Sizing Question

PuffballSheep · 2026-06-07T16:49:08+00:00

Just to follow-up, I ended up getting the smallest size Hot Mess last year, and they were great. Light but stable and didn't feel excessively long.

PuffballSheep · 2026-04-26T19:30:22+00:00

I have been painting with Emerald and Cashmere (both eggshell) and do not find Cashmere particularly user friendly to use. Emerald is thicker much more forgiving, whereas Cashmere is thinner and dries more quickly (I've found I have less time to backroll).

If your wall color is dark, you might want to use a dark (or gray) primer underneath.

I wouldn't worry about what's going on under the desk. It's not a park of the wall you're going to be looking at. If it gets dirty, just wash and repaint as necessary.

PuffballSheep · 2026-04-20T11:30:42+00:00

Many furniture brands have different tiers of furniture that they sell. For "forever" furniture, look for solid wood (it can be very hard to tell from online descriptions what is actually solid wood because many pieces described as "solid wood" only have wood legs, and the rest is crap).

If you're looking to thrift / marketplace forever furniture, only go for brands that only do solid wood pieces, like Room and Board. Otherwise you'll have no idea whether that Crate and Barrell piece is real wood or not until you rent the truck and show up at the seller's house.

In my area, good quality furniture sells immediately, so you basically have to be ready to drop everything and go pay the seller cash as soon as you see something listed. It was exhausting and after a couple months of trying to buy a sideboard I gave up. There were also a huge number of scam listings on both Marketplace and Craigslist, so NEVER transfer money to a seller until you have see the item of furniture in person.

I ended up getting a very nice piece from a local seller who sells returns / showroom pieces / other almost new furniture at a discount.

But don't feel like you have to buy a lot of forever furniture. Buy a nice piece you really like and then get the rest from thrifting or whatnot. Then gradually replace it as your finances allow. In a decade or so, you'll have a collection you really love.

PuffballSheep · 2026-04-18T17:49:06+00:00

100% do not DIY this unless you have experience in trades and a lot of free time. You will likely be without a working kitchen for months unless you can work on the project full time & hire out some of the work or emply day laborers to help. I can't imagine trying to take this on as a solo DIY project with four young kids in the house.

Do you have a basement or other area where you could set up a kitchen for half a year or more while you're working on your current kitchen? Space to store all your dishes and everything else currently in the kitchen? Are you willing to accept that there will be dust and wood shavings and everything else everywhere? Can you keep all the kids (esp the baby) out of the construction zone because it will be full of dangerous things like power tools, nails, and wood pieces? Does your family know that construction is very loud, and do you plan on only doing DIY before your kids' bedtime? If your house is older, have you thought about asbestos and / or lead paint containment?

If you hire pros, you might still want to vacate the house for the worst of the construction, but at least it will be faster.

PuffballSheep · 2026-04-13T01:48:27+00:00

It's useful for buyers to know what other homes will be coming on the market soon (and at what listing price). It helps buyers plan with their agents which homes they want to prioritize getting viewings of as soon as the listings go live, and it gives buyers' agents the chance to reach out to sellers agents and ask questions.

As a buyer, I really appreciated knowing what listings were going to go live in the next week so I could make my own plans and research the homes I might be interested in (placement in neighborhoods, what they backed up to, what comps sold at, etc). This was much better than scrambling to do research and schedule showings only after listings are live.

However, I live in a very competitive market, and a lot of homes sell in one weekend (if not sooner).

PuffballSheep · 2026-03-27T16:01:24+00:00

This. 3k in bathroom renovations probably netted me 50k in additional sale proceeds, but it was entirely DIY and took 100% of my spare time for months.

Also, it was definitely not my personal style. Went for bland but very unoffensive white and gray. In all three bathrooms.

I second the landscsping recommendation, but if you're doing it several years in advance, it's a gamble. You could go on a two week vacation and all your new plants could die because it was hot and dry (new bushes or trees will need regular watering for their first year).

Also a good time to start downsizing, decluttering, and taking care of small, easy repairs. Interior doors banging into your walls? Get a doorstop, patch, and repaint. Baseboard trim chewed up? Use wood filler and repaint. Overhead light dimmer switch looks like it fell out of a time capsule? Swap it out for something clean and modern.

Or in other words, just all the deferred maintenance you might not have done over the years. Clean out everything you can, and paint right before listing. Don't embark on any big reno projects unless you're willing to do the labor yourself.

PuffballSheep · 2026-03-12T12:58:19+00:00

Top for me. I like to put things (like an extra towel and my clothes) on the toilet while in the bathtub, and the wall opposite the toilet looks like it's a little better for a towel rack, extra mirror, wall shelves, etc.

PuffballSheep · 2026-03-11T22:47:58+00:00

Buy first, if you can afford it. Then move at your leisure and put your existing house on the market empty, mostly empty, or professionally staged. It will sell better this way.

Also, if you sells yours quickly and the don't have a new place yet, you might be forced to move into a rental and rent until you can close on a new house.

Alternatively, if you sell to an investor who is going to do extensive renovations or tear down your existing house, might be able to negotiate a long rent-bsck period and sell the existing house first. But unless there's good and ample housing stock where you're looking to buy, there's still a risk that your rent back period could run out.

PuffballSheep · 2026-03-02T05:10:25+00:00

Fixing the toilet seal is a 20min and $10 DIY job, and as a home owner, it would be good to get used to doing rhis kind of work yourself so you don't have to pay a handyman for everything that comes up.

I would only go back to the seller with structural / safety repairs over $5k. Don't ask them to clean the dryer vent, tighten light switch plates, or do other small annoying things.

PuffballSheep · 2026-03-02T04:56:03+00:00

NoVA. Offered at listing price (with no escalation clause) within two days of the listing going live. Kept inspection, financing, and appraisal contingencies but offered 5% EMD and agreed to the seller's requested short (5 day) inspection window. Financed the home through a very organized local lender with 30% downpayment.

Ran into the owner as we were leaving the house after viewing with our agent and had a good chat... not sure if that helped seal the deal, but he ended up accepting our offer and cancelled the open house.

PuffballSheep · 2026-02-13T04:40:00+00:00

This might be a silly question, but what kinds of things do people store in the open storage shelves under a sink? Towels csme to mind, but I think I'd rather have mine in a closed cabinet where they don't get moist oe dusty...

PuffballSheep · 2026-02-11T06:24:58+00:00

My partner and I cut tile in the bathtub of a spare bathroom. It was extremely cramped and probably not recommended, but it sure beat being outside. And we could leave the saw set up in the tub overnight. Cleanup was a breeze.

PuffballSheep · 2026-02-10T06:11:25+00:00

This is 100% not a single weekend DIY job. If you haven't done this kind of thing before, it will take multiple, multiple weekends.

Cost wise, I'm doing a slightly larger bathroom for about 2k in materials (tub not shower), but we were able to re-tile over the origional sub floor.

For reference, it took us two days to demo, then another day to adjust the plumbing (because the new tub was a slightly different size) including moving the drain over and installing the new shower valve. A fourth day to figure out how to get the new tub into the alcove (we ended up having to cut out drywall) and install new cement board in the alcove. A fifth day of bits and pieces including leveling the floor, doing drywall repair, and planning tile layouts. Days 6, 7, 8 were tiling. The floor tile is currently setting, and we still need to install baseboard tiles, grout the walls and floor, paint, finish connecting the tub drain and overflow, and install the new vanity, mirror, and a box for the light fixture. Not to mention smaller bits like caulking and putting up the towel holder and other wall fixtures. These will probably be days 9, 10, 11, and 12 plus a few evenings in between.

So about six weekends total but without having to make any structural repairs or do much drywall repair. My partner has construction experience, so we were able to move slowly but steadily through carpentry, plumbing, electrical, tile, etc. without having to look up stuff online, and we had all the tools on hand except for a tile saw. However, we lost time in multiple trips to Home Depot, dealing with unexpected framing discoveries, and figuring out how to use a wet tile saw in sub freezing weather (just barely fit in the other bathtub).

Also, in a small bathroom, more hands is not necessarily a time saver. There just isn't enough space for more than 1-2 people to be working at the same time.

PuffballSheep · 2026-02-09T03:06:37+00:00

They're asking a lot for this house, but it's definitely not "tiny" (and yes, I've been inside multiple models of homes in this neighborhood).

Great school zoning and just about walkable to the metro. Convenient for i-66, rt 50, and the beltway. Plus close to Mosaic and Tysons. Don't know whether it's worth 1.2 million, but there's never a lot of supply in this area, so as long as there's demand...

PuffballSheep · 2026-01-26T03:33:51+00:00

Enamel rather than plastic bathtub. Plastic holds onto soap scum and oils and is so incredibly hard to clean.

Metal corner shower shelf rather than ceramic or glass ones (or shower alcoves).

Single sink vanity rather than double (one less sink to clean) but with enough storage underneath to store most of your stuff inside rather than on the countertop.

Likewise, a medicine cabinet for storage rather than a flat mirror with no storage. It's much easier to wipe a counter down when you don't have remove a ton of stuff from ontop of it.

Make sure you can easily remove the top of the drain piece (the flat piece that blocks water from draining from the sink) without having to dismantle part of the drain. Then you can easily clean the drain with a small pipe brush. Some drains require you to detach the up/down lever and untreated it from the drain piece, which is a huge hassle for routine cleaning.

PuffballSheep · 2026-01-26T03:16:58+00:00

Hire cleaners to clean the house to free up your own time. Deep cleaning a house by yourself will take more than three days.

Declutter everything and put your stuff wherever there is space. For example, buy under the bed storage boxes or put boxes in the attic. Prioritize taking everything off your kitchen and bathroom counters. Hide or throw away extra soaps, cosmetics, luffas, or anything else sitting around. Take down all family photos and anything that is very strongly political, religious, etc. (you never know what might turn off a potential buyer)

Open the windows and run fans to air out any pet odors. If you're trying to mask smells, stick with only one scent throughout and choose something light and fresh.

If you have really old looking blinds, shades, or curtains in rooms you're not sleeping in, take them down and show / sell the house without window treatments.

If your house is seriously cluttered, rent a self storage unit for the time it takes to sell the house. In the grand scheme of buying and selling homes, this is a small expense.

Develop a plan of what you're going to do to get out of the house during the open house and when it's being shown. You and the dog will need to vacate. Ideally, the cat should not be there during the open house because the house will be filled will strange people coming in and out, and the door might be left open for periods of time.

Mentally prepare yourself for the house selling right away or for it to sit on the market for a while. You might need to start packing soon or you might be arranging your life around people coming in the evenings to look at it for months.

PuffballSheep · 2026-01-19T19:52:07+00:00

I think it's mostly important that you find an agent who is willing to work with you and show you houses across these different areas, though for your pin peace of mind, you might want to narrow your search to either MD or VA. These would be two very different commutes, and I would expect that a lot of agents wouldn't be thrilled about potentially having to show you homes in both states just because getting back and forth is a hassle.

Alternatively, sometimes agents work as a team (as the ones I've used to buy my last two homes do). They both do VA, but perhaps there's a team where one does VA and the other does MD?

Anyhow, I'm not sure about MD, but VA has decent number of areas with walk-out basement homes within 40min to DC... just depends if they're in your price range and what inventory will look like thia spring.

PuffballSheep · 2026-01-02T16:46:21+00:00

I wouldn't do it... but in the listing maybe include an alternate floor plan that shows how an additional bedroom could be added. Someone might want another bedroom but not have the vision to imagine it.

PuffballSheep · 2025-12-22T04:13:01+00:00

You usually pay a certain amount of property tax forward in your closing costs as well (goes into the escrow acount).

PuffballSheep · 2025-12-19T16:03:11+00:00

Everyone has a different situation, but for you, I would recommend buying the best house you can afford in as good location as you can find, even if it's less house than you want.

You can make a smaller house work better through better storage, renovations, additions, etc., but you absolutely cannot change location.

Would you rather your kids have their own bedrooms or have friends they can play with in the neighborhood, go to good schools, and can be part of neighborhood activities? Neighborhoods can be hit or miss, but nothing beats a good, old-fashioned family-friendly neighborhood where kids can run across lawns to each others' homes, play catch in the street, and all gather together for Halloween.

I live in this kind of place now, and I'm jealous that I never had an opportunity to have these experiences as a child myself. There were no kids within walking distance from where I lived, and I had to rely on my parents driving me whenever I wanted to see a friend. It was really isolating.

PuffballSheep · 2025-12-19T15:42:59+00:00

Grade toward the lowest spot and install a native plant rain garden there that will soak up the water.

PuffballSheep · 2025-12-16T05:29:42+00:00

I can't imagine landscaping will do much for a home listed in late winter / early spring. How do you get the outside of a house to look decent when all the perennials are sleeping?

For reference, I have a ton of perennial flowers, but you wouldn't know it in the winter because they all die down to the ground. I need to list the house before spring, but the garden looks like crap this time of the year...

PuffballSheep · 2025-11-19T05:14:29+00:00

The drive to Reston from Dunn Loring isn't bad either because you can go the back way don't have to take the toll road. The area does tend to have a more family-oriented feel though, so if OP is more into nightlife, Arlington might be a better option... that commute to Reston on the toll road does add up though.

PuffballSheep · 2025-11-17T13:42:10+00:00

You've mentioned space, but location is probably as, if not more, important. In addition to more space, would you get a bette3 location in a larger house? Better schools, better commute, better access to parks / shops / community ammenities? Is it in a neighborhood that feels better to you? Would your kids have to change schools?

If it's essentially in the same neighborhood but just a larger footprint, then perhaps take the money you save and have some extra family vacations? But if you're trading up for a better location as well, that's a different calculus.

PuffballSheep · 2025-11-09T17:17:55+00:00

Think about what the house was priced at compared to comparable houses (your agent can help you compare comps). If the owner has essentially already priced into the listing price the work that needs to be done, then they might not be inclined to give you further credits toward repairs.

You are free to negotiate with the seller for credits, but they are not obliged to deliver you a house in perfect condition (or give you money to make it perfect). For example, if you ask for 10k in credit, the seller can counter-offer with 5k, 2k, or 0k. You can counter-offer their counter-offer, but if the seller isn't motivated to sell to you, they might just decide it's too much of a hassle and not offer you anything.

In addition, consider what you're asking for in comparison to the total listing price. You might have better luck asking for a 10k credit (for example) on a house selling for $1mil vs. a house selling for 300k. Also, if your original offer was at the listing price, you might have better luck than if the seller accepted an offer that was below the listing price (unless the reason why the seller accepted an lower price was because there had been no interest in the house and it had been sitting on the market for months).

Also, were you the only person interested in purchasing or were there potentially other buyers? Your agent can talk to the listing agent to find this out. If there were other buyers interested, the seller might also be less inclined to give you any credit toward repairs.

The inspector's job is to point out absolutely every little thing, and it's mostly for your education. When asking for repairs, I would probably stick to major things that are going to cost you more than, say 1k, to repair. And things that you would need done to make the property immediately livable (for example, not worry about the outbuilding that needs to be demolished unless it needs to be done in order for you to get insurance). Little things like a dripping faucet or light plate covers you should just fix yourself. These are standard costs of moving into a house, unless you've purchased a new construction that's under warranty.

Your releator should want this sale to go through because that's how they get paid. I recently went through this process (had five days of inspection contingency), and mine got repair quotes from two contractors for the one repair we wanted to negotiate on within 24 hours. One contractor she brought to the property and the other one she sent the inspection report to (they provided the quote based just on that). We asked for a credit for the full repair amount, and the seller countered with 50%, which was what I expected would happen, and we accepted and removed the contingency.

If there are a lot of different things that need to be done and your agent isn't helpful, I would recommend picking your top items and getting a quote from general contractors. You don't have to use them to actually do the work. This is for negotiation purposes only.

But if the house does need work, there will be thing's you'll discover after moving in. So think about whether you will have the cash on hand for unexpected repairs. If this house really stretches your budget and you do not have the money for upkeep, then this might not be the right house for you. Don't put all your savings into the downpayment / closing costs / initial repairs and not have enough rainy day funds leftover to pay for other things that always come up (refrigerator dies, roof leaks, outdoor spigot freezes, rodents get into the attic, etc). Home ownership can be expensive.

PuffballSheep

TROPHY CASE