I wonder if these guys are my female's children??? :-p What is also cool that I forgot to mention is that when I got home, I took down, cleaned, and refilled the feeder. And when I went back out to hang it, there was a hummer hovering in the empty spot where the feeder had been hanging, pecking at the home-made ant moat (which I had made from a red plastic Maxwell House coffee jar lid)! LOL It was like "Hey!!!! What happened here? Where's my FOOD???!!!" As I approached, it backed up to let me reconnect the feeder and flew to the side while I straightened it. Then it finally returned about a minute later. Also last evening was the very first time that I heard my hummers chirp! Wow!!!!! All summer has been silence... Not even any sound from the wings. Now I was hearing all sorts of racket... not too dissimilar from sparrow chirps but shorter and more abrupt in duration. One other interesting observation is that for all the years that I have lived here, I always had spider webs - many quite large and intricate, with huge spirals attached from the balcony ceiling to the balcony rail or to the tops of my overhanging shrubs along the rail (a distance ranging from about 3ft - 4ft in diameter). But for the first time ever, not this year... Not a spider web to be seen. And of course I know why! ;-). Here's another pic from last evening... looking for an "incoming"! LOL

I dug out the middle - still seems a little cool/darker color so not quite dry? Maybe I mixed it too wet (hard to mix just a small amount). Anyway, the middle moves - do you think the EZ Sand will bond the back of the drywall to the front of the patch, or do I have to cut all the way through (and find some way to get backer material in there?)? At this point I'm wondering how good a patch it has to be, since we'll eventually put a window seat/built in bookcases there? That might be 10 years from now though...

Staging and adding color to curb appeal would go a long way. It looks like you got the decluttering thing down, but maybe a little too much--some rooms are a little too spartan and thus not very welcoming. My first impression after looking at the photos was: -The kitchen was updated, but the color and style clash with the table and there are no stools at the island. These things tell me that I will need to repaint either the kitchen or the rest of the house right off the bat to make them flow better. The table (while it would be going with you & not staying) gives the wrong feel to the otherwise modern kitchen & the green tablecloth has to go. The absence of stools at the island make me wonder if there is not enough room for the stools and the table in that space. The chandelier & light fixture don't look like they were updated (the pots hanging from the ceiling draw your eye upward so you definitely notice the lights)--check out the big box stores for some affordable, easy to install updates. Love the window treatments and that wonderfully large window! -Living & Dining rooms both feel very spartan and cold in the photos. Pulling the curtains back will help bring in more natural light and make it feel more welcoming & open. Is the dining room table centered in the room or pushed off center toward the window? It seems cramped at the window end which to me says the room is small and family dinners will be elbow to elbow. As mentioned above, too many different paint colors--the yellow doesn't do much for me & the white or pale blue in the living room is very cold. Framed prints on the walls and an area rug would go a long way to warming the rooms up. -Bedrooms need warming up too--more framed prints & an area rug needed. Slide the bed in the master over so its more centered in the room. The way it is now, it appears cramped. It looks like there is a tray ceiling in there too--an off center bed is negatively accentuated in this situation. The green curtains need to go and be replaced with neutral colored ones and again, pull them back to let in natural light to give an open welcoming feel. -Masterbath needs some warm welcoming touches too. Framed prints, some candles, strategically drape a folded towel along the edge of the tub, add a pretty container of bath salts to the tub corner, add a pretty window treatment to the window above the tub vs. the plastic mini-blinds. Warm, fuzzy, yet tasteful bath rugs will help too. The walls need some color. Make it feel like a spa environment-somewhere potential buyers would like to retreat to after a long day at work. Don't forget a handtowel on the towel ring! -Love the family room--maybe an area rug...that's it. -J&J bath--looks good. Add a framed print or two, a window treatment, fuzzy warm yet tasteful bath rug & hang the hand towel up. Choosing a nice neutral color of towel throughout all the baths would help too. Something in a fluffy white or beige to give that spa like feel would be good. -Laundry looks great--open the curtains. -Nursery looks great--maybe a framed print or two. -Exterior: Deck needs new coat of paint. The front looks a little tired. Adding some spots of color will help the curb appeal--a tall fat planter with colorful flowers on both corners of the porch, some colorful flowers planted in the beds, maybe a couple tall plants under the porch lights. another planter or two with plants and flowers on the back deck would help make it seem more welcoming too. It seems like you were working on updating the house and managed to get to the kitchen, family room, laundry, nursery & J&J bath. The rest appears to have not been updated since the house was built. While I love antiques, the furniture in the unupdated rooms with this scenario does not help. The obvious brass fixtures in the master bath scream 1980s and most if not all potential buyers are wondering how hard will it be to update them. You definitely have 3 vastly different styles going on in the house which can cause a major disconnect with potential buyers. If you were to repaint the kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, master bath & living room to more neutral colors (similar to family room & J&J bath) + update brass fixtures + add warming touches as outlined above to rooms for staging + exterior color and I think you could probably relist for the $290K in the spring and walk away with around $260-$250K. My BIL is a real estate agent and when we sold our house with him he even said not to tell him the absolute lowest price we were willing to take for the house. I can confidently say that repainted & staged well (including replacing a couple light fixtures, new comforter for DS's room, new bathroom stuff, quick exterior spruceup by adding color) when we sold our house. We listed the house $10K higher than the exact house down the street that sold a couple weeks earlier for a higher than average price for our neighborhood. We had an offer in 2 days and ended up with a bidding war between two potential buyers that ended on day 5 on the market. Trust me, potential buyers need to be able to see themselves living in your home and driving up to your home everyday--your staging makes all the difference. Good luck to you!

It’s not soft and mushy or damp. It’s hard, but if you push hard enough it will indent. And my husband poked a hole in it and it was hollow inside. I’m pretty sure it’s the drywall tape bulging. It hasn’t gotten worse at all fortunately. Our house was built in 1984 and we’ve done no work to that ceiling other than painting, but that was 5 years ago when we bought the house. We checked the attic space again while it was raining and there were no leaks anywhere. There are no pipes up there, no duct work, just insulation. The gas fireplace is on the other side of the room and is properly vented through the chimney. That’s the only thing I can think of may have caused it. We even asked our neighbor who is a contractor and he has no idea why that’d suddenly happen.