I guess I have to explain why there is only a handful of choices. The space is precisely 70 1/4 inch tall and is encased, so any fridge that goes on there has to be counter depth and 70" or less in height. Not too many options, apparenly.
The house is in the relative boonies, but the school district is well-regarded, and the neighborhood public schools are top notch (not too many folks here choose to spend $$ on private schools). So a typical buyer will be a married couple with 2 elementary school age kids… I think a lot of buyers in that demographic and price range will be turned off by the photo of the kitchen that has a mismatched fridge. We are not exactly in the price war zone…
Anyway, thanks for letting me think outloud and the suggestions. Really appreciate your input.
I agree with the idea of updating the refrigerator and think the Electrolux is a good choice. Take the old one with you to keep in the basement or garage.
The fridge you posted looks nice. I’d be happy with it. I wish my Kenmore fridge would bite the dust. It’s a side by side and it turns out the freezer section drives me bananas. It’s at least 15 years old and has never given me any trouble at all.
Electrolux looks nice. OR take photos looking AWAY from ref’g, and include credit sign for the open house. Make sure if encased, there will be clearance so doors can fully open to take out any shelving for cleaning.
I really like our GE fridge. When it died, we bought another one just like it. It holds a LOT of stuff. It is deeper than some counters, which can be an issue for some folks but works just perfectly for us.
My mother has a kenmore french door fridge that she claims is the best she’s ever had. And she’s had a lot of them, in several countries, including SubZero. She’s 94, LOL.
Original poster here. I can’t believe we listed 5 months to the day of my original post.
Here’s what we ended up doing.
Painted walls throughout. Mostly Revere Pewter, a warm grey that we love. On the first floor, painted all the wood trim a light (almost white) compatible with the wall tones. Painted doors the same color as the walls. Gorgeous. Such a difference. Left a few stained wood touches on the first floor (reddish beams in two places) and refinished stair banister to match the beams. Also, sunroom off of the kitchen remained natural cedar.
On the second floor, in master bedroom, similar paint treatment as on the first floor. Major rehab of master bath (marble tiles, expanded shower, new vanity, fixtures, etc.
Otherwise, (except for second upstairs bath) did not paint wood doors and trim on the second floor. It worked somehow, and added a certain authenticity and uniqueness to the house. There’s a library over the garage that is largely stained wood .
Refinished the natural maple floors on first floor, includes kitchen. Replaced the awful teal carpet on stairs and second floor with a plush warm grey.
After decluttering and a little staging, the place looked great!
Out of 4 showings, 3 made bids!!
We accepted the first bid. Now have back-up bids that are crazy high.
I read ALL of your very helpful posts. Thank you so much for your opinions.
If all goes according to plan, we’ll be in Savannah in less than one month.
Iirc, you are in my neck of the woods and houses are selling like crazy!! Your improvements sound lovely and you picked the perfect time to list it! I can’t remember a market quite like this in our area ever.
We are getting ready to put our 18 yr old house on the market. Mr. B is very worried that the market is at a standstill. There are no listings in our neck of the woods. None. Nada. Maybe because the buyers are not there.
We are not going to repaint the walls. They are neutral while, so the buyer can pick the color according to their taste. I just reprinted the bedroom in our new place. It was disgusting yet popular taupe and depressing. It took me 2 layers of primer and 2 paint coats to get it look right - cream. No, tastes differ. White does not need to be primed. We replaced all brass hardware in the bathrooms with chrome. I am going to paint the vanity in the MB neutral color but I am not doing anything to the kitchen. Painting solid maple wood in excellent shape is sacrilege. One idiot realtor told us that in order to sell, we had to remodel the kitchen. Nope. Not doing that! Investing $20k to get $10k back? It does not take an MBA to figure out that is dumb.
I hope all of the work paid off and you were able to recoup your costs with a higher sale price.
In your case…did the updating just position your home to sell faster than the others on the market? Or were you able to raise your asking price higher than neighborhood average?
Updating master bathroom makes a huge difference for buyers