We took it pretty easy this weekend, loving not having much to do. The summer weekends fill up quickly, so it was a treat that the first really nice (partly sunny and 60s-70s) weekend we've had this year was also nearly free of obligations.

I pulled out a few more things for the garage sale, which is in 2 weeks. I know we can still come up with more. We're going to try and have a rummage through the kids' toys while they're not around and pull out small stuff that we know they haven't played with for a while. I was trying to make the older one part of the process, but she's having a real problem letting go of anything. (Well, she did a good job the first time through, but we still need to get rid of much more. They have gifts pouring in from all sides and it's kind of out of control how many toys they have for their tiny bedroom.)

We met with our realtor and gave her all the info on what we're wanting to do, right down to the variables (with or without land deal money; multi-family or single-family).

She also gave us some advice on renovating and staging. Most of it was in line with the stager's and contractor's advice and what we were thinking anyway; as with anything, she differed on some points. We're taking some of her advice and ignoring some, we think.

It's been good though to talk to three people from three different sides of the process and hear that their advice has much in common, and matches much of our instincts. And I feel good about the things they've steered us away from, since most of the advice will actually save us money. (For instance, our realtor checked out our oven and said it didn't need replacing if we gave it a good clean.)

She did strongly suggest that we paint all the oak in the condo (cabinets, baseboards, built-in). It will take time but not much more money, so I think we're going to follow her advice on that. All of the places we've seen so far have them painted, so I think it's what's going in our area right now. That's something we can chip away at a little at a time, so we'll probably go for it.

I was going to paint samples on the walls this weekend, but AA (the 4-year-old) wants to help, so I think I'll wait and try to do it with her, little by little. It might drive the younger one nuts to not get to help, but I'll just try to get someone to take her for a walk or something to distract her.

The realtor did confirm that we should fix the window that's started collecting condensation between the two layers. It should only be a couple hundred dollars and, from what I remember of hiring someone to replace a living room window, is a pretty fast job.

So those are the things we'll be working on this week: putting up paint samples on the walls, decluttering and adding to the garage sale pile, and setting up an appointment to have the window replaced. If we feel ambitious, we could start looking for new light fixtures and lamps. We'll see if we get around to that. If the contractor gets back to us with a quote, we might put the kitchen renovation in motion, though who knows when it will be scheduled to start.

Things are moving ... slowly but surely!