#91: When Is A House Change You Made Bad Meant for

This week we are talking about when you should undo a personal change that you made to your house that might turn off potential buyers (and when we’d recommend leaving it the heck alone). We are also getting into store returns and how they are changing, because the ability to return decor items that do not turn out the way you hoped is a strong safeguard… but did you know that some stores may be cracking down on that practice? Here is what we learned about the policing of returns that is going on behind the scenes, and what a DIYer can do to avoid getting their account flagged. We are also recapping our trip to a blogging conference in Austin, I have an a-ha moment regarding something you sleep on, and Sherry gets a personal call from a celebrity that kinda makes her year.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What is New

Above is the photo we took of our home swiftly getting covered in snow as we drove to the airport for our conference in Austin a couple of weeks ago.

We were so hunkered down taking notes at the conference that we did not get a ton of photos – but here is one group shot we grabbed on our way out the door. From left to right that is Jeremy & Katie from Bower Power, us, Amanda & Corey from Enjoy & Renovations, and Julia & Chris from Chris Loves Julia.
Speaking of not the best photos, here is a long distance one of Randi Zuckerberg speaking (with the back of Michael from Inspired By Charm‘s head in the foreground). We highly recommend her kids book, which is called Dot (it is about kids and technology and has a truly strong message). We learned from her talk that it is also an animated series on Sprout.

And of course, here is a photo of the birthday girl in the Tesla that simply happened to be our Uber for dinner that night. We in fact snapped this picture as we were unloading on the street corner in front of the restaurant that he dropped us off at where everyone was expecting someone a lot more exciting than us to emerge.

Here is where you can see the doors in action (as well as witness all of our shouting when we realized THAT was our Uber).

This shot is kinda grainy (Sherry and I were in the third row) but you can see the GIANT navigation screen on the dashboard. That is Jeremy Bower chatting up the driver about how this thing can go 300 miles after every charge.

Can We Simply Talk About?

Here is the article from the Wall Street Journal about how some companies are tracking customer’s habits to crack down on returns.
And you can hear more about why we rely on return policies to feel more comfortable making online purchases in Episode #83.

Listener Question

The house with the garage-turned-theater was in fact in our roundup of other houses we considered before buying the one we are in. It is the navy one labeled “The Garage Theater House.”
Sherry’s working on a post with some of her general staging advice along with a ton of photo examples from various houses she has done, but here is a preview of that dining-room-turned-office-turned-homework room as it was styled when we photographed it originally (left) and how Sherry simplified it when it came time to sell the house (right). She also took some art/filing baskets off of a few other walls, but it was not a bunch of major changes or anything. Simply a few plain ones.

And this is the kitchen Sherry mentioned staging, where it made sense to move the island back into place in the middle of the kitchen (which only became clear after seeing it in that spot).

Oh, and if you had forgotten what our last home’s carport looked like, here it is after we brought in a pergola to the carport to dress it up (we dubbed it the “cargola”). Part of the reason we also chose not to convert it to a garage is that we thought it would be more cramped than we would’ve liked if it were enclosed, and it would block light into our office and laundry room (which both had windows that we grew to appreciate – we did not want to lose that light). As an update, the current owners did not convert it either, so it still looks fairly much exactly like this but with a distinct car in there now.

We are Digging

The photo above is of the first mail order boxspring we got a couple of years ago when needed one in our guest room after going from a platform bed in there to a regular metal frame (which we also ordered online). This one pictured is no longer available, so when we needed another last fall (after shuffling some stuff around for the beach house) we got this boxspring/foundation instead – which is in fact cheaper and easier to put together, because it is metal (not wood). It is the one we now sleep on and it is strong!
I did not take any pictures of assembling that one, so forgive me for simply using photos of that wooden one to illustrate how it goes from a pile of materials to a legit box spring. You in short simply zip the cover around this frame and you are done!

And the only thing more exciting than getting a box spring in the mail is Sherry’s personalized birthday message from Real Housewives of New York City’s Countess Luann (ordered via a website called Cameo). Sherry still screams for a good 7 seconds every time she watches it.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to West Elm LOCAL Experiences for sponsoring this episode. You can enter to win an excellent getaway to Charleston, SC now through May 15th at westelm.com/YHL. There is also a link on that page with more info about the other LOCAL Experiences taking place around the country! Such a cool initiative for local makers and Hands-on lovers like us.