Farewell Gulag Garden.

My home whose street name translates as 'Place of the Mighty Raven'

Haven't mentioned a word of this previously, but I'm leaving California. I've had it up to my sweaty armpits with the summers here. Since there is nothing holding me to Sacramento, so as I do not have the zillions of dollars necessary to live on the cooler California coast, I'm out.

Leaving means selling my home of past 26 years. I momentarily considered renting it out but the thought alone nearly gave me a coronary. Therefore I must leave my dear Gulag Garden - the place where good plants come to die. I must uproot my 26 years of accumulated 'stuff'' & puzzle out how one goes about selling one's home while still living in it. UGH! I hope I survive this.

Had a realtor look the place over. She thinks that the kitchen devalues the house by a huge chunk of $$ to which I retort: B.S. When I moved in, the kitchen was in its original condition. Since then I painted & re-floored it with slate-look pergo, and had granite countertops installed. The realtor poo-pooed the granite countertops as 'de classe'.  If new owners decide to redo a kitchen, there is zero difference to them how many birthdays the cabinets have celebrated. And anyway, the kitchen is well up to MY liking. Stupid realtor...

Despite the kitchen 'issue' (and believe me, it's my way or the highway) there are a few things that must be brought up to snuff prior to the house going on the market. As I type, my awesome 'handyman' Jim is fixing a previously badly handled repair of a ceiling crack.



He will also fix the hall bathroom to the tune of a new floor and some new underpinnings to the base under the magical 'sinking toilet'.





On the hall bath re-do, the sink was removed for the work, the toidy stashed in the tub and the tiles partially ripped up.

GAK! The toilet definitely was sinking, and no, it wasn't because of my fat bum. The particle board under the tile is disintegrating. Particle board does that when it gets wet. NEVER put particle board in as underpinning to your bathroom floor - too much chance of water getting under there, and why didn't I know that umpteen years ago?









Jim pulled up the tiles way faster than I expected. I thought it would take days, but didn't even take a full afternoon. Either this shows how much I know about this sort of thing.

You can see the disintegrating boards the toilet sat on were removed and thick wood beams were put in to support the new floor boards.

New floor boards in, and the whole floor was sort of spackled over and it was left to dry for a couple of days. Soooo happy I have more than one toilet, I can tell you!

Well, TA DA! The floor is finished & the sink & toidy are back in place. The floor looks quite different with this 'aged wood' pergo look, but I really like it. I'm fond of the pale-yellow & grey color scheme.








 As luck have it - I was born in the year of the rabbit -  the house hasn't gone on the market yet, but through word of mouth I already have two couples interested in buying my house.  If they don't, oh well, then the house will go on the market - as soon as I can complete packing. I think people like my house because it's a nice quiet neighborhood and it has great neighbor's to boot plus that 'Location, location, location' thing.

Anyway, selling without going on the market first is just a best case scenario. Even if that isn't the end story, I must admit, a new adventure begins.