House Doctor Ann Maurice

The House Doctor - Ann Maurice

One of my favourite TV shows is the House Doctor, starring Ann Maurice, the Californian Real Estate agent. She's wonderful. She turns up at these shockingly lived in houses and makes the most sensible suggestions for making houses sellable.

The problem is we can all sympathise with these people who want to move, until the calm rhetoric of Ann Maurice washes over us and we're all turned into well trained house stagers, all screaming "declutter" at the Tv screen.

The program takes some poor unfortunate person who is desperate to sell their home but for various reasons people haven't managed to yet.
House Doctor sneaks a peek at some viewings and then we get to find out why (If we hadn't already guessed) the house isn't selling.

Some people have too much clutter. Actually, lets rephrase that - Almost everyone has too much clutter. There are very few minimalists out there, the rest of us are chronic hoarders who feel the need to cram ever inch of wall with pictures, every surface with objects and books and more pictures, and some of us fill every square meter with as many computers as possible.

All the personal stuff, the years of kids photos, your collection of porcelain birds, your entire DVD collection, 4000 paperback books in various stages of disarray and heaps of old junk isn't going to make potential buyers feel that they can see themselves and their stuff in your home. This is apparently what they have to feel they can do before they'll want to buy your home.

Once we've laughed at the horrors as they find them (Often they point out the pet smells, or just how grimy the place is) we have to be careful not to enjoy it too much as we might ourselves suffer from simialr problems, its just we're not on TV trying to sell our house.

The house doctor arrives and takes charge - often her comments fuel great defensive dialogues until she points out they're selling their home.

Why not make a sign for each room " I want to sell this house" with a longer caveat "so I am not doing this for my benefit
This should be something they're all made to do as they struggle with hard decisions and concepts - that after all they're not doing it for themselves but to sell the property as quickly as possible and for as little outlay as possible.

Packing stuff up and putting it away in storage is one of the first steps. This decluttering serves several purposes. Mainly you're getting rid of the junk you know you should throw away, but haven't wanted to, you make more space to show off the remaining things, you're depersonalising the space so that potential buyers can imagine their clutter there instead!

What to do with stuff:

Keep - keep and move.

Throw away

Store

Donate.

(If you're not moving house you can still declutter - just less strictly, perhaps a draw a day)

Once you've decluttered you should probably have a good clean of whats left - that means a really good indepth clean, perhpas hiring industrial cleaning equipment (eg: floor scrubber) or professional help if things are just too much for you and you feel like spending the cash. You could ask family and friends to help you too but don't expect too much, we don't like cleaning at the best of times let alone someone elses mess.

Once you've cleaned you've got whats left - and you have to decide whether you need to decorate or spend money. New carpeting might seem an unncessary expense but it needn't be really expensive but it could make the difference between you selling your house now or never.

Pale, subtle, neutral colours are best - no one could possibly dislike some of the lovely pale colours out there. Warming yellows don't have to be strong, they can be subtly warming. Lighten and brighten. Give rooms a focus, if you've not got a fireplace in the lounge then get a big mirror. Match in stuff you already have.

Neutralise horrid colours (eg: pink bathroom suites by using an orange colour for towels or paintwork) by carefully finding what colours you can pull them towards.

Get lots of those colour strips to experiment with colour ideas.

Staging the house is the final stage, this is where a careful eye can get a professional feel to the final setting. Careful use of accessories: candles, stones, tasteful items, lighting, cushions, rigs and throws can all have their part to play. Make sure you like them then you'll use them in your new house when you move.

Of course that makes it all sound very easy, perhaps far too easy, so we'll sumarise it again for you:

Declutter
Clean
Dress.

When you have viewers round make sure the house is spotless. Take care that the place doesn't smell, but those brand new fluffy towels and posh soaps out in the bathroom, get fresh flowers, (Coffee or baking bread might be seen for what it is)

Extra ideas we've all seen used a hundred times:

Make the house live up to people's expectations - dress a dining room for a dinner party, because this is a classy house where you do have dinner parties (Even if you don't, it doesn't matter). This works because people aspire to this sort of thing, people will want your house if you appear to have a glamourous lifestyle.

Remember how you can make an extra "room" from an outdoor area or conservatory...

Things to watch out for. Put the ironing board away. Your house *musT* have room to put away the ironing board, else it'll seem that there isn't enough storage space in the place.
The same goes for wardrobes full to bursting, or kitchens littered with gadgets.

Pets - can you tidy away their stuff ? Yes? Can you send them to a friend's house whilst viewers come round - this is partiularly important if you have a bouncy dog. You shouldn't hear, see or smell your pets whilst you're trying to sell your house!

Each room must have a function. You must spell out this function to potential buyers.

1. House Doctor: Instant Makeovers
~Ann Maurice
Collins
Hardcover - 5 August, 2002

Following "House Doctor" and "House Doctor Quick Fixes", this text is the latest title from TV's DIY guru, Ann Maurice. Packed with hints and tips for fixing up the house and adding hundreds to its value, this book is aimed at all home enthusiasts. Each house is dealt with in its entirety and there is more focus on the owners of the houses than in the two previous books. Maurice gives her initial diagnosis of the house as a whole and her final verdict is highlighted in a box. The changes made to every room are documented along with the owners' reactions to them. Each case history is followed by examples of how to transform something from tatty to tasteful, for example, transforming an old garden table into a mosaic dining table. A number of different styles are covered: Victorian; country; retro; minimalist chic; seaside; and so forth. The key components needed to get a particular look are detailed and illustrated.

2. House Doctor Quick Fixes: 100 Top Tips to Help You Make That Sale
~Ann Maurice
HarperCollins Illustrated

House Doctor Quick Fixes focuses on the TOP 100 ways to add value to your home:
How to add value - the simplest and easiest way to add to the value of your home

How to add style - Ann Maurice's stylist solutions to make buyers really want to snap up your home

How to add calm - alternative ways to make you feel happier about your home. Starting with First Impressions (the exterior, the front door, the hall), Ann Maurice then takes each room of the house in turn, and focuses on the TOP 10 tips for transforming the room. As always, she shows 'before and after' examples from the programme to illustrate her point, and highlights the simple tricks which really can make a difference to each room.

Synopsis
This guide focuses on the top 100 ways to add value to your home: How to add £££s - the simplest and easiest way to add to the value of your home; how to add style - Ann Maurice's stylist solutions to make buyers really want to snap up your home; and how to add calm - alternative ways to make you feel happier about your home. Starting with "First Impressions", Ann Maurice then takes each room of the house in turn, and focuses on the top 10 tips for transforming the room. As always, she shows "before and after" examples from the programme to illustrate her point, and highlights the simple tricks which really can make a difference to each room.

3. House Doctor: How to Add £££s to the Value of Your Home
~Ann Maurice
HarperCollins Illustrated
Paperback - August 2000

Ignore Ann Maurice's impersonation of American Psycho on the front cover, the contents of House Doctor really aren't anything to be nervous of. This book accompanies the popular ChAnnl 5 series featuring the very straight-talking Californian property stylist. Her mission: to make simple, inexpensive changes to the presentation of your home to increase its value and your chances of selling it. Like the show, the emphasis here is not on striking or dramatic makeovers in the Changing Rooms style. You aren't meant to like the designs, they should be subtle, almost a neutral canvas so the people visiting your house can imagine themselves living there. As Ann continually reiterates, the biggest mistake sellers make is in assuming that because they love their home, a prospective buyer will feel the same. None of the designs will excite but all have proven to be, in a bland kind of way, the ideal way to add value to your home and ensure it appeals to the majority of people entering your front door.
Ann's advice is mostly good common sense but as some of these "pre-makeover" photographs show; common sense is a rare quality amongst homeowners. This is where her tasteful intervention is required. Seven chapters take you through the houses with before and after shots of exteriors, entrances, reception rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and gardens. Anyone who's seen the show will recognise much, if not all, of what they see here. The same remedies are repeated throughout; clean furiously, fix anything broken, hide anything ugly and make rooms as light and airy as possible--people want space, not to see a lifetime accumulation of worldly possessions. Remembering to remove traces of everyday chores--washing up, ironing board, etc, and avoid over personalisation. These cures sound and look all too easy but remarkably seem to work every time.

4, Best of the House Doctor - not published yet!

Subjects > Home & Garden > Interior Design & Decoration > General

Subjects > Home & Garden > DIY & Home Improvements > Home Extensions & Renovation > General

Subjects > Home & Garden > Interior Design & Decoration > Styles & Decor