Episode #180: Selling Our Home Fully Furnished

This past week, Elsie sold her home in Nashville, and for the first time, she sold it fully furnished. In this episode, she’s going to explain all that entailed and what she learned from the experience! 

Plus, we are each revealing a favorite book that we have read recently.

You can find the podcast posts archive here.

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Show Notes:

Pros and cons of selling a furnished home:

Pros:

• Less waste if furniture doesn’t fit in your new house
• Convenience
• You don’t have to make certain items fit into your new house just because you have them.

Cons:

• Letting go of attachment to certain items
• Not everyone wants a furnished home

Tips if anyone is interested in selling their house furnished: 

• Add up the retail value of everything and make sure you are being compensated.
• Document and communicate what is staying and what’s going.

Books we recently read and loved:

Emma – The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Elsie – Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

• Miss an Episode? Get Caught Up!

• Episode #179: All Things Self-Care
• Episode #178: Father of the Bride – Comfort Rewatch
• Episode #177: Elsie’s Historic House Mood Board

Episode 180 Transcript:

Elsie: You’re listening to the Beautiful Mess Podcast. This past week, we sold our home in Nashville, and for the first time, we sold our personal home fully furnished. In this episode, I’m going to explain all of that entailed and share what I learned from our experience. Okay, so before we jump into the house selling stuff, I feel like this is a huge milestone because now that our house is sold, we actually are on a rent-back situation, and as soon as Nova gets out of school, we are moving. So we’re moving in like a month, Emma, it’s happening. It’s really happening. Finally. 

Emma: I cannot wait. I’m so excited. I know it’s like so much, I remember moving and it is so much and it’s probably even more now because you have two little girls. I’m so excited and I just keep thinking about, honestly, the most mundane hangs ever, and I’m just so stoked because I feel like when I see you this past whatever, seven, eight years, not that we didn’t do anything mundane, but it was one of us was visiting the other, or we were on a special trip together for work or for fun, and now it’s like I can just randomly show up on a Saturday and for a little playtime because we’re bored. I’m so excited about that. We can just get lunch with our mom. I like to get one lunch with her mom like once a month, and I’m like, and now Elsie will be there too. I’m just like so excited about all those little seemingly mundane things and I just, they pop in my head a lot and it’s definitely been like a part of my gratitude practice and just the thing I’m looking forward to in life. So I am stoked. 

Elsie: Yes, it’s gonna be the best summer ever. The best fall, the best Christmas, the best year ever. I’m so excited. We decided we were gonna move back to Springfield last summer, so it really was a whole year almost. And that’s a long time to be planning a move before you do it. But we had a lot of steps we had to put in place and It took some time. I’m so excited and I agree, I can’t wait to just do boring things. I always imagine that we could be like making cookies or watching a movie or swimming with the kids, things like that. 

Emma: Yeah, just simple, nice, fun moments. Yeah. Yes. So excited. Okay, so as this episode title suggests, and as we also teased a couple of episodes ago. Elsie has sold her home and she sold it fully furnished. So I kind of just want you to tell them the story of like, had you listed it that way or told your agent to do it that way? And also when you got the call, cuz you know your agent sends a message. What were your feelings? What spectrum of emotions did you go through as you considered this?

Elsie: So we have worked with the same realtor for a long time. He sold all of our homes in Nashville in the last few years since we moved three times. And every time he always asks if we would be willing to sell our house fully furnished. It’s never something that we’ve tried to do on purpose, and I honestly, I’ve heard of it happening before, but I just assume that it’s like pretty uncommon because it’s hard to imagine me not having stuff already that I wanna bring to my new home. But for us, this was really the perfect time, probably the only perfect time to sell our house fully furnished because we were planning to do an epic estate sale. RIP to that estate sale, and I’m sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it because it’s not happening at all anymore. We were thinking that we were gonna sell most of our furniture before we moved. So we already had that in mind. There were still quite a few things we were gonna take with us. We were open to it, but definitely not expecting it. So when we got the call, It was a couple of weeks ago when we were in Springfield during spring break, and we heard we were getting an offer, which, you know, we had our house listed for a few months and it’s a lot of work. We were trying to keep it perfect all the time for showings. We were having showings almost every day. Definitely, every other day all the time. And it’s a lot of work to maintain that while living in a home with kids. We have an elaborate outdoor space and just had to clean everything every single time. So we were pretty exhausted. So when we got the call, we were so happy and excited. The timing was perfect because we’re getting closer to the end of the school year now and we knew we would have time to do the closing and everything, and the timing possibly line up where we didn’t have to move, we were kind of afraid we would have to move into a short term housing solution for the end of the school year. So the people who bought our house generously offered us rent back for free for an extra month so that we could stay and finish the school year, which was a huge thing. From the beginning, I appreciated them and knew that they were being generous, so I wanted to be generous as well. So they asked for a fully furnished situation and my first, when our realtor Daniel was telling it to us on the phone, my first reaction was actually like really embarrassing, so I’ll share it. I was like Daniel, I have a lot of vampire books. I have a whole shelf of witch books, but Daniel, I have a whole collection of brass insects from eBay. He was like being so patient with me and he was never like, Elsie, they don’t want your little collection, they just care about like sofas and rugs. But yeah, I was like, so hung up, and then seriously, like 15 minutes later after I got the phone, I was like, oh, that was actually a really dumb reaction and not the point at all. There’s no way that stuff’s not even barely showing in the pictures. There’s no way that they even care about that at all. They probably just don’t wanna buy all new furniture the furniture that’s there already fits the style of the house, which is great, it works. 

Emma: Yeah and like curtains and rugs and as everything fits. I get the appeal for sure, from their perspective. I also like the idea that basically in your mind, your house was on fire and your family’s already safe, and clearly you could go back in and grab something and you were like, I gotta get my vampire books. 

Elsie: It’s like the most place-replaceable thing ever, honestly. It’s truly not a big deal at all. So yeah, once I got that through my mind, the next morning I woke up early and I made, not a spreadsheet, but a very long list room by room. So I thought it would be best to explain our perception of what fully furnished meant to us and then they could respond back and say yes or no that, that’s what they were thinking too. Because at first, I was very confused. I was like, how do I know? Like, do I leave silverware in the cabinets? There are so many things that you just don’t know. 

Emma: Yeah. There are definitely different levels. So you wanted to make sure you were on the same page. 

Elsie: Yeah, like when you sell a vacation rental. You really do leave like your coffee maker, your pots and pans, and literally extra sheets, literally everything. But for this situation, I was pretty sure that wasn’t the case, but I needed to clarify. And then we also felt, with our realtor that we wanted to get it documented properly so that we both agreed on the definition of fully furnished. So yeah, I basically went through every single room and wrote down the main items that were staying and kind of anything valuable that was staying, and then noted anything that we were taking that was personal to us. Then asked them any clarifying questions. For example, there were a lot of clarifying questions about the kitchen, like do you want the stuff in the cabinets, or do you want every cabinet empty? I obviously knew they wanted rugs and sofas and lamps. But then there were other things, there’s a lot of art on our walls that are personal to our family. So with that stuff, I decided to, I spent like a morning going on Etsy and you can find so many really affordable, downloadable art and I probably spent like $50 and got tons of art and then I just resized it and ordered it from Shutterfly or one of those places, I can’t remember, to do that long wall in our hallway of all the family photos. So I got like art to replace all of those. And then on each of our stairways, there are big gallery walls of frames, so I got art to replace those. And then there’s a place in our living room with frames that the frames look really good, but the art is like stuff that our kids made, so I got art to replace those. So yeah, things like that and we really didn’t have to go back and forth very much at all. They pretty much were just on the same page as us. And then I packed up all of my personal books, which was way more than I thought it would be. And then I went to our favorite used bookstore in Nashville and got a ton of replacements and restyled the shelves so that they kind of like look the same as the listing photos, but just my personal books are gone. So yeah, that’s how it’s been so far. It is a lot of work, I’m not gonna lie, but it also is such a good feeling, it’s a huge compliment that they wanted to buy the house, how it looks, and it’s a good feeling to switch this stuff out and leave it looking really beautiful for them.

Emma: Yeah, to me that sounds like above and beyond in a lot of ways. You know, whatever you guys agree to is great. But yeah, I like the idea too that when they move in, that big gallery wall that was all family photos and you’ve put art in there now, they could switch it out to be family photos of their family, but they didn’t have to move in and it’s like a wall of blank frames. 

Elsie: Yeah, which if they don’t get around to it till after Christmas or whatever, then it’s like six months of just not a big deal. Having it pleasant to look at that’s what I was thinking. It was extra work for sure to do those little things, but I did wanna leave it where it was just move-in ready and it sort of equal to how good it looks in the listing photos, which was honestly really good. So I had to do some extra stuff.

Emma: Yeah. No, I love that. That’s interesting. Okay. So how did you decide what to pack and what to leave or sell or donate? 

Elsie: Yeah, that was something immediately when I was thinking about what to do, I was like, I’m so scared, I don’t wanna leave any junk, and that’s a scary thing too like you don’t know what is special to you in junk to someone else. It’s a little bit of a gray area, so we decided to leave some things that were easily replaceable. There’s an art print in our bathroom that I really like and I still want it, but I looked up how much it cost to buy another one, and it was not that big of a deal, so we decided to leave it just to not be like Scrooge about little things or whatever. And there were a few things like that where I had to put a little bit of thought into it, but overall, a lot of it was pretty obvious. Like, leave our closet completely freaking empty, like nothing’s in there. We’re leaving the kitchen cabinets completely empty. We’re leaving all the bookshelves styled, a tablecloth on the tables, things like that. It looks beautiful and styled, but all of the personal stuff is gone. So that’s pretty much how we decided. 

Emma: What about the popcorn machine? Okay. 

Elsie: The popcorn machine, I actually asked for that on the list. 

Emma: Yeah, it’s kind of unique as far as like, would someone else want this used popcorn machine? Maybe, but maybe not. I don’t know.

Elsie: They, said that they wanted it, so I decided that because it has a stand and it fits the room really well and maybe I would get a slightly smaller one in the future. I decided that it is good where it is. The movie room actually, I don’t think we took anything out of there. The art, it’s movie room art, it’s all movie themed. I’m anticipating maybe they wouldn’t like one of the movies or something because it’s very personal. There are a lot of horror movies and stuff up there, then they can switch out a couple of things and that’s so much easier though than decorating it from scratch and leaving the furniture and stuff. 

Emma: You should leave them a note of what that Etsy seller is so they could replace it. If they’re like, I don’t want the horror movies, they could get the same artist, but different movies or something should leave a little post-it.

Elsie: That’s a good idea. Maybe before we leave, I’ll leave a few Post-it notes around. I was thinking like I wanted to leave a Nashville gift because I think I’m gonna leave some candles from Patty Wax, which is a Nashville place and they have the cutest candles and they’re really good, maybe a Thistle Farms candle. Yeah, I was thinking to leave a little bit of a Nashville gift cuz they’re moving from out of state and it’s special. Very special to live in Nashville. I remember the feeling when you’re not from there, it’s a very unique city and there are a lot of local businesses.

Emma: Okay, well, I would like to hear what you feel, I know you’re still in the middle of it, but what would be the pros and cons of selling a furnished home in your mind? 

Elsie: Okay, so at the beginning I felt like there was a strong mix of pros and cons, but as we got more into it, I think it’s mostly pros. I think that if you feel compensated for the furniture and stuff which you should, that’s a part of it. If you do, then it’s really not that big of a deal to buy more of it. There are lots of things that we were planning that we would’ve taken with us that we’re not now. And I’m gonna feel like 0% weird if I end up buying the same rug again or something I liked that I think would look good in the next house, no big deal. I would say the biggest pro for sure is that the house is already set, there’s less waste, and it reduces waste because the house is set up a certain way. Every house has a different need, how many times have you moved and you’re like, the couch doesn’t really fit in this new living room because it’s a different size, it’s a different shape? 

Emma: I feel like I’ve given rugs to so many friends because it’s like, oh, this doesn’t really fit in this room, or it’s the right size, but very much the wrong color for what we painted the wall. So then you check with all your friends before you donate it and I feel like my friends are like, what’s wrong with her with these rugs because it’s just every time we move, they don’t work again. 

Elsie: That’s kind of the normal part of moving though, for sure. Yeah. So I feel like now that I’ve been through it that I kind of wish people would do it more often because if you spent time and money decorating your house really nicely, then everything is meant for that house and if you move it with you, it’s not meant for the next house. It might work and it’s great if it does and if it doesn’t, then it’s probably gonna be in some way wasted or re-homed or whatever. So yeah, I really liked that part of it. And obviously, the piano, it’s the perfect piano that fits the style of the house, the color looks great, and the vibe matches. I have a lot of random things, I have a lot of fake plants, like fake trees in the house, and then out on the patio there are a lot of fake trees. I don’t think you really notice how many there really are because it’s not a thing that you look at the way you look at furniture, but they were all bought for this specific configuration and they make sense there and I probably could have reused them, but you just never really know. So yeah, I feel like that was a pro. For me the only con, overall I was thrilled and my husband was so happy. He was like, leave everything, take nothing. He knows I wanna do my spooky historic style in the new house and we have a lot of coastal furniture in this house, it fits really well. The house is built around the swimming pool, and it looks great. It’s two different things, and he was like, this is perfect, he was so happy. I said before I was very hung up on little things. So I think for me the biggest con is that it’s nothing like, we’ve sold vacation rentals in the past that were furnished, our Nashville one, our Florida one. It’s nothing like that though because I remember specifically with the Nashville one, I took one thing out of the house that was personal, it was like a painting my kid did. Other than that, it just meant nothing to me. With this house, I think it is a little bit hard, I’ve had to tell myself a little pep talk many times about having just like attachment to things that really don’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense why I would have an attachment. I had a miniature meltdown the first time I realized that I was gonna have to leave the kids’ books for the most part and do that again in the future. Honestly, I love buying kid’s books, it wasn’t hard for me. It didn’t take that long, I enjoy doing it. It’ll be fine to do it again, but the emotional feeling of leaving them is really hard. I think I have a tiny little bit of hoarder inside of me.

Emma: You do, it’s our grandma. It’s our grandma Karina. Just a little bit in there. 

Elsie: So yeah, overall I thought it was really good, but there were a lot of times when I had to give myself a pep talk and got hung up on small things before I just realized there was a dollar amount that I could assign, to a shelf of books or something. I don’t have to give it infinite value, and I can look forward to enjoying collecting again. It is a lot of work to fill library shelves the way we have, but it’s something that I love doing. I know not everyone does, but it’s fun. So yeah. I think the only con is just that if you have any tiny little bit of hoarder inside of you, you know how on the old TV show Hoarders, they would always hit that wall where they just couldn’t do anymore? I have that every day when I’m packing the boxes and just like looking around where I have to sit down and give myself the little talk of like, mirrors aren’t important. It’s okay, you can buy another mirror, things like that. So it’s a little bit of a brain twister or whatever, but overall, I think it’s really cool and it’s logical and it makes sense and it’s been pretty convenient and it’ll probably be convenient for the buyers of our house as well. 

Emma: Yeah, I could see that being a huge plus if you’re like, oh, we have to fill, everything has to fit and I could definitely understand it. Is there anything that you already know for sure, that you’re rebuying and furniture or something like that, not books? 

Elsie: No, there’s not. So at first, I was like, okay, so we were planning to take all of our beds. I think we were leaving one, we were planning to take a good amount of furniture and I was gonna take pretty much all my rugs because you might as well try ’em, things like that. I have a couple of rugs that I’ve used in multiple houses they’re just good useful, basic rugs. I would have taken those, I had a really little bit of a meltdown about those wicker lamps, I have those two expensive wicker lamps. It’s not a big deal, but it’s a little hard for me. I have some Serena Lilly hanging outdoor chairs that I was planning to bring. But yeah, ultimately I decided that we are being compensated for the stuff and that it will be fine to just wait and see if we need it in the new house. So I’m not ordering anything to replace it, I’m just gonna do it as it comes when we’re settling into our new home. I would say probably I’ll end up ordering a few of the same or similar things, but maybe not, I don’t know yet for sure. Books and Art, that was pretty hard for me and I have to redo a kid’s library immediately. But yeah, little things I don’t know, probably not, because a lot of things you buy at custom for your space. And how many times have you had something that you really liked? I have these relatively new anthropology leather chairs in my office and I was gonna bring them, they’re pretty mid-century looking. They don’t really fit with our new house, but I was gonna make them work no matter what, because I love them and they’re pretty, and I’m attached to them and I’m not gonna waste them. So now it’s kind of nice that I don’t have to do things like that. I can take my time and there’s probably an alternative that would be even better. 

Emma: Yeah it’s gonna fit your style more. Yeah, no, that makes sense. Do you have any tips that you would give to anyone interested in selling a furnished house? 

Elsie: First of all, I think it’s pretty uncommon, so I think if you want to sell your house fully furnished, It might not happen for you because that’s happened to me before when I was selling rentals where I was like, I would love to sell this fully furnished, but then the people who bought it just didn’t want all the stuff because they already have their own stuff. So I would say that it’s pretty uncommon for people to be interested in buying it fully furnished, but if you have a chance to do it, then I think my biggest tip is to just add up everything that you were going to take with you at retail value and make sure that you’re good with that, you’re being compensated for that as kind of a bare minimum because that’s just fair, that makes sense. And then the other tip I would have is to really document and communicate what’s staying and what’s going because I’ve also heard a few other people’s stories where there were conflicts over small things or miscommunications about small things like are you gonna leave cleaning supplies in the cabinets? Are you gonna leave a vacuum cleaner in the closet? Those things might not matter to you and they might matter to someone else. And it’s a little bit confusing to know what’s expected. So I would say to really explain what every room is gonna be like, When you’re gone is probably a good move and something I’m glad we did upfront.

Emma: Yeah, I think that’s actually probably a great tip even if you’re not selling a house furnished because there are times you might just take something and they weren’t expecting that or vice versa I suppose. So yeah, that makes a lot of sense because when we moved this last time, we left the bathroom mirrors in one of the bathrooms, but in the other bathroom there was this vintage mirror that you had bought me. It’s like the one with the wood frame around it and I wanted to take it because it was from my sister. I didn’t even know for sure where I was gonna put it.

Elsie: Yeah, I think you gave that to me.

Emma: No, it’s in my house now, it’s on my mantle. In my mind I was like, oh, this isn’t just a bathroom mirror, this is a gift from my sister and the buyer was like, oh, where’s the bathroom mirror because it’s actually pretty normal to leave bathroom mirrors and we did in the other bathroom. So it was very understandable that they were like, oh, why did you take that? But in my mind, it wasn’t just a bathroom mirror, it was a gift from my sister. So I think like I could have done a better job communicating that or our realtor if they were helping me clean out, maybe they think I could have done a better job communicating it, but I just mean communication is good because sometimes people are like, oh, I thought you were gonna leave the curtains, but you didn’t, in some states, you actually have to do that, but not in my state. So I think that it would be good to communicate. 

Elsie: Yeah, it’s hard to know what someone else is gonna consider a valuable thing and anyone who’s bought a house probably has walked in and taken something off of a wall or pulled something down immediately. I know I always start ripping down wallpaper or something like the first day. I think that that sort of thing is very normal. I think the communication is good and if you can plan ahead replacing things with something similar is usually really easy. That’s something I learned from this experience is like replacing beautiful books with other beautiful books that just aren’t in my personal collection. Easy, it was done, done in one day. It was kind of fun actually. I enjoyed taking it all down and restyling them. I am terrified of accidentally leaving something really personal and weird, but I hope that doesn’t happen. But also I always find something personal and weird in every house that I buy, so maybe it’s just a curse we all have to live with. 

Emma: It’s hard to clean out when you’re like cleaning it out, so the fact that you’re leaving it furnished, I feel like for sure you’ll accidentally leave something personal and weird because it’ll be tucked away somewhere or something. But it happens, I bet if they find it and they’re like, oh, I bet they want this, they’ll probably reach out to your realtor. It may be just something that’s like, oh, they probably didn’t want this. Now we’re gonna throw it away. So who knows? 

Elsie: Yeah. That’s a very good point. If anyone has any questions, I think I overtalked it, so probably we covered everything. But yeah, if you ever have a chance to sell something fully furnished, don’t be afraid. I actually, by the end of it, feel like this has been a great experience and I think it’s great for the house too, and it’s honestly such a compliment to me that they wanted to buy it, with the same styling and stuff and so sort of keep it looking similar and my kids really liked that. It was just sweet. Yeah. I think it’s really special. 

Emma: Yeah, and I don’t know these buyers, I don’t know anything about them. You probably don’t know that much either, so that’s how this works. But in my mind, I’m like, what if they have a couple of kids or something, and they’re so stoked about that popcorn machine and it’s making the move easier for them, Who knows? It could be something like that. 

Elsie: Yeah, It’s a really sweet thought. Yeah. It probably will be easier to move in, like in our new house, I feel like I need to do so much prep before my kids get there to be able to impress them and it’s kinda nice for that to be already done. You want them to have a good first impression though, to move into a cozy room. 

Emma: Yeah, you want ’em to feel like, oh, I’m excited to live here rather than, oh, I’m so sad that we had just left our house. They will feel that of course, to some extent, but trying to help them with that transition makes a lot of sense, and I get that for sure, I think all parents do. 

Elsie: Yeah. I’m really thankful for how it worked out and yeah, just a few more episodes and we’re gonna be recording together in person. So crazy. 

Emma: Yeah. It’ll be so nice because we actually like always have our faces half mostly blocked from our equipment and we can’t even really see each other most of the time. So it’ll be cool, it’ll be different. 

Elsie: Yep. Old microphone head over here. 

Emma: Exactly. I’m just like a box, a black box. That’s all I am to you. 

Elsie: So, yeah, we thought it would be fun to do an old-fashioned book report. We haven’t done one of these in a while, especially since starting the book club, but is there anything you have read recently that you just loved that you wanna share?

Emma: Yeah, pretty recently I read The Hating Game and if you haven’t heard about this, it’s just kinda like a romantic comedy. It’s two characters who work together and it seems like they hate each other, but it’s all a big misunderstanding and they’ve fallen in love. But then something happens where you think, oh, they’re not gonna end up together, but then they do. It’s a little bit of a formula, but I loved it. I thought the author did an excellent job. It’s really fun. It’s very sexy. There’s sex in the book and I loved reading the book. For me, this type of book is something that I love to read if I’m on vacation, especially if I’m gonna fly, which I don’t do very often, but I get a little anxious about travel. I feel nervous that I’m gonna miss my flight. I feel a little anxious on the plane cuz I’m around a lot of people and no one’s doing anything to me, but I just have my own little anxiety. So I like to read something that’s light and fun and you can fly through it and hopefully, there’s sex because that’s fun. That’s like my speed when I’m on vacation, especially if I’m gonna be flying. So this book, a hundred percent fit that bill. It made little anxious, Emma, on her flights, feel so much better. 10 outta 10, loved it. And it has a movie that I wanna say is on Netflix, or it could be HBO, but I think it’s on Netflix, maybe it’s on Hulu. You’ll have to look that up. I’m sorry, but there’s a movie. I mentioned the book somewhere online, I can’t remember, it might have been Instagram, I can’t remember and people were very mixed on if they liked the movie or not, so I was interested to see it and I watched it. Trey was out of town and I watched it by myself and I loved it. But I will say they changed a lot of things from the book which is not a bad thing necessarily. In a way I sometimes feel like movies, they’re like, let’s do something a little different so that all the book readers get another experience, which I think is cool, but personally, they could have kept it the same as the book for me, but it is different from the book. So if that bothers you, you might not love it. But I really enjoyed the movie. I thought the two actors who play the love interests. I thought they had great chemistry. I thought they really fit, like what I was envisioning for these characters. They talk about how the male character’s very tall and that actor was very tall. And yeah, so I thought it was really fun. I really enjoyed the movie, but it was very different from the book. 

Elsie: That sounds fun. I haven’t read a romantic comedy type of book in a while, so that’s fun. So my book is Tomorrow, tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, I’m obsessed with this book. I heard about it last year, I think, and I knew it was something with video games and I was like my husband, he likes to watch Twitch. He likes to watch the people who set world records on video games. I get a lot of secondhand video game watching pretty regularly and it’s not a passion for me. I’ve never been interested in video games ever. So if you’re thinking you might not wanna read this book because of the video game part, I will just say read it anyway. It was so beautiful. It was more about the creative, artistic part of making a video game than anything boring. It was not boring at all. It was amazing. I think it’s maybe my new favorite book of all time. I loved it. It was just so sad, so beautiful, and so relatable. It did have dramatic parts, but a lot of it was really slow pace too, and just focused on the characters and what they build, that was probably my favorite part of the book because it’s kind of a long span of time. It’s showing them building different video games in different parts of their lives, and they’re kind of being interviewed from different parts of their lives, and it’s just gorgeous. There’s no other word I can use to describe it. So I don’t think I gave any spoilers away, but I would highly recommend it. It’s just a beautiful novel. 

Emma: I’ve had a few friends read this, and that’s generally their review too, so it seems like a really good one. One friend of mine, just read it and she said I could borrow her copy, so I’m gonna read it pretty soon.

Elsie: Yeah, you have to. 

Emma: It has a beautiful cover too. I don’t know the artist, but it’s really beautiful. 

Elsie: It’s a really, really good world. Everything about it is, I don’t know. I just can’t believe it’s not real. It pisses me off that it’s not real. You never had that when there’s a book within a book, it’s like, I’m so mad that the video games aren’t real.

Emma: Yeah. I felt that way about Time Brothers with Emma Lazarus book. Yes, you want it to be real? You’re like, I wanna read that next. 

Elsie: So yeah, 10 of 10 recommend it. Probably next week we will finish our last selection from our book club, and review that book. And then we’ll start, I think we should probably pick two books for spring because I’m moving.

Emma: You’re busy?

Elsie: Yeah, but we’ll do kind of a mini and then maybe we can do extra books in the fall-ish. I just wanna have the biggest spooky book club ever this year or maybe we can start it in August and be weirdos or something. I don’t know. You know how people get really, really mad when you start decorating for Halloween in August? That’s my favorite way to make other people mad. 

Emma: We are very controversial and so that’s definitely what we should do. Yeah, and just in case anyone missed the selections, so this next episode or maybe the one after, not sure, but we’ll be reading Cleopatra and Frankenstein. So if you wanna read that heads up. 

Elsie: Emma said it’s really sad I haven’t read it yet because I’m reading The Shining right now and it’s taking up all my time. Stephen King’s books are really long, they’re a commitment. It’s a marathon, it’s no sprint. But anyways, I’ll be reading it really soon, and probably by the next time we record, we’ll be ready. So, if you want to leave us a voicemail question. I wanted to talk about this for a sec before we go, I wanna give some tips for leaving us the most usable voicemail because a lot of people leave us voicemails that have a very long intro about how long they followed us and how much they like us and which is really nice, but it makes it kind of hard to share the clip, so I’m gonna explain to you the best way to leave it that we could use, that would be a little more concise and thank you to everyone who left long voicemails. That probably sounded really mean for me to say, but you know some, they’re usually like when they’re typed out, they’re like half a page long, the voicemails. Yeah, really, really, really long. 

Emma: Yeah, you want people to be less nice. I get it. No, I’m just kidding. 

Elsie: Okay, that’s true though. So the best way to leave a voicemail would be like, hi, I’m Elsie, and my question is, and then just say the question, and then that’s it. I know that sounds like nothing and probably not intuitive, but that would be the best way to leave a voicemail if you leave us a question. And I will say at this point, if you have left us a question in the past and you were upset that it didn’t get used, leave it again because we do lose track of them and if you left it a long time ago, it’s gone. It is buried in the ground forever, there we’re never gonna see that one again because we only see the new ones. So, leave us another one and we would love to hear it. So yeah, I would like to do more voicemail questions consistently. I think we just need him to be a little bit shorter and a little more, snap, snap, snappy, right? 

Emma: Yes, please do it because I love hearing people’s voices. I like putting them on the show. It’s just really sweet. I love reading the emails too. I don’t know, there’s something about hearing someone’s voice. It is actually really fun. 

Elsie: It’s really sweet. Okay, so our hotline number is 417-893-0011 and you don’t have to write it down, you can just look in our show notes for this week if you need a reminder anytime. So yeah, leave us a voicemail, we would love to hear it. And then, yeah, we’ll be doing that soon.