OPEN HOUSE

Man oh Man! you guys know how to make a girl feel good.  Since we are all friends here, can I just admit that I stalk my own Facebook page after I make an entry.  I totally judge the success of a project NOT on if it sells, but on the number of Facebook likes and comments it receives. Yep, of the 14,029 page clicks the zillow listing has currently generated, I'm betting at least 12,050 of them were mine checking in to see if I had any new comments or likes. So anyways, thank you for clicking, liking, commenting, and/or sharing- it truly makes my day!

You know what else I love?!?!  Showing off the crazy talent of my staging crew AND eating snacks!!  If that sounds like fun to you too, you should come see us at this Sunday's Furniture, Art, and Accessory Open House from 2-4pm.

Yes the house is sold (well almost) but there are still lots of goodies available for you to enjoy in your own home:

Waterhouse Market TV stand/table and accessories & Re*deemed Home Goods "pumpkins"

WHM Vintage Map & Restoration Hardware Couch (matching chair available)

The Painted Stache lockers

I'd love to walk you thru "my girl" and tell you stories about her renovation.  Plus Waterhouse Market and Re*deemed Home Goods will be on site to discuss any ideas you have for custom art or furnishings for your own home.  

WHM Full Size Bed and Doll Dress Art

WHM Desk and Chair

WHM Doll Dress Art

Now, not everything you see in these pictures is for sale.  For example, I pretty much emptied out my kitchen to stage the coffee nook.  And some items have already been purchased by the new home owner.  But many of the items that have been sold can be recreated to fit your needs or I can tell you where I bought my personal accessories so you can snag one for yourself.

RHG Chalkboard art, everything else Niki's Kitchen

TPS farmhouse table, WHM chairs

AND If you're interested in your own rehome, the open house would be a great time for us to visit about upcoming projects.  The fun has already begun at our Donaghey project and I couldn't be more  excited about the plans for it's transformation.  

WHM Butterfly Cabinet

RHG "my girl"

RHG "be still" & TPS Barndoor

WHM dresser and accessories

WHM full/queen bed and chair

Did someone say snacks?!?!  Yes, that's right, I'll have the coffee ready and some treats on hand to make your shopping experience all the sweeter. Jennifer Foster, of Sugar Dough Sweet Shoppe, is going to whip up something special just for our event.  I hate to do this to you, but drool over these pics for just a second to see a sampling of Jennifer's work.  

Oh my! I know, that was cruel, but just 4 more days until you can get one for yourself.

And speaking of sweet; how sweet is this?!?! Deidra Pierce of Deidra's Neighborhood Florist and Gifts in Quitman volunteered to bring fresh flowers to "my girl" just to make our first Furniture, Art, and Accessory Open House extra special.  Can you believe that?!?! I took a peek at Deidra's facebook page and let me tell ya, she is the real deal.  She does everything from elaborate weddings to simple bouquets.   

I am truly humbled and grateful that she would choose to use her gifts to bless our event. "My girl" is going to look and smell so pretty!

So stop on by and check her out:

Sunday, October 30th

2pm-4pm

 532 Ash Street, Conway

WHM bench, TPS porch swing 

Reveal Day!

Today is the day! REVEAL DAY!! At 2pm this afternoon (13 hours from the time I am writing this blog) I will be showing Ms. C. the completed Ash Street rehome and quite possibly her future home.  I could not be more excited... I'm talking Christmas Day level excitement here folks.  I was really tempted to ask Ms. C. to wear a blindfold to the reveal for a more dramatic unveiling but so far I have refrained.  

I can not wait to show ya'll before and after pictures of this rehome but I am going to hold off posting any pictures of the house until after Ms. C. sees it.  But I did want to take just a little blog space to thank my staging team.  I had already told you about Donna from WaterHouse Market joining me on this rehome, and boy, she did not disappoint. Not only did she bring some fabulous furniture pieces but also a ton of unique and fun accessories to complement the design of the home. She and her design assistant, Emily, worked tirelessly all afternoon helping me put the finishing touches on this rehome and I could not be more grateful.  

But the real reason I wanted to write a blog at 1 am in the morning, when I still have 2 more pillows to sew and an address plaque to make before going to bed, is to introduce the other starring member of my staging dream team- Mrs. Sarah Henry of Re deemed Home Goods. Ya'll, she is a real live ARTIST! and I somehow convinced her to do some custom art pieces just for this rehome!! You are going to die when you see what she did- SOOOO precious! But, of course, I can't show you now because then what would be the purpose of the blindfold that I have not 100% ruled out.  So instead I'm just going to drop a sampling of her work on this blog so you can get a taste of how good she is while I tell you a little more about Sarah and Re deemed Home Goods.

I have only personally known Sarah for a couple of months but I have been an admirer of her work for several years.  Sarah and her family recently moved to Conway from Little Rock when her husband became the new associate pastor at 2nd Baptist Church.  My friend Stacy, who has 2 beautiful custom RHG pieces in her home introduced me to Sarah shortly after their move.  

When I got the idea that custom art would be a fun touch to add to this rehome, I was too nervous to ask Sarah myself, mainly because I knew she was super sweet and probably too nice to tell me no and I didn't want to put her on the spot; so I asked Stacy to feel her out to see if she might be interested.  

Well, obviously from the subject matter of this post you have successfully deducted that her answer was positive. So with the go-ahead from Stacy, I got greedy and asked for not 1, not 2, but 3 custom RHG pieces!

I gave her a quick walk thru of the house a couple of weeks ago to give her an idea of the color and design esthetic of the home and made 1 wording request but otherwise gave her free reign on what to create.  I knew I had a friend for life when she asked if she could dig thru our lumber pile to find some reclaimed pieces to use as her canvas for the project.

Ya'll can I just tell you, she NAILED IT! She brought the art to the rehome today and it exceeded my expectations and set the mood of the entire home.  I dare you not to smile when you see it!  I think I'll keep a key to this rehome and just let myself in when I'm having a bad day to cheer myself up (jk Ms C., winky face). AND not only did she bring me my 3 requested pieces she threw in a 4th little cutie just for fun.

Aaaand if that was not enough I also roped her into doing some unbelievable chalkboard writing/art for me.  Oh my, it just might be my favorite thing of all!  

 She did all this to help make this rehome extra special after only meeting me just 2 short months ago!  And if that wasn't sweet enough, tonight she brought me coffee and helped me iron and hang curtains until after 10pm.

It was during our working time I got to learn more about Sarah and her heart behind Re deemed Home Goods.  Not only does she create unique, handcrafted pieces from reclaimed and new material for her clients, she also contributes a portion of each purchase to help organizations who fight for justice for women and children both locally and globally.  

Basically, Sarah is one of the coolest person's I have ever met! And while some might believe God brought the Henrys to Conway to serve Second Baptist Church, I can't help but believe HIS real mission was to bring Sarah and RHG into my life!

If you like what you are seeing here, you can also shop Re deemed Home Goods at the Kitchen Store here in Conway and at Reinvented Vintage in Little Rock.  Also, assuming Ms C does not want to purchase all of the furniture, accessories, and art of this fully staged and ready to reveal rehome then you will have the opportunity to shop the goodies next Sunday, October 30th, from 1-4 pm at the Ash Street rehome.  And if Ms C. decides that Ash is not the home for her, then next Sunday would also be a great time to tour the home for yourself!  Just sayin....

Ok this girl is tired.  I think I'm going to have to give up on the pillows and hit the sack.  I hope this post made sense, all the words started running together.  Thank goodness for the pretty pictures.  Less than 11.5 hours to go.....

I'm not gonna lie, these last 3-4 weeks have been ROUGH at our Ash St project.  I have purposely avoided writing an update because it would have come across as a great big ole' pity party, and I know you have enough troubles of your own without having to read about mine.  So I'll just give you a quick recap to catch you up.... it was basically groundhogs day around this rehome so just play the following scene over and over about 21 times and you will be caught up.

EVERY day I would walk into a scene much like the picture below:

I would spend the next couple of hours hauling buckets full of plaster to the dumpster.  Then after it was all cleaned up, inevitably someone would need to knock down more plaster to run more wires, pipes, duct, etc. and we would be back to square one.

Then, just when we thought we had made it to the end of demo, it was brought to our attention that this 90 year old home had no insulation in the walls.  What's the point in having a brand new HVAC system if it won't be able to run efficiently because of loss of air through the walls?  So we ended up knocking down all the remaining plaster on the exterior walls so that the insulation could be installed. Sigh.

The moral of the story is: if ever you run across a house with lath and plaster walls- RUN! Demo is usually fun but this went from fun to mind numbing really quick.

On the bright side this rehome has afforded me ample opportunities to exercise perseverance.... just not sure I always seized the joy in the trials (James 1: 2-4).

Also thanks to the NEVER ENDING demolition I had a record fit bit month.

You'll be happy to know I packed up my violin last Thursday when I handed the keys over to the drywallers to start officially putting this house back together.  

Since the drywall was going up on the inside my goal for this WWYWW was to get the outside ready for paint.  So Wednesday morning as I was lying in bed planning out our work day I took a mental walk around the property to see if there was anything else that needed to be worked on before I turned it over to Nicholas for paint, and that's when I remembered the wonky trim on the back porch. You can see from the picture below it looks like there use to be a door opening to the right of the current door and a previous owner slapped some plywood up to cover the opening and called it good.  It functions but just isn't cute.
  

We had our mission. I had thought this project would take all day, but can I just tell you Mr Thompson and his personal cheerleader had the old trim torn off, the siding clipped back, and the new board and batten and trim back up in less than 2 hours.  Boom!  

Here is a picture of my man in action:

And here is a picture of Rory with his new hammer and the after project in the background minus a few pieces of trim and of course paint.  

Because we had so much time left in our WWYWW we spent the rest of the afternoon fixing the back deck.  There were several rotted boards and the center of the deck was caving in (kicking myself for not getting a picture).  We replaced the rotted boards and Rory added several center supports underneath the deck to give it a level and firm foundation.  

So there you have it, not the most glamorous WWYWW but it was soooo nice to be in fixing mode after endless weeks of demolition.  Things should be rocking and rolling from here on out.  Should be ready for the big reveal in about 6 weeks!

Exciting News for Rehome

Y'all, I am so super excited to tell you what I'm fixin to tell you! Seriously, I have been trying to write this blog in my head for 3 weeks now because I want to try to communicate how HUGE this news is to the future of rehome, but I think my excitement has triggered a mild case of writers block.  So just in case my written words fail to convey how truly special this news is I will illustrate this post with lots of pics because as they say "A picture is worth a thousand words." (yes I have resorted to using cliches, the struggle is real)

Raise your hand if you recognize that picture. That's right! It's a picture of one of Donna Benton's award winning Waterhouse Market booths. Waterhouse Market booths can be seen across the state at various weekend antique shows throughout the year or at Jenifer's Antiques in Conway where Donna has taken up permanent residency for the last 2 years.  While Jenifer's Antiques is home to some of the most talented antique dealers in Arkansas there is just something special about the Waterhouse Market booth.  Donna has a way of taking something old and transforming it into something fresh, relevant, and current in today's decor.

I first met Donna about 5 years ago at an antique show at the Conway Expo Center. This show was my first attempt at anything in the design world and I was extremely intimidated to be setting up my little 10x10 booth amongst so many antique veterans.  I was extra nervous because I was bringing painted antiques to this show which to some would be equivalent to showing up to an animal rights event in a fur coat.  So I can not adequately describe the relief I felt when I saw another vendor setting up with painted furniture. That other paint lover ended up being the one and only Donna Benton.  

What I remember most about Donna's Waterhouse Market was how cohesive her furniture looked. While most vendors (including myself) had brought an eclectic mix of antiques that might be great stand-alone-pieces, Donna had managed to take unique furniture and paint and display them in such a way that they came off as a well thought out collection.  This made her furniture marketable to both the true antique lover and to those looking for the latest home trends found in all the decorating magazines (this was before Pinterest hit it big so people were still clipping magazine pictures for inspiration). She also had the coolest vignette set up on top of a hutch with a life-size skeleton hanging out in a chandelier. Creepy yet somehow classy.

Since that first show Donna's career has taken off.  She is constantly growing as both an artist and entrapanuer and has become a respected member of the design community- she was asked to design a room at the Conway Symphony Designer House at Hendrix Village and she currently writes a monthly design column for the 501.  She has also become a dear friend and my favorite dumpster diving companion.  

But beyond her crazy talent, I think what I admire most about Donna is her continual drive for excellence and her inability to do anything half way. This is seen in every aspect of her business from her willingness to drive her trailer to the ends of the earth to keep her booth stocked with unique treasures and trinkets, to how she regularly clears out an entire room of her home just to capture one magazine worthy photo of a finished furniture piece.

It is because of these qualities that I asked, no begged, Donna to join me at rehome.  And guess what?!?! Despite her crazy busy schedule she said YES!  (You saw that one coming didn't you?  I mean what a downer that would have been if all those pictures and paragraphs led up to a "she said no thank you.")

Yes Donna is going to be joining me in the final phase of rehoming- the staging stage.  For those of you who are not fluent in HGTV, here is the official google definition of home staging:

Staging (stey-jing) noun.  The act of making an unfurnished house appear lived in to entice buyers to purchase the property.  The goal is to make the buyer feel at home when he/she tours the property.  

I love this phase.  After spending months practically living at these homes during construction I grow quite attached and can't help daydreaming about moving in and setting up house. By the time I'm ready to stick a sign in the yard I have decorated the house from top to bottom in my head and even know what color scheme I would use in my Christmas Decor.  So while google tells me I should be staging to help entice potential buyers, I love to stage because it allows me to see my dream for the home to fruition- remember I have control issues.  

The problem is by the time I get to the end of a project I am usually running dangerously low on the time, energy, and cash necessary to do a full house staging. Therefore I have been restricted to just a few key areas.  Plus even if I had a surplus of the aforementioned necessities I am lacking the resources to bring in the unique pieces I would desire for the space.  I try hard to make each rehome distinct from the last and strive to add unexpected touches to each project so it just hurts my heart to think about a house being filled with ordinary furniture and decor. Sooooo that is why Donna is my dream person to help me stock these rehomes.  Her furniture and accessories will essentially serve as art to our rehomes.  

How I envision this working is I will bring Donna in at the beginning of a project to discuss future layout, style, and color of the rehome so she can get an idea of what furniture she might want for the space.  This will give her at least 3 months to treasure hunt across the globe or custom build pieces for the space.  Then, once construction is complete, we will spend a fun-filled evening moving all her fabulous creations into the space while eating the cupcakes our adorable children and husbands deliver to the job site for a little quality family time.  Then the next day, despite pulling an all-nighter, I will look refreshed and fabulous for the big reveal, or open house, at which, there will be lots of oohs and ahhs, and happy tears, and Conway's first bidding war.  And last, the new home-owner will fall so in love with the total package that he/she will decide to purchase all the furniture and live happily ever after in their rehome. Orrrrrr after the new homeowner picks and chooses a few (or none) of their favorite pieces Donna and I will open up the sale of the furniture to the public in a fun estate sale like setting with snacks. How FUN is THAT!!!!

Now before I leave you, a few of you who are familiar with our past Zillow listings might be wondering "what about The Painted Stache?"  The Painted Stache has always provided a custom table and a few other custom builds for each of our past rehomes and will continue to do so alongside Waterhouse Market.  What you might not know is that the Painted Stache is actually my Dad and I's little side furniture business- Dad builds, I finish.  None of us knew Dad was so crafty until he retired from banking and I asked him if he would try to build me a table for my front porch. After that first build a lightbulb went off and I have kept that man covered in sawdust ever since. Sometimes the jokes about me being a slave driver get to me and I feel bad that Dad has never had a chance to live the retired life of endless Andy Griffith reruns and naps in the recliner so I am hoping this partnership with Donna will help ease his load.  But at the same time, I'm selfishly not ready to give up this father-daughter business because I absolutely love the time I have with him collaborating over furniture design and my occasional woodworking lessons.  Plus it would be a shame not to share his talent with the world.  

Thanks for sharing in my excitement! Make sure to like Waterhouse Market on FB and hug your Daddy!