Smile for the camera

Had you asked me a year ago, I would have confidently answered that there are exactly 6 levels of house cleaning.  Ranked from min to max they are:

1. Having children pick up their rooms

2. Lick and a Promise

3. Regular

4. Company Cleaning

5. Spring Cleaning

6. Getting ready for a visit from my mother

This year I learned that there exists another unbelievably more stringent level ~ Getting Ready to Sell your House Cleaning!

I will admit that I fall closer to the Martha Stewart end of the housekeeping scale (with hoarders being the opposite end) and have even had one of my daughter's childhood friends tell me that what she remembers about playing at our house was how clean it was.  But I gotta tell you, these past few weeks have seen Mr. Cobblestone and me polishing our house as it has never been polished before.  We're talking Q-tips and toothpicks in all the corners kind of cleaning.  I even cleaned the inside of the hole where the kitchen sink sprayer goes!  Who knew you could fit a Q-tip in there?!!!

Did anyone notice I used past tense in the paragraph above?  Yes indeedy, that portion of the process ended this morning when the photographer took the pictures for our listing.  And now it feels a bit strange to not be looking at my to-do list and rushing off to my next chore. 

Maybe I'll sit with a second cup of coffee and enjoy looking at my clean house.  Never fear ~ I will be sure to plump the pillows back up and run my hand across the seat cushion of the couch to erase my butt print when I'm done.  But first I need to email Martha about that sprayer hole cleaning technique.  ;)

ps I will of course share the photos taken today when I can because I understand the fun of peeking around someone else's house.  But for today I will share a pic I took standing on our front porch a few days ago of our crab apple tree and tulips.