competing offers

my place went up on the market on september 12th.

4 long weeks, 5 days, 1 open house, and 6 private showings later and i was starting to lose hope that my condo would be the quick sell everyone thought it would be. but that's when my luck changed for the better...

on october 15th i got my first offer, and at full asking price! i was over the moon! but it was a complicated rent-to-own situation that would last until march 2015 when the buyer would finally be able to get a full loan. ugh. not ideal, but what other choice did i have?!?

well, what comes next but another requested showing that night! i prayed it would go well, then packed my suitcase and was on my way down to new orleans for a friend's wedding bright and early the very next morning, before we had even heard any buyer feedback.

later that day on october 16th i got a phone call in my hotel room. the guy who had toured my condo last night wanted to put in a full price offer, with standard requests. you can bet i took his offer!

i have never felt such a weight lift off my shoulders. wow. the closing is set for december 8th. so now i just have to get through our beach wedding, thanksgiving, and our reception...oh, and 3 other weddings before then. should be a piece of cake :)

lockbox official

as of september 12, 2014 (aka: my half birthday) the lockbox has appeared on my steps and my condo is up on the market!!!

only one more item on my "to do" list. kind of the most important one! let's hope there are some uptown hipsters out there looking for a unique garden level one bedroom.

• move into tim (and snoop's) house in st paul
• list my condo by september, 2014
• get it sold asap!

that said, here are my listing photos!

the move to st paul

officially crossing the river to be a resident of st paul -- and live with my first ever boyfriend (ahem. fiance) and first ever puppa (aka: snoop dawg). oh, and i got to cross off the first item on my "to do" list:

• move into tim (and snoop's) house in st paul
• list my condo by september, 2014
• get it sold asap!

matthew, dad and tim were there to help me pack up. and in return, i soaked in my last day living in uptown by biking down to Jimmy John's in Calhoun Square to buy everyone lunch.

finishing touches

well it's officially september, and if you remember, my goal was to get it up on the market by september 1st -- before winter sets in and minnesota buyers flee back into their homes until spring. so it's a rush to the finish line as i continue moving my belongings to tim's house (box by box), cleaning every last inch, and staging it to really wow everyone who walks through it.

new cabinet hardware. check!

and speaking about staging...notice the cute owl perched next to my knife block? my grandma actually painted that little fella long ago, and i've kept him with me as i move from place to place.

why did i swap out my Urban Outfitters statement chandelier? well, i was told to de-personalize as much as possible during the staging process. aka: take down photos and make the place as neutral as possible so anyone who walks through could envision themselves living here.

so i found a budget-friendly option at Menards that really fit well with my color scheme and wrought iron door and cabinet hardware throughout my entire place.

eleven cabinet doors

dad's newly constructed custom cabinet fronts finally take their place on each of the corresponding original cabinets.

back in 2009 when i was still a newbie home owner, i had a cabinet specialist come over to assess the cabinets. he told me that the cabinets were in amazing shape and very sturdy, which was great news because that meant i wouldn't need to tear them down. but the doors were another story, so luckily for me dad constructed new ones.

the only thing left for these bad boys is to add the door hardware.
 

never-ending cabinets

i feel like we've been working on cabinets of all sorts for...forever! slow and steady. here's the latest progress on the new bathroom closet. i envision fluffy towels and pretty decor adorning these shelves. i still need to do a little touch-up paint to cover that raw wood.

oh, and today also marked the beginning of a 4-day (okay, four days over a week's time) solo journey of painting the kitchen cabinets -- prior to installing the brand new cabinet doors that dad so lovingly made for me -- we figured it would be easier without the drawers and doors! let the painting begin!

solo painting

today i painted solo, it was a rare occasion.

but i was pretty proud of myself! i got all the door hardware off (and then back on) and now the final remaining sections of trim and interior doors have a fresh, glistening coat of clean white paint.

the cabinet door matching game

some days you don't have anything to show for your work. because some days are just spent measuring & re-measuring and checking & double-checking to make sure you get it right. that was the type of day it was today.

italian walnut flooring

and so began the week of flooring. if you remember from my previous post, the bedroom project had 3 steps:

• step 1: clear out the room and remove doors, trim and outlet covers
• step 2: paint the walls
• step 3: install new flooring

with budget in mind, but also wanting to keep my sense of eclectic style, i decided on an italian walnut laminate that was available online and available for pickup at menards. so long cement floor!

and then dad, my superhero handyman, once again came to the rescue. he spent the week working and oh. emm. gee. am i giddy with the results (don't mind my wrinkled bedding). my only regret is not doing this sooner!

the time i lived in my dining room

probably one of the biggest projects left on the final "to do" list was my bedroom.

• step 1: clear out the room and remove doors, trim and outlet covers
• step 2: paint the walls
• step 3: install new flooring

this meant i would be living on my futon in the dining room until the project was complete. luckily, my futon is practically more comfy than my bed! it also meant the move out process could begin. we brought a truck load of my stuff over to tim's house. load #1 of many, many truck loads.

 

the results of a hard days work! and with steps 1 and 2 done, we can move onto step 3!

• step 1: clear out the room and remove doors, trim and outlet covers
• step 2: paint the walls
• step 3: install new flooring

white on white

well, we are officially on the home stretch to get my condo up on the market and sold. so all the things i've been putting off or that were (indefinitely) on the back burner are now on my weekend "to do" list.

first up: refreshing the bathroom with a fresh coat of paint. who knew that an old "white" wall could -- in fact -- be so...unwhite?!!

(for some reason only being able to see Tim's hand and the paintbrush was absolutely adorably hilarious to me)

so tim and i got to work on painting the bathroom while dad worked on the final pieces of trim.

 

oh, and who could forget my little inset "DVD" closet nook in the living room? aka: the wall we tore down long ago in hopes to reveal more exposed brick! obviously that wasn't the case, but we made the best of it and turned the demolished wall into another space for storage or decor.

that needed a few coats of paint over the raw wood and sheetrock.

a look at the completed DVD nook...

 and a before and after view of the bathroom walls and new closet (before the shelving and doors).

inside the closets

remember that time we found a hidden "trap door" in the floor? it was actually the access port to the bathroom plumbing.

well, dad -- being the thoughtful and responsible handyman he is -- decided it might be useful to make a removable access panel in the closet floor in case any issues every come up again. what a smart guy! it's tacked down by a few screws, but easy enough to remove if necessary.

meanwhile, dad has also been making progress on the new bathroom closet. our plan is to leave the upper half open shelving, and put a closet door with shelves in the lower half.

think of all the fluffy towels these shelves will be able to hold!

the next chapter

 

we're engaged!

it happened on winter solstice, a few hours before a holiday cocktail party we were throwing for all our friends. and of all places, he proposed AT my condo in front of my favorite exposed brick wall! how fitting :)

anyways, now that a wedding is on the horizon, it's time to start thinking about the next chapter. i could not be more excited, but it's bittersweet because it means saying goodbye to uptown and the place i've called home for the past 5 years. i will definitely miss this place.

a look back:

• closed on my condo on may 22, 2009 (and have been slowing fixing it up ever since)

a look forward:

• move into tim (and snoop's) house in st paul
• list my condo by september, 2014
• get it sold asap!

a white coat for all

now that all the doors are finally in, it was time to give them all a fresh (or a first) coat of white paint.

so the gang (okay, just my parents and tim) came over to help me tackle the project.

in case you don't remember, i wanted to keep a consistent flow throughout my condo, so all of my doors and trim are painted a nice, fresh white. 

all in all we painted the double-door living room closet, the hallway closet next to the bar, the bathroom door, and the new bi-fold pantry doors in the kitchen.

i absolutely LOVE how the living room closet turned out! love, love, love!

hollow core doors shouldn't be cut

 i'm planning a holiday party at my place this christmas and decided to ask dad if he had time in his busy schedule to put doors on my living room closet before the party. you know, so it would look a little less under construction.

above is the before photo...it's a nice closet, but looks really junky without a door!

if you remember, when i first bought the place it HAD a closet with a door. but after demo, rebuilding the closet, and finishing it back in 2009, it needed a new set of doors.

 dad had to do quite a bit of prep work before he even got to my house. first, he bough hollow core doors, but then realized that my closet has unique dimensions and cutting a hollow door wouldn't work. so back to the store he went.

 after getting solid doors, he then had to take the doors apart and cut exact measurements off EACH side of each door panel so the new dimensions would be evenly distributed.

 i love it! now we just need to putty up the unfinished edges and add a few coats of white paint.

swapping a curtain for a door

as much as i love my "door" curtains, i was super excited when dad brought over the bi-fold door that would be my new pantry!

i tore down my green curtain and dad got to work. it didn't take him too long, and his only question was where to mount the door handle.

who knew opening and closing a door could be so much fun!

1,322 days later

june 6, 2009: the day i purchased my new stainless steal set of appliances. 
january 18, 2013: the day all my Frigidaire appliances are officially working!

to be fair, the microwave and oven have been working all along, and the fridge was mostly working -- just not the ice cube and water spout parts -- but we got that working last month. so i was really just without a dishwasher (and trust me, i have been used to hand-washing dishes since my college years).

anyways, back to my point...that's 1,322 days i went with a brand new dishwasher just sitting there, looking pretty. i might as well have used it as a library like the old crazy lady who lived here before me did. but now i don't have to, because my awesome dad finally had time in his busy life to hook it up. thanks dad :)

holla

my best friend monica was in town, and we were having a girls day in minneapolis...which led us to the Soap Factory (home of the scariest halloween haunted house around) for Craft'za: a one-day art market for handmade goods.

if you know me, you know i say "holla!" all the time. so when i saw this amazing hand-cut, gold holla sign, i just HAD to buy it!

ice cubes and counter tops

today was a big day for my condo! new kitchen counters, water access to my fridge ice machine, and lots of insulation around my outside door, windows and air conditioner. as you can see in the first picture, it looks as if dad almost moved in! my entire dining room was filled with tools and such.

do you remember my original counter tops? they were light wood and kind of ugly (top photo). a while back -- think spring/summer -- dad found these dark "granite" counters at menards for a really good deal. they've been sitting in his garage ever since.

the other week dad stopped over to prepare the counter top. he measured my original wooden one and drew out a template onto a giant roll of paper of the exact dimensions and the sink cutout area.

meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen...i now have ice cubes (crushed and cubed) and water! i have waited so long for this day :)

this proved to be quite the task however. the water tube had to snake from the back of the fridge, up through the ceiling and into the pantry closet, from the top-right of my closet to the bottom-left (see photo), out the pantry closet next to the oven, and behind my counter tops into the water access under the sink. luckily the tube is clear so it's nearly invisible.

next, dad covered up my air conditioner window unit, plastic'd up all my windows, and added insulation around my exterior door to try to keep the draft out...although my snowflakes would prefer the wind so they can twirl.