Oct 8

Oct 8 The Little Orange House...

When I received the address from the Realtor, I thought it sounded familiar. Just down the alley, and on the left, stood the large Victorian house belonging to a client of mine whom I did some sewing and upholstery for, years earlier. Back then though, she pretty much owned a very large piece of property behind her house. In the Seattle area, that is very rare indeed; and I could see by the buildings that now stood there, they either sold and moved away, or simply chose to liquidate. Good for her.

Driving to the other end of the alley, and to the specific address, I was faced with a condensed group of homes that looked to be condos/town homes. They turned out to be detached—just super close together! Parking, as in most large cities, was NOT easy. As well, there was someone occupying the designated parking space. Hmm, I thought. I’ll need to tell Linda (my friend who helps me), about the parking situation…

Anyhow, after figuring that out, I walked up to the only orange coloured house in the whole complex. :) Cute, cheerful, and I do like orange…but I would have chosen a more muted tone; because on these rare sunny days, the LRV (light reflective value) was definitely not in the owner’s favour. It was very BRIGHT. The front door, and the doors inside, I discovered were all teal. Again, it needed to be more muted; but it did give me a sense of what the owner used to like and where perhaps he like to travel to. (I like going to Florida too!)

The owner had actually passed away recently, and the children were managing from the East Coast. I was given my budget, and worked within those parameters. They left the funiture in the guest room, where the caregiver lived; so that wasn’t going anywhere until their handyman emptied the place after the sale. Linda and I would just do some rearranging in there. Painting the outside wasn’t even an option; so I just made sure the gardening was tidy. Inside, I worked with the teal colour, and some of the furniture that was left behind. The television on the mantle was actually bolted down—and not centered—so, we did the best we could to draw the eye away. Sigh.

This was designated as a “partial-staging,” so we spent the next few days helping the handyman tidy up, and get everything placed and detailed. We brought select pieces and accessories from storage, too. The outside paint, turned out to be the glitch in the selling (as we all expected); so it took a few days longer than usual, for a sale to happen.