Sandy. The power of sand & water is amazing! I saw where sand was pushed from the beach into homes, where it buckled the garage doors & filled up the garages! The houses there range from tiny bungalows that are probably just rented for the summer season .. and were totally destroyed by the storm, to large single family houses worth $2+ million on or near the water. There were construction dumpsters at every 3rd or 4th house, and many empty foundations.

Bobbi, you are very like me, you have definite ideas but sometimes just get into brain overload and then miss little things that make a huge difference. Being a few steps further back than you it makes it easier to make less emotional suggestions if you know what I mean. I am laughing now when I think back at how this room started and all your plans and how it has finished up especially when you had all that pink to use up - classic brain overload. It is a great pink too not at all feminine and looks fabulous with black.

Yes, DD emailed me a photo of the drawing and I had it printed in a 6" x 8" and scrapbooked it with some preschool photos. I don't think she was game enough to even look the teacher in the face, but we couldn't stop laughing about it for ages afterwards.

Not going to get any photos to send today - very wet and heavily overcast and supposed to be this way all week.

Roo, you're right! When I see problem rooms on Houzz it's easier to make suggestions than it is being IN the room. And you nailed it with the size of the pattern, it was all the right colors and all the wrong size. Thanks!

When Miss 6 turns into Miss 18, you can show her that photo. And her first boyfriend too!

Well, I'm off to the telly now .. have a good day/night everyone!

Astraea, strangely when I have been doing the open houses there have been either families with kids seriously looking or our age group looking to invest. We are in a very high demand area but we just don't have the style of homes that people are looking for so most are looking with a view to extending and renovating too. That is why major renovations are often a waste of money if you are just doing it to sell and people are picking that and refusing to pay inflated prices. I remember many years ago Agents saying that our area would never really take off because the homes weren't big enough but they were larger than normal homes for the time they were built and back then people didn't over extend themselves with mortgages like they do today either which was lucky when interest rates soared to 18% in the late 80s, early 90s.

We see many shows on TV here about auctions that are generally held in the street at the front of the house and of the hundreds of people that attend only 3 or 4 are serious bidders, the rest are definitely neighbours curious to know what the house sells for and others interested in the market price for that area. When it is so hard to get a foot in the real estate door here people are desperately looking for pockets of lower priced homes or what they have to consider in renovations in lower priced homes. Last I saw the average median price for a Sydney home was $649K.

Bobbi, I let fly on a dilemma yesterday, someone posted their guest room with all antique furniture including a gorgeous baby crib and everyone got stuck into changing this and that and getting rid of things. One included a ceiling fan that apparently had a chain pull - my eyesight must be getting bad, I was damned if I could see it - and they also got into getting rid of the crib. I think the woman had said the crib was used by guests with babies. Anyway the whole thing got way out of hand so I chimed in that it was a guest room and the comfort of the guests should come before pretty decor and if the fan was needed then it had to stay (replacing one without a cord). I did hold back from saying a chandelier was no substitute. Plus added that if the crib was needed then it was needed and guests who didn't need it would still appreciate the fact that it was there. Then I also let them have it about considering light and aspect before they went off choosing colour schemes. I was in one of those moods - I get so sick of people telling others to basically toss everything they have and start over. I think it was Michi commented on it too and said about the atmosphere of the room and other than a few tweaks it was great. I can never come on and say do this do that, I always make suggestions for a person to consider or ask do they like, or say what I like or works for me.

Night Astraea, enjoy the telly.

Judyg, I am sitting with my son at present and he grew up in the upstate of sc but lived in Wilmington NC for a little less than a year. He said if he had to choose between Wilmington and Charleston SC he would pick Wilmington NC because he thinks it is very clean and he felt very safe there. I also have a son who lives in Charleston and he loves it but you do have to be careful where you live.. There are a lot of medical facilities and it is now known as the number one travel destination in the world by Conde Naste Travel Mag. It does have some very lovely homes and gardens. My husbands comment is he likes Wimington NC but that the hurricanes seem to hit there a lot. Excuse my typing because I am doing it on an IPad.

Spent the evening with our DD at her Cape house. She had the two of us, her godmother, her two girls, a husband and their 5 young ones. The menu was chili, with sides of home made guac, salsa, sour cream, green chilies, sliced black olives, sliced green onions, tostada chips toasted, and lots of margaritas (seltzer for C P, he gave up drinking 35 years ago). We had so much fun. The kids grew up together and tho thousands of miles apart, we try to see each other a few times a year. They are our family, because we have none.

Very cold here, but cozy. Fireplace on…I want Astraea to see the Cape in the winter. Feeny, you know how great it is.

bobbi, go pink! Use that fabric!

Love open houses. If I had one hundred dollars for every house I found for my friends to buy, I would be rich.

Thanks Judy! Sounds like a great dinner, wish I could have been there but it doesn't sound like there was room for one more! Have a great night, everyone!

Roo, I thought of you today after cleaning. I grabbed a photo of the embellishments on my daughters curtains I was working on last week and one of the master curtains. Anymore when I put the pleat in I add a little something for fun to tie the room together, thought you might like.

I have to tell you, it was awfully funny when I was done. My son grabbed the camera and started taking pics of all his toys and hollering "action!". I have no idea where he gets this. He cracks me up.

I really like that Tras, I normally always do pencil pleating in my curtains but thought this time I would do pinch pleating. I got put off it many years ago by a neighbour I had who did nothing but rave incessantly over pinch pleating when it first came out and had all her curtains done that way. You know how some people carrying on forever over things can turn you off. As well, for some reason, she couldn't say 'pinch' properly and spat everywhere when she said it and I vowed and declared then I would never have it. I just hate all the adjusting that goes with pencil pleating though, so this time I thought I would do it but then realised I have to have the curtain the exact width to pull it off and now curtain fabric widths have gone all weird and odd sizes, that went in the too hard basket. The lady at the curtain shop told me to just make the curtains up and then cut off whatever wasn't necessary, but I didn't like that idea at all, to me it would make the drop widths unbalanced and I am such a fussbum. I did see here the idea of putting buttons on, the ones I saw were quite big, about an inch in diameter and some were covered with the curtain fabric - they looked really smart. Then I decided it was all extra work I really don't need.

I know exactly what you mean, I can't watch sporting events on TV for a similar reason. The sound of the crowd drives me crazy...long story.

I gave my daughter two options, she went with the small one to match her bedding and then mine I went cheap. I wanted this larger one that was swarovski crystal but it's a bay window and I needed way to many to justify the expense. Decided I could always just buy one here and there till they add up and I could change them out later. But I saw the embellishing done once and thought it was fun.

Regarding the posting about old houses being torn down, I hate seeing the old houses bulldozed too. I used to do deconstruction on teardowns and rip out cabinets, sinks, flooring, doors, windows etc for resale through the local ReStore. Now that I have project houses of my own, I go to demo sales to see if I can find items to be used in my rehabs. The large gut job historic house we rehabbed ended up having material from probably a dozen other houses. We had cabinets from one house, kitchen flooring from another, newer oak flooring from one house and older oak from two or three different collections sold by ReStore. Then, we had the original tub and woodwork from the house and managed to reuse one older solid wood door (2 inches thick!) between the back entry and the basement stairs. We salvaged bathroom fixtures, doors, trimwork, wire closet shelving, solid surface shower surround and even the power vent hot water heater. I hate to see those good quality older products ending up in the landfill or burn pile.

Thanks, girls, giving info on the Carolina's. Will share with my friend, as neither of us knows anything about that area. I really appreciate your comments.

I have a foreclosure property which has been used as our work base for the past couple of years. It's an adorable 1,000 sq ft bungalow with all original woodwork and an enclosed front porch. And, the sale is scheduled to close next Friday, the 1st of February. So, my business partner and our tools and materials have to be out this week.

We're moving across town to a recently bought foreclosure property which is 800 sq ft, but has a bigger garage. I have found that being nice to the people who have lost their homes is the best way to deal with buying an occupied house - it's emotionally easier on everyone to avoid evictions and cheaper for me to work with the old owners and pay for them to leave the house in good shape. I am paying for a month's rent on a storage unit, renting a truck and providing the labor to load the truck and unload it in the storage unit.

Until yesterday, all I had seen of the home was the front room but the man had said his garage was full with tools and materials. We were planning to help him move on Monday but when we saw the amount of items, we had to jump the gun and start today. So far, we have packed about 2/3 of a 26 foot truck to the roof and still haven't even touched the garage. Fortunately, most of the crew either now or in the past have worked for professional moving companies and really know how to manage a move.

I'm on clutter overload! All kinds of stuff, hundreds and hundreds of books, magazine, records, collectibles etc. And, of course, all the furniture to hold and display those items and bookcases for the books. We still have most of the contents of the laundry room and his office area in the basement, a piano and then a 480 sq ft garage to deal with. All I want to do is come home and start tossing things from my house! This is just an overwhelming task and there's no way that man could have gotten moved out of that house without help.

We were hoping to yank the old carpet and paint the walls Tuesday before moving in on Wednesday, but now I'm wondering if we'll even be able to get the house completely empty by Monday. We'll work again tomorrow and unloading won't take near as long as loading, but we're all astounded by the extent of his possessions.

We're trying to be nice, but by tomorrow afternoon, I'm sure my patience will be thoroughly stretched. I'm tired and I'm not even carrying any of the heavy stuff...

Linda, that is incredibly beautiful that you are doing this for him. Such an awful time for him to be in right now and you are truly blessing him! If he doesn't fully acknowledge it now he will later when it fully sinks in. You will be rewarded, believe me. True kindness doesn't go unnoticed. That is just beautiful. Hang in there!

I am such an old cynic I know, but I wonder if he really will ever comprehend the full extent of the work Linda is doing for him. I think when people allow clutter to pile up so much they lose all perspective of how much they actually have - if they didn't they wouldn't let it pile up so much. I know people can just hang onto things for a myriad of reasons but I still think they see each item individually and not the big picture.

Linda, you have way too much energy - you make me feel positively OLLD - you talk about painting in one day and here are Bobbi and I talking about painting 1 wall a day.

God knows, that's really all that matters. He's the one that will reward you, Linda. Believe me, if the old man doesn't get it the older one will and that's really all that matters in the end. Sorry ladies...I'm not a bible thumper or anything and I didn't mean to get serious. But I do love our Lord and when others show that love it's beautiful. Linda, keep showing the love and keep inspiring us!

I'm not against that Tras, we certainly do need more kindness in this world, I just hate seeing people hurt when it is not appreciated or worst still have their kindness turned against them. I guess I have just seen too much of the nasty side of life - it is unbelievable what some people can and do do. Why do you think I am such a cynic - it gets sickening sometimes.

Ohh Roo, I get it believe me! I live in one of the rudest, most intolerable areas. The women can really wear on you. Most have a sense of intitlement about them....terrible. Its like sandpaper, I see myself many times becoming nasty because its worn on me so much. I just really love to see the opposite. It's when we all stop showing it then the beauty ceases. Reading about Linda doing that puts me back into perspective, I love it. I needed it.

Roo – I can tell by the house price range in your area, that it must be very desireable! My old town had originally been 3 to 4 BR ranch houses & colonials, on ½ acre+ heavily treed lots; but probably in the 70’s, they started replacing the smaller, older homes with “McMansions”. So by 2008, my 3 BR ranch was in a shrinking minority of smaller homes, and it wouldn’t have surprised me, if a family bought with the intention to build upward at some point.

Although my kitchen & baths were 20 years old at that time, they’d been done well & with upscale appliances, so my realtor only suggested linen changes to give a pop of color, and some flowering plants on the front steps, but nothing more significant. At the height of the market .. maybe 2005, my house would have sold close to $900K, but by 2008 it went for $730K .. and that was common in north Jersey. The 30-something couple that bought my house, financed 97% (no joke) with an FHA mortgage (government sponsored), probably so they’d have more cash to renovate.

I’ve seen on “House Hunter International”, where some countries have property auctions, as a routine way of selling. I don’t like competing like that; I'm not a good loser (LOL)! The only auctions around here, would be where they couldn’t sell a house at all, or it’s a gimmick to sell a really expensive house.

I totally agree with you about some of the decorating suggestions; w/o knowing anything about the homeowners or their lifestyle, people suggest a complete redecoration of rooms .. new EVERYTHING.

About Clutter – I think some people have a “wiring problem” (between their ears), and confuse “stuff” with the people & memories it represents. You can’t keep every broken doll or scrawled child’s drawing for the children they represented.

Astraea, auctions are more common here because it is a sellers' market, demand is high and interest rates are low, a lot have silent auctions too or will state prices as over $xxx, meaning you put in an offer and wait for the owner to see how many other offers they get. Very few homes actually have a firm price on them. Prices have reached pretty much a maximum level in so far as how much people can borrow according to what they can repay. Many young people live at home and invest in cheaper properties on the outskirts of the CBD, lease them out to gain equity and then sell to achieve a more substantial deposit. Hard though when you are paying $300 - 400K for a small apartment, still a lot of money to repay when our rental returns are only about 6%. Average mortgages are around $300 - 400K so it still takes a while to amass around 1/2 million to then add another $300-400K mortgage to buy a reasonable house in a reasonable area for around $800K. .

After the mess we had here, with people getting more mortgage than they could afford, or financing too high a % of value .. and then the maket dropping, I don't know why this younger couple could get a 97% FHA mortgage! It's not like it was their first home, or an inexpensive home .. just so they could have a house. I think it was irresponsible; I have very little sympathy for people with "big eyes" when it comes to buying a house they can afford, or keep refinancing & taking cash out as if the house were an ATM machine!

olldroo, how stringent are Australian bank requirements for a mortgage that size?

Michi, there is a lot of competition now so things have eased off a lot. We have 4 major banks here who are really tight, they make huge profits, page their CEO's mega bucks but every time we have an interest rate cut - generally 0.25%, they will only reduce their mortgage rates by less than 0.2%. Govt is screaming at them but they always have some excuse, but I think it is one of the reasons our economy is so strong as the banks are in very good financial stead for international trading. They are all very aware of the US situation are are determined it won't happen here. Smaller banks, building societies and loan companies do better deals. I'm not sure how much you can borrow up to % wise - possibly around 95% but a lot depends on income, employment history, credit rating, how well the bank knows you and how much the property is worth. Ability to repay is the prime factor and I'm not sure whether they still don't allow a wife's income for childless couples or young couples who may still be expanding their families or only allow a much smaller percentage of her income to allow for possible pregnancy/childcare expenses. My daughter is trying to finalise a settlement for her divorce and I know the mortgage value of her home is about 10% below market value so I guess with mortgage values being so much less than market value it gives a bit of a cushion for the lenders. We also have a lot of professional mortgage brokers now, it has all gotten so complex, nothing like the olden days when we financed our home here.

A lot of people go for flexible mortagages so that they put all their money into a savings account linked to the mortgage so the bank calculates interest on a lesser amount owing but you still have full access to your funds. You can save thousands of dollars of interest each year this way, especially if you have the ability to save money.