April 2, 2008
To Paint or Not to Paint
This morning our realtor suggested once again, that we paint the girls’ rooms. We poured our hearts and souls into those rooms and it kills me to even think about it. When he asked me what my objection was, I told him that paint is an easy fix for a new buyer, and that I don’t want to traumatize my girls. Moving is traumatic enough. He said he wants to help us remove every possible objection. Most people who are looking at our house are young professionals or older people looking for a house where they don’t have to mow the lawn. Neither of these demographics wants themed kids rooms (although no one has yet complained about the rooms).
I spent days choosing the exact colors I wanted to use. I hand made that ocean stencil, painstakingly added those little jumping dolphins, glued seashells onto the curtain rod and spent hours lounging on the floor as Mr. BBM used glaze paint to create clouds on the walls and vaulted ceilings. Some of them look like plain old clouds, but if you look closely you can see that some of them are shaped like seahorses, dolphins and starfish.
We painted this room when I was about seven months pregnant. It was a hot summer weekend and Mr. BBM and I spent the entire weekend working on it. When all was said and done, we added Big I’s baby furniture, bought bright-colored sea creatures to hang on the walls and put it all together.
Lil C loves her ocean room. She likes to pretend she’s Ariel in there. I realized today though, that it may be me who loves that room the most.
When we first moved in, it was a playroom/guest room. As 14 months of trying to have another baby went unanswered, it became this room that was supposed to be and just wasn’t. And then I took that pregnancy test and our Lil C and this ocean room became a reality.
Maybe painting it white is just the first step in letting go of this house that is our first real family home. Letting go of a place that gave you so many fabulous memories is really difficult to do. It may just be a gallon or two of paint, but it’s what that room represents that is the most difficult to just paint over. If we do decide to paint it, there will be tears and I’m betting that they’ll be mine.
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Things You Could Care Less About
I know how hard it must be for you and your girls (and Mr BBM) to change something you worked so hard on and put so much thought and love into. But just remember when you move into that brand-spanking new home with the stark, white walls, you will have a new canvas to make memories on. Only this time, the girls will be there to help too!
It’s not a matter of whether or not to say good bye to the room. It’s when. My advice is do it now. Paint the room a very neutral off-white color that will be a blank slate for a prospective buyer.
Were it me, and I really wanted to move the house, I’d consider spending a few hundred dollars to replace the carpet, too. But at least paint the room. It is well documented that most people lack imagination. Even though you and I know that it’s not difficult to paint a room, many people go into the house looking for something that they can live with now and personalize later (if at all).
If you’re worried about the kids now, you’ll have to deal with it later. Maybe you can get them to help you paint the walls and to ease the transition, spend an afternoon looking at paint colors and brainstorming ideas for their NEW rooms. Get them (and you) looking to the future and not being reluctant to let go of the past. 😀
My wife and I went through a similar situation when our girls were young. We had painted their room in a similar fashion, save that theirs was a garden theme, complete with hand painted flowers all along the lower half of the wall. My wife spent an inordinate amount of time doing it all herself (alas, I am artistically challenged).
As the townhouse was a rental, the landlord had a fit, but we didn’t care, it was for the girls, not him. When it came time to relocate, we had to paint over, and that was hard, but the room lives to this day in the girls memories (they are both grown), and that to me is the lasting value of the work.
Good luck on your sale/move 🙂
As hard as it might be to paint that awesome room, you’re probably right…it will be the first step in letting go of the house.
Beautiful job you did on that room. Yeah, it always hurts to “undo” the magic you spent so long creating. But you’ll be doing magic again at the new place, anyway.
Thanks for all the nice encouraging comments. Now go tell my 7-year old who is currently crying in her room despite me putting the spin on it that, “we can go to the paint store and plan your new room” and “we can go to the movies” etc. etc. Why can’t a family come in here with two little girls? Why??
A hard decision. We were fortunate that we had a really good realtor when we were selling our house less than a year ago. He said that we should make it as generic as possible, so that prospective buyers would be able to visualize themselves in the home, but that it was still our house and we had to live in it. We only agonized over some photos on the wall, not something that obviously means so much to the girls. Were it me, I would keep it as-is. I would, however, let the agent know that they should put a note in the sell sheet that you are willing to paint it prior to close. Just $0.02.
Perhaps I’m bitter, but we were unable to sell our place for enough to have a good downpayment on a new place…so we painted our daughter’s room a sage green, which I love, but she thinks looks like mucus. Then, the market fell apart, and we couldn’t sell. So she lost her pretty pink room for nothing, and we don’t have the energy/inclination to do it all over again.
Not sure what I’m saying yet, but mainly, can you afford to sell for quite a bit less than you want? Can you be ‘creative’ in your selling? We couldn’t, as without the right price going out, we couldn’t pay enough to get into the new place we wanted.
Went through that with the growth chart I had handpainted on the wall. My solution was to take photos of the wall and lots of them. Close up detail photos to remember it by. The difference waa that my kids were not nostalgic – I was! : )
“Were it me, I would keep it as-is. I would, however, let the agent know that they should put a note in the sell sheet that you are willing to paint it prior to close. Just $0.02.”
I agree with this wholeheartedly.
Well, I’m with the realtor.
Paint it!
To sell faster. Every house need around 1 000$ of investment. And cinnamon.
Boil cinnamon when receiving visits. Works wonders!
My personal advice?? Don’t paint the room…just add aquariums. Lots of aquariums. Fish are soothing. Fish are de-stressifying. Studies show that watching fish can lower your blood pressure. Professionals and older people really need their blood pressure lowered. I vote for the “aquarium room”. So there. (Tell Lil C she can pay me later)
I know I’m in the minority, but if I looked at your house I would adore that room whether or not I had kids. I don’t use the word ‘whimsical’ that often, but that room is incredible.
Nathan: I love our realtor and he’s probably right, but it’s just hard to explain to a little one why her room has to be changed.
J: That’s part of what I’m afraid of!
Lisa: I am too. I’ve been stressing about it all week long.
Lynn: This would definitley be easier on the girls, Big I especially.
Mat: We bake cookies before every showing. I’m sick of showing and I’m sick of making cookies.
TT: I’m sure Lil C would LOVE this advice. Not so sure my realtor would though. LOL.
CG: Thank you. You made my day!
What that room, and all the work you put into it, represents is the depth and breadth of your love for your family, and no amount of paint could ever cover up your love.
I will have to be going through this in about a year and although I haven’t invested a lot of time into painting in detail, I have a few rooms I know I will be asked to paint so maybe I should start now and get it over with.
I would want to offer $200 back to the buyer to paint the walls, although I guess it’s cheaper to just buy a gallon of primer and paint it yourself. But it can be a good incentive for someone buying. Just a thought.