Thursday 23 July 2015

Five Naked Ladies












Well four and a half!


Over the last few months I have been decluttering, painting, tidying the house in preparation to put it on the market.  In the process it feels like it is turning into someone else's house.  The book shelves that are usually overflowing have been purged, they are neat and tidy and just not so interesting.  The spare bedroom that acts as my craft room is looking more like a bedroom and less like my little cave of creativity.  You can actually see the bed now it is not covered by my latest projects.  Bathroom shelves cleared of all the little bottles I collect from hotel rooms, yes I am that person.  Piles of books and magazines removed from all over the floor by my bed.  My little nest on the sofa that usually has books, knitting project, coffee cups and laptop has been cleared.  They say you need to de -personalise your house when selling it but how far do you go?

I am reminded of a poem from the Adoption Papers by Jackie Kay.  Her adoptive parents are awaiting a visit from the Social Worker who will decide if they are fit people to adopt.  She writes:

I put Marx Engels Lenin (no Trotsky)
in the airing cupboard - she'll no be
checking out the towels surely

All the copies of the Daily Worker
I shoved under the sofa
the dove of peace I took down from the loo

A poster of Paul Robeson
saying give him his passport 
I took down from the kitchen



My copy of the Communist Manifesto is still on the book shelf, but I have taken down the photo of the lady who apart from some sprinkles really was naked.  However I have left these five prints on the walls.  The tattood lady (above) gazing up to the sky which I love and everyone else in the family hates.






My poster from the Tracy Emin Exhibition I went to a few years ago, it's by our kitchen table.  Perhaps I should look at it when I am tempted to scoop a bit more of something onto my plate, then I may have an ass like that.





This gorgeous painting of a women sprawled across the bed, I look just like that in the mornings ..... ha I wish!




This beautiful mother and baby




...... and a glamorous 'sleepover'.

Sorry they are not great shots, it is very difficult taking a photo without getting a photo of yourself taking the photo, if you see what I mean.


Do I erase the last bit of my personality by taking down my naked ladies and putting up photos of flowers or cute dogs?  Or just think 'what the hell' they are not buying my artwork.

So bloggers, is there anything you would hide if you put your house up for sale?  Do tell :)

I am joining with lovely Amy who is kind enough to host Five on Friday

Chickpea xx

p.s.   I do have a lot of other non naked lady pictures around the house.......just saying :)




48 comments:

  1. Ha ha you are looking at your house with someone else's eyes. Roll on the day when you look on your new place with your own. Have a good week :-)

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    1. Looking forward to getting back to 'normal'. Can't remember if I told you I bought the Alice in Wonderland book you had on your blog, Thank you for recommending it, I love it!!!!

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  2. All your paintings are tasteful and should be left in place but I freely admit that when we were selling up I was ruthless and removed as much as required to give the house a 'show house' co-ordinated look. It worked. We sold within weeks ...twice! (the first sale fell through 2 days before the move...but that's another story..) and in our new place now I try to keep things simple. Less dusting :) It's just my craft stuff which seems to have a life of it's own and which moves to other rooms, presumably when we are asleep!...lol...

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    1. Yes crafts and books are my downfall every time, they just seem to take over the house!!! Tackling the office today, if you don't hear from me again, send help!!

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  3. Definitely "show house" appearance - a.k.a. hotel room. We were advised by our agent to make the canvas as bland as possible in order to prevent potential buyers being distracted and thereby hijacking / losing the sale.

    l love the mother and child pic :)

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  4. Oh dear, my shabby furniture will never have the 'show house' appearance! Will have to settle for the shabby chic look :)

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  5. They are buying your house as you say not your artwork! Leave it up :-) gives a taste of home i think! Personally i love the tattood lady as well :) kay xx

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    1. Isn't it wonderful, it makes you want to know more about her.

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  6. I would imagine that clean, uncluttered and reasonably neutral should do it? The prints look fine to me. I would be looking beyond those at space (no clutter or excess furniture), light (pale wall colours and clean windows) and avoiding too much DIY (no unfinished jobs). Sounds to me like you have been tackling all of those aspects! Fingers crossed for a speedy, stress free move!!

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    1. Just have to find somewhere else that ticks the boxes before we put it on the market!!

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  7. Now I know where we are going wrong - no naked lady pictures and this place could never look like a show house in 1000 years!

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  8. Oh wow, that lady on the bed, what a brilliant painting.

    We collect limited edition prints, mostly of buildings, when I look around me, although that wasn't intentional, we just pick up what we like when we have a bit of cash spare. No nudes yet, but never say never.

    Also, you won the copy of Landmarks in my giveaway, if you'd care to pop your postal address in an email to me I'll send it off :o)

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    1. Really looking forward to reading it thank you!

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  9. Last time our house was up for sale (it didn't sell in the end but that is another story) I used to hide the cat litter tray from view. Lovely paintings - it is hard to put away things that make you feel at home:)

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    1. Think I may have to hide the cat, she really doesn't like strangers!

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  10. Ah, I love the Klimt mother and baby painting so much! Xxx #FiveOnFriday

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  11. Love your pictures and if the give you joy then you should be able to look at them every day. You have to have something of you in the house, other wise they will say it's too bland.

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    1. They will distract people so they don't look too closely at some of my paintwork!!

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  12. This post just cracked me up! I loved it! :-) My daughter collects pinup art and she has a photo of Bettie Page, but she's wearing a bathing suit. It's an actual photograph we found in an antique shop, not a print. In my house?...hmmmm. I do have photos of Robert E. Lee prominently displayed, but I am very proud of those! Still, you never know how people might react to things like that. Even saying, I'm definitely not removing them for anyone. Hey, leave your naked ladies up on the wall...I think they're awesome! :-)

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    1. Can't please all of the people all of the time as they say, :)

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  13. I was surprised to see that realtors in your country use the same tactics as here when you put your home up for sale. Personally, I like to view a home and see how it's decorated as it gives me inspiration as to how I would decorate the home if I bought it. I don't really care for the idea of taking everything down from the walls and putting everything away. That is not a home. I viewed a place for sale the other day and it looked like no one lived there! It was boring. I say keep your pictures as they are part of who you are. My best to you.

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  14. Some years ago I spent ages searching for a picture of a naked lady to hang in our bedroom - I don't remember why I was so insistent now! - and I could not find one for love nor money, seems they were all living at your house already! I think they look great, so I wouldn't take them all down, but I guess it depends on what others think and if you find that people run out of the door screaming, you might think again, otherwise, well, you still have to have some personality in a house and show it as a home, otherwise that puts people off too. So I guess I mean, see how it goes! There is one thing removing clutter and rubbish, another to remove everything you own! I do hope that it is all going well! Thank you so much as always for joining in. I hope that you have a great weekend! xx

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  15. We had a lot of vibrantly coloured walls - and I wasn't going to follow advice to paint it all white, bland, neutral, depersonalised.
    But I did do the decluttering.
    Our house sold because the new people are gardeners. The house, has its own appeal.

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    1. Yes I'm hoping the location and large garden will sell it not the decor :)

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  16. i love your naked ladies...especially the tattooed lady and the mother and child. i've heard of this so-called wisdom of making everything bland and non-personal but i frankly find that to be quite demoralizing. i think it suggests that people have no imagination and can't envision what the place might look like with their own stuff in it. then again, i'm neither buying nor selling a house so what do i know? :) decluttering- yes. depersonalizing? definitely not.

    and now i'm giggling because i bet you're going to get all sorts of creepy traffic to your blog with that post title....;)

    xo

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    1. Haha I hadn't thought of that :) They will be disappointed.

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  17. You are too cute. I say leave your art up but your realtor might disagree! They say you shouldn't have anything too personal out when selling your house so I guess if you can't have baby pictures, you can't have naked women either. Oh well. You can't win 'em all!

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    1. Well they're not naked family members, now that would be weird :)

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  18. I love your Klimpt paintings (our eldest daughter has the bottom one in her house). I think if folk think any of them offensive, they have problems!

    My house IS up for sale, and damned if I am going to paint it neutral (it's a period farmhouse with beams everywhere and a real one-off - not something on a housing estate), take down all my favourite things, change the curtains, box up the china, remove offensive books (don't think I have any but we do have 1,000s of books). But then we have been on and off the market for about 6 years now - ever since the market crashed, tbh - talk about bad timing. Being in Wales, we have to wait for everywhere else to be galloping along for the market to really take off here. We are at the end of the food chain!!!

    We have lots of rooms, and no way can I remove/put into storage half the possessions of a lifetime just so someone can see how their furniture might look here. They will just have to use their imagination. It will be clean, it will be tidy, it will be as uncluttered as I can manage. Everyone who visits here falls in love with our house. We just need a well-heeled London buyer!

    I hope that you sell yours quickly, but I think the market is only just starting to move outside of the M25 circuit.

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    1. They are building hundreds of new houses around here which no doubt all have 'special mortgage deals' so we will have to see. Good luck with your sale.

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  19. Keep them up I say. It shoes your individuality and uniqueness. I love the mother and child and the last one especially. Hope you sell quickly and it is a smooth ride.

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    1. So do I, our last move was a complete nightmare which is why we have been here so long!

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  20. I'm thankful now I have planted my edible hedge & asparagus bed that I won't have to go through the pain of moving. Mike wants to but I now flat refuse. Hope your house sells quickly x

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    1. I don't blame you :) I would love to have an asparagus bed, something to look forward to when we move hopefully

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  21. I love watching property programmes, but we get such differing advice on how to market a house. On the one hand we are told to paint every room in neutral colours and remove all personal possessions 'so that would-be buyers can imagine their own furniture and pictures there', and another programme has the presenter bringing along samples of wallpapers and curtaining materials, plus strong, vibrant paint colours 'to give the house a lift and bring it out of the neutrality trap'. Film of viewers going round houses and remarking on 'all those books' and ;that awful colour in the dining room', etc. has me shouting at the TV, "The sellers are taking the books with them, you idiots!" and "You're going to decorate it yourself anyway!" Grrrr!
    I say keep your home as your home; until someone comes along and buys it, they have no right to dictate what should and should not be on show - and if they don't have the ability to judge the house on its size and suitability without having all the furnishings removed, then they are THICK!! So there!!!

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    1. Hehe this did make me laugh, I will be thinking of your words if I get people complaining about things :)

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  22. When I sold my last 3 houses the selling point was that they were not painted Magnolia and had a decent amount of art work and "things" around. Nearly every viewer said how nice it was to see a home and not a pristine wannabe empty space. I think that the answer is tidy away and then put back a small amount of favourite things. Give the viewers a small glimpse of what they can do with their own "stuff", after all most of us have heaps of it.

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  23. I love the Klimt pictures - they enhance the house surely? All the others are lovely too although Tracy Emin may raise a few eyebrows - however one picture's not going to be a deal-breaker is it? As long as they can see the walls and the floors I think that's all you need. Good luck with the sale - Judy.

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  24. I would say leave the pictures up but then maybe that is because I like them! Good luck with selling the house.

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  25. So bloggers, is there anything you would hide if you put your house up for sale? Do tell :)

    Gallon jars of various booze infusions. They seem to be taking over the apartment.

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I love reading your comments and will try to reply to all you lovely people xx Spam will be deleted so don't even bother!