this old house: open house...

Whew, y'all.

We're getting close to the end of the basement apartment phase to our 1820 fixer upper project!

And since we're closing in on the time when most people are done moving into new places for the school year, it's time to find a tenant and start collecting rent!

(Dare I say the fleas are gone??)

After a quick post to facebook and craigslist, I was answering emails and notifications non-STOP!  Let me tell you, there is NO shortage of people in love with the rustic farmhouse style.  But instead of making a million appointments to show the apartment, we decided to do more of an "open house" showing the next evening.  When someone would inquire about seeing the house, I'd tell them about the open house and give them the house's actual address.

It's sad how many people were automatically weeded out when they got the address.  (Perhaps another post about that another day?)

open house day

 But I knew some people were still coming to look at it, so it was time to pull this place together for the open house QUICK!

If you've ever seen the home remodeling shows on HGTV, the final day before the open house was exactly like those last, crazy hours on TV where everyone's scrambling and the paint is barely dry.

We literally had the air conditioning guy there  drilling through brick and installing a nice, new ductless heating AND air unit until MINUTES before the open house.

As I was running around putting last-minute paint touch ups on the place, Marc refinished the apartment's screen door on the deck of the main house upstairs.  (which currently is inhabitable.  This will be our next big project after we finish the exterior of the house.. next summer, perhaps??)

 The washer/dryer combo was delivered just a few hours before the open house.  Have you seen these??  We hadn't until I happened to be watching one of those "Tiny House" shows and saw it there.  This one 24" unit BOTH washes AND dries a load of clothes!!  All they need is a regular outlet and a sink pipe to tie into.  They're used all the time in kitchens in Europe.  

What a great solution for a small space that we were racking our brains about how to provide laundry in!  Sure, it wasn't cheap.  But we can provide laundry.  And we think it'll pay off for us in the long run.  

No time to hook it up, but at least we got it set in place for people to see.

And somehow it all came together at the very last minute.

Let the open house begin!

To be continued...