Recent project: Staged a house!

Wednesday: A little panicked in New Ulm!

The call came in, "I've just listed my house, and the realtor has given me a long to-do list to be finished before shooting pictures on Saturday. Any chance you could come tomorrow and Friday? I'm a little panicked here!"

It was from a conscientious single mom with three boys, a career, classes, and a puppy, a combination which doesn't lend itself to immaculate order around the house.

Over the next two days, SuperMom was a force to be reckoned with, shifting extraneous items to boxes and then to the garage, clearing the kitchen counter, and putting the kids to work on their rooms.

Thursday: Painting, carpet stains, bedrooms, cobwebs

When I got there, we toured the house and reviewed the to-do list. I started by painting two walls of the laundry room. We discussed items worth removing from the living areas. By lunchtime, the upstairs bedrooms were dusted, vacuumed, and carpet stains had been lifted.

Thursday afternoon, I took the first pass at the upstairs hallway and stairs. Found that the smudginess on the walls along the stairs cleaned up easier than expected. On the main floor, dusted cobwebs from the ceilings, upper walls, and tops of window and door frames. Cleaned ceiling fans and lighting fixture globes.

At end of day, we checked out the laundry room, and were happy to find the single coat had covered beautifully. Sweet -- that opened the door to painting the quirky but large closet in the master bedroom.

Friday: Closet painting, trim repair, de-cluttering, staging

In the morning I got to meet all 3 kids. After emptying the master closet to paint it, they chuckled when I admitted I'm good at making messes, too! They left for the weekend, I put a primer coat on the closet. Next, staged the other two upstairs bedrooms for photos. Repaired some door trim. Hung a carbon monoxide detector. Mopped the upstairs hall and down the stairs.

Afternoon brought tackling the kitchen. Pulling out the stove and microwave cart to sweep up debris lurking under/behind. Gentle re-ordering of things to leave them better stored, in about the same place. Reattaching the plastic grill for the bottom of the fridge. Leaving the space as clear and simple as possible.

Next, the dining room was cleared, dusted, mopped. It's a large room, so the exercise bike in the living room could be shifted there. In the living room, the field of debris under/behind the sofa was pretty entertaining. Haven't we all had moments when moving a piece of furniture triggered a nervous yet full-throated giggle?

Two focal points needed to be resolved in the living room: The storage corner, and the scuffed-up wall space in another corner. The scuffed-up spot was touched up and muted, but not enough. SuperMom was clear that she wasn't going to fill every nail hole or hide every crack in the 100-y/o plaster. One of the items in the storage corner was a tall, narrow DVD-and-video storage unit that served perfectly to distract attention from the scuffed-up spot without hiding it. The magazine holder tucked away in the storage corner was great next to the rocker now that it was free of the exercise bike.

If we'd had two more days, there are things that would have played out differently. But, both SuperMom and I accepted that whatever happened had to be on time and within budget.

Finally, I got the paint coat on the quirky master closet. Moved the mess I'd created back into the closet in barely organized fashion, knowing that the paint wasn't perfectly dry and evidence of that might show up, but that a splotch of paint on the corner of her son's 3-ring baseball card collection binder would not trigger rage or disappointment.

I staged the master-slash-13-y/o's room by emphasizing that it was a big/clear space... black bedspread, spiderman pillow, white closet.

Wrapping up: Sigh of relief, lessons learned

And yet, I'm a little disappointed. I wanted to tackle the beautifully finished family room in the basement which had been adapted as master bedroom. I didn't get to the bathroom before SuperMom did.

It's all OK, though. She got my full attention for all of the hours she paid for, and I'm a competent cleaner, organizer, and maybe good at staging a house for sale. SuperMom was exhausted but visibly relieved that she was ready for her realtor to shoot marketing photos on Saturday.

The only regret we discussed as I left: We didn't shoot before-and-after pictures.

Update: I asked SuperMom if my description here sounded accurate, and she emailed me:

Steve....I thought it was great, as well as entertaining! Supermom...that is funny too. Leave it as it is.

You did a GREAT job and I will gladly recommend you in the future, as well as call if I need help packing and moving. THANK YOU!!!