Gail Tells All--About SpaceLift, That Is

We were thrilled to meet and work with our clients, Gail and Jim Sutton. Read on to see what they think of us!

My husband, daughter and I moved into our mid-70’s ranch house about eight years ago. During the walk-through, I told my husband it was the ugliest house I’d ever seen. He agreed, but he knew its “bones” were good and that he could do a lot with new paint, upgrading the bathrooms, and new windows and lighting. (The large piece of land and the 2,500 square foot barn were the other deciding factors, for we run a business from our property and needed those.) Being very handy, he did most of that himself and indeed, our house became livable. But it has a rather chopped-up, strange layout, and we never quite got the decorating and yes, uninviting, décor. My own decorating skills lie just a notch above “basic dorm piece handled. Neither of us is good at that, and so we just lived with our bland, room”, and I found that I didn’t want to have people over to our home because I was embarrassed about how it looked. With our business and teenage daughter, we stay very busy, and we just got used to how unattractive our house looked. About a year ago, I cut out an article on SpaceLift and Lois and Liz and put it in a file of “wish list” items for my home. What caught my eye was that their backgrounds encompassed both home decorating and architecture. The first reason that we wanted to hire Lois and Liz was to do an immediate upgrade to our living room. One day I just said “It’s time!” and called them.

My husband and I had also talked about remodeling our kitchen and dining area. It was for two reasons: we plan to sell the home in about 5 years, and we knew that keeping the existing 1970’s kitchen would greatly reduce our ability to sell the house quickly and at a good price. The other reason is that the current layout of our home is small rooms divided by walls that make entertaining difficult, and we really want to have people over more. So we felt that using Lois and Liz’s design and architectural skills, we could come up with a plan to take down some walls and turn the kitchen into an open, inviting, people-friendly place to cook and entertain.

The first part of the project, redecorating our living room, was a huge success. Thru careful questioning, Lois and Liz determined our tastes, lifestyle, and budget. The process went so simply and smoothly. I can’t explain why it is, but the thought of wandering around stores on my own or as a couple, looking for curtains, lamps, pictures, area rugs, foliage, chairs, etc. is just not something I enjoy. I must have missed being born with the shopping gene, because I get overwhelmed and depressed and just give up when trying to decorate on my own. It takes a knack to come up with a color scheme and find all the different items that are needed to make a room look pulled together and beautiful. I am not talented in that area and am so glad that I could hire, relatively inexpensively, two professionals who have the spatial and visualizing skills I so lack, and who are so good at what they do. When “D-Day” came (Decorating Day), they hung the new curtain rods and curtains, and then asked my husband and I to vacate the premises for a couple of hours. Then, the call came, saying it was time for the unveiling of our new look. When I walked in, I literally started crying. It sounds so cliché, but truly they were tears of happiness. I could not believe the difference in the before and after. I was finally proud to call this my home.

Truly only pictures can demonstrate our before and after looks… words are not enough. Our living room is now inviting instead of having a haphazard feel. One friend who visited post-remodel said “Oh, you have a fireplace in this room! I never saw it before!” That’s how much the prior arrangement of the furniture and the chaotic layout of items in the room detracted from what is now its main focal point. Now people walk in and go “Ooohhh, how pretty!” and I can tell they really mean it.

The second part of the project was for what we call Phase 2: our kitchen and dining area remodel. Lois and Liz presented us with sketches of three possible layouts, all of which could have worked wonderfully. Both my husband and I picked one layout as our first choice: a large kitchen with plentiful storage capability (they had listened to our criteria very well!), an island that would seat 5 people as well as serve as a cooking area, and a dining area that flowed well from the kitchen. We then proceeded to have them produce an architectural drawing which we will use during the remodeling process.

As a businessperson I often look at expenditures thru the lens of what the payback will be. The relatively small amount of money that we spent for Liz’s and Lois’ time and for the furnishings they bought will pay for itself in at least two ways. One, we work hard for our money, and it’s a tangible reward to day after day enjoy the fruits of our labor via a home that’s so pleasant to be in. Secondly, when it’s time to sell, there is a cost associated with a house sitting on the market unsold, month after month. I know that when potential buyers come in to our house, they will see a tastefully decorated home that will be very appealing and will fetch a quicker sale and a higher price.

My only regret is that we didn’t do this sooner. It’s a valuable lesson learned, and I know that in the future, in our next home, I’ll have Lois and Liz come over and “SpaceLift” our home right away!

Gail Sutton
Erie, Colorado
December 20, 2009

Pillow Talk

You must have pillows!

In the last couple of months I've probably made 50 decorator pillows! Recently I bought ten at JC Penney- on sale so cheap it didn't pay me to make them. So when you're going for a new look, think pillows. Pillows add life to a room and are useful too. They bring color to a neutral couch or neutral room. They tie disparate colors together, add bling and style. For example, choose at least one patterned pillow with three colors, then choose solids of each of those three colors to pull the look together. Or choose one distinctive accent color-- in this picture it's apple green-- and build your pallet from there. Make sure you repeat that accent color throughout the room. Choose a couple of pillows with texture--right now there are lots of faux fur pillows out there that feel sooooo good!

Pillows are useful, too. Don't be afraid to mash your face against one while taking a nap. Tuck one behind your lower back for support. Put one on your lap and cradle a baby on top. Balance a book atop a pillow to get just the right reading angle. Don't wait till your pillows begin to look shabby to replace them. Get new ones! You will enjoy your furniture longer just by changing the look with pillows.

Holidays coming too fast? Need Help Decorating this Holiday Season?

Trim your tree
Deck the Halls, Front Door
Staircase, Mantel, Dining Room Table
Transform your House for the Holidays
Parties and Family Gatherings
Whether Traditional or unique, we'll use your family decoration
or we can develop a theme and shop for you!
Call early for an estimate
we're setting up appointments now!
Decorating days are limited.

Radio Shopping Show

This month has gone by in a hurry—I haven’t blogged in three weeks! A lot can happen in that amount of time.

I want to tell you about the Radio Shopping Show on KCRN, the Big Money Station. If you live in the Denver-metro area, you can save big money by registering as a member online at www.thebigmoneystation.com and looking through the online catalog of goods and services available. Some of the categories include popular restaurants, oil changes, haircuts and spa treatments, gifts, entertainment—and home improvement.

Vendors advertise by providing their goods or services free to the station. The station sells them to you for a fraction of the value. You get a bargain and the vendor gets basically free advertisement.

SpaceLift offers one hour of staging, one hour of redesign, or a staging consultation in the catalog. We’ve had several customers already who took advantage of the reduced price.

I did an interview on the show at the beginning of the month. Thank you, Kate Duncan, for getting the word out about our services!

Decluttering Your Home for Sale

When preparing your home for sale, the advice everyone gives is "declutter." What does that mean exactly? Should all small items be removed from your rooms including junk, toys and all knick-knacks? We've all watched HGTV shows for inspiration, from remodeling kitchens, redesigning rooms to preparing homes for sale. When it comes to preparing our own home for sale, what do we really need to do to?

My best explanation for preparing a home for sale and decluttering would be removing personal items, things such as personal photos of your family, personal items that are valuable that you wouldn't want to be broken, and things that have a lot of meaning to you but may not be very decorative, such as a kid's school project. Also large collections with many pieces, things that fill up a whole shelf or table, should be reduced to a smaller number. These items are removed to make your house seem more generic for all buyers. You want to take yourself out of your home, so potential buyers can envision their family and their items in the house.

Your house should be tidy and clean. That is why decluttering is so necessary for the sale of your home. However, you can OVER declutter, removing every little item, all artwork, rugs and accessories. In this instance, your rooms will start to look more like a museum instead of a cozy house. Leave a small number of items on bookshelves so they appear used. Leave rugs for your seating areas to feel grouped together. Leave art work hung on large empty walls to keep interest. Leave lamps for ambiance. You still want your house to appear inviting, cozy and warm to buyers.

It seems like there is a fine line between too little decluttering and too much. Basic rule I would go by, If it is personal to your family, remove it from the room. Pack it in a safe place so you are free to enjoy it in your next home. Leave generic decor items, vases, paintings, a few books, lamps, rugs, anything to help your home feel lived in.

Squash You Will Love

Have you ever walked out to your garden, picked a fresh ripe red tomato and eaten it like an apple while it's still warm from the sun, the juice dripping down your arm? Or at 5 p.m. cooked up a squash you picked at 4? If you have, then you know that nothing comes close to the taste of home grown vegetables.

This spring I decided to plant a garden with my little neighbor Anna (3 1/2 years old) so she could have the experience of watching things grow. She came over one Sunday afternoon late in May wearing her little sunhat, yellow garden gloves and sequin-studded flipflops, ready to work. After she changed into tennis shoes, we got to work, got dirty, and planted three tomato plants, three short rows of green beans, and several hills of squash. We spent quite a bit of time just playing in the hose, too.

I chose squash because I knew the plants would be hearty and would take over, and that would be very impressive for a three-year-old. If they bore fruit (or vegetables, that is) then all the better. When Anna came over last weekend, she went outside and shouted "It Growed!" with true amazement. I couldn't have prompted her to be more thrilled with the huge plants, climbing the fence, leaves as big as lilly pads. She picked a squash to take home, I cooked one that night and last night I cooked a couple more.

These particular squash are new to me--I've never seen them in the produce section--but both types were wonderful. I peeled and roasted them with a couple of red potatoes and two onions, all chopped into double bite-sized pieces. I drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled on a package of herb and garlic seasoning. Then I put them in the oven at 375 until all were soft--about 45 minutes. Simple and Delicious. The fresh squash really were more flavorful than any I have ever bought.

So, if you have a bare patch in the corner of your yard next spring, consider planting squash and other vegetables.

They look beautiful and lush--very impressive while they're growing.
You get fresh produce at a cheap price and they taste great.

With the Colorado weather, I don't know if all those little green tomatoes on my plants will grow up to be red juicy tomatoes like I was used to in Illinois. But, the plants look wonderful--as pretty as the hostas and astilbe I planted on the adjacent berm. Red tomatoes will just be a bonus.

I Am Woman

Today I was driving to the airport on C-470 to pick up Conor and Liz from their vacation trip. The noise from my tires was especially loud—I had had a low tire a couple of weeks ago and just hadn’t gone to Big O to check it out.

Sure enough, I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw slivers of rubber hurling from the back right side of the car. The car started pulling to the right, and I smelled a tar-like odor from the disintegrating tire.

I pulled onto the shoulder, turned on my flashers, popped open the hood, got out and propped it up and proceeded to unload my trunk. The year I graduated college, my dad had me change out my studded tires and put on summer tires before I moved into the world on my own. I have changed tires a couple of times since then, but probably not in the last 20 years. Not that I remembered exactly how to do it, but I knew I could do it.

It took me a few minutes, analyzing the jack and situating it under the notches on the car before I could make it work. That was the most confusing part actually. Once it was positioned, I turned it and jacked up the car. The handle of the jack is also the tool to dislodge the lugnuts. I leveraged my weight against the jack handle to turn the lugnuts—lefty-loosey and eventually they gave way. The spare in my trunk was full-sized and seemed to have enough air in it. I positioned it to fit onto the five lugs (is that what you call them?) and tightened the nuts randomly, not consecutively in a circle ( I remembered vaguely about this) till they were secure. Then once again, I leaned all my weight against the tool to make sure each one was tight so I could travel safely down the road.

Later in the day, I went to Big O Tires to see if I had put the tire on securely, and to see if I needed a whole new set of tires. Frank, the customer service guy, was impressed. “You must have some big guns,” he admired, as he touched my arm. Well, with working out, a lot of grit, and above average body weight—yes—I did have the strength to do this very common thing.

All day, I told my family and friends about my accomplishment—I called home and thanked my dad for encouraging me to do it so many years ago. I couldn’t help it. I was very proud of myself for changing my own tire. I am woman, hear me roar! Trying something challenging or outside your comfort zone and succeeding is a tremendous boost to your self-esteem—something we can all use, don’t you think?

The Library is a Happening Place

Moving means finding new resources in your community. Whether you just moved or you’ve stayed put for twenty years, have you been to your local library lately? The library isn’t just for checking out books. Last week I went to the Carbon Valley Library—it’s only a year old and it is awesome!

First, my library card was free and issued on the spot. A very young, very hip librarian gave me the tour. She helped me find books on the computer (they don’t use the card catalog anymore, but they do still use the Dewey Decimal System, though she said that may go by the wayside, too.) I was looking for books on public speaking for a class I’m developing. I decided to save my money and see what I could find at the library. I walked away with 7 books whose copyright dates were no older than 2005. And I can keep them for 3 weeks.

In the last few years, I have been to libraries in many cities, using their computers to check my emails (I still don’t have a laptop but now with my BlackBerry I can check my emails anywhere.) It’s bad for business not to respond promptly when someone sends an email. At the Carbon Valley Library, in the middle of the day, most of the computers were occupied. I think there were at least a dozen. They also have free wireless access.

The library even offers computer classes! I had to call up my mom and share that. Seniors or anyone looking to change jobs that doesn’t have computer skills—check it out.

This new library has great meeting rooms, delivers books to the homebound, and has an ongoing used book sale—that’s great in this economy. And DVDs, books on tape, downloadable videos. Plus homework tutors and programs throughout the year for kids and teens. It goes on and on!

And the coolest thing—you can check yourself out! The books have UPC codes, so you run them across a reader and plug in your email and it will send you a reminder when they are due. Amazing—maybe I don’t get out much, but I thought that was pretty state- of-the-art.

Recycling Motor Oil

This spring I tuned up my lawn mower myself for the first time. Then a week later, I tuned up a client's so I could work on her yard. This made me very proud, since I don't know any other females who haved done this. Anyway, it's really not that hard. You get out your owner's manual and find out what kind of oil you need and what kind of spark plug--then go to Lowe's, my favorite place to shop. I bought a tool to take off the spark plug, a sharpener for my drill to sharpen the blade, oil and a spark plug. Then, I followed the directions in the owner's manual.
You have to drain out the oil into a flat pan, drain the old gas and dispose of them. I actually mixed the old gas with the new gas and the mower is running just fine. However, I had to find a place to recycle the oil. After searching unsuccessfully on the Internet, I asked the guys at Grease Monkey where to recycle oil since they wouldn't take it. They sent me to Checker Auto Parts. Checker will accept your oil as long as it has not been mixed with gas. Just make sure you put it into a container that pours easily, since you pour it yourself into a bin in the back of the store.

This could come in handy if you're moving across country. You are advised to empty the oil and gas from your mower before transporting it--in fact, I think it's The Law. Now you know where you can take it. Just thought I'd pass it on!

If You’re Not With the Ones You Love, Love the Ones You’re With

Moving is a lot more than packing your things in boxes and moving them from one place to another. Americans really have a culture of being on the move. The pioneer spirit told us that it would be worth it if we moved West. Kids go to college, then look for jobs far from home, without realizing how emotionally difficult moving away from the support of family and friends is.

So, what, oh wise one, you ask, can we do once we find ourselves 800 miles from home and regretting it? Well, after you analyze why you moved in the first place and decide those things are still true—a job, for instance; a partner; to be near the mountains and all the activity they offer—you can help yourself feel more at home.

First step is to realize you don’t make friends in a week. It’s not like college, where you bonded with roommates or dorm mates because you were all in the same boat. It takes time to build friendships. A rule of thumb, I think, is two years. Give a place two years and you will finally begin to feel like you belong there. That’s a lot of lonesome days and lonesome nights!

What happens in those two years? You find somebody to cut your hair the way you like it and soon she knows your name when you walk in. You locate a doctor, a dentist, maybe a favorite sushi place. You find your way to the mall, the Lowe’s, and all the other places you must know to function in your new place.

Then, you look for ways to meet people. Some friendships begin out of convenience. If you’re working with a team, that provides you a starter set of relationships. Someone has a party, someone gets married, someone invites you to be on the softball team. These are all seedlings of friendship. Some will sprout and grow, some will just die out.

If you’re lucky, you get good neighbors. If you’re renting in an apartment complex, surrounded by a thousand other people, you’re more than likely not going to meet many of them. It just doesn’t happen. They are temporary and they don’t invest much time in other temporary people. It seems that home or townhouse ownership is one of the best ways to make friends, because neighbors now feel they have something invested in you—one of their neighbors.

Other friendships are kindled when you share common interests. Whether it’s joining a hiking group, a scuba class or a volunteer organization, find something you enjoy doing and chances are good you will meet others with the same interest that also appeal to you as friends.

Of course the old saying is true—to have friends you must show yourself to be friendly. Whether moving to a new place 60 miles away or 800, it’s worth it to invest in new friends.

Boxes Everywhere

I probably don't need to tell you that moving is a pain. Overwhelming is not a big enough word. I've moved five times in the last six years, so maybe that makes me an expert, or maybe not. At any rate, I have learned a few things that have helped me feel less overwhelmed.

If you’re moving yourself, spend a hundred dollars and buy some boxes from U-haul or another box store. Pack everything possible in the boxes and label them—what’s in the box and what room it goes in. It’s easier to pack things up ahead of time, label your boxes, and stack them neatly in a designated area. Then when it comes time to move, just load them into a truck. They ride safely, then at the new location, you can stack the boxes in the garage or in one room, out of the way, and haul them in one at a time to the right rooms and unpack them as you go.

Recently I helped Liz and Conor move. Conor is my son and Liz is his girlfriend AND my business partner. Late in the afternoon, after making many trips up stairs, Liz stood in the middle of boxes piled in the kitchen, looking overwhelmed and said, “Tell me what to do.” Everywhere she looked there was work to do!

I know from experience that you will feel better if one room looks done, while the rest of the house looks like a warehouse. “Put your dining room table and chairs together,” I told her. “Clear everything out of the dining area and you’ll have one finished room (albeit the easiest one.) So, she found a screwdriver, put the legs on the table, set the chairs around it, and even found the modern decorative bowl for its center—and felt better.

Which brings me to a final point, Make the place yours as soon as you can. That means hanging artwork and setting out your favorite things. It will make you feel at home, and the sooner you feel at home the better!

Welcome!

Redesign showcases a home’s best features using the architecture of the space as a guide. We use furniture, artwork and accessories you already have in your home to create a fresh and inviting environment. You will not only see, but you will feel the difference!

Why Redesign?

• Rooms feel more comfortable and spacious and are more functional.
• Multiple styles can be used — from antiques to contemporary — we blend them to make a cohesive arrangement.
• It doesn’t take long — the redesign process usually can be done within one or two days.
• You save money since we use your existing furniture and accessories to create a new look.

staging for selling

Staging is getting your home ready for sale so that it will sell faster and for top dollar.

In most cases, buyers will not take the time or make the effort to figure out how to overcome issues — they see the house as it is, not as it could be. We help you declutter, organize and rearrange existing furniture to showcase the positive features of your house. This will create a great first impression and is critical to achieving a successful sale.

Why Stage Your Home?

• Your house will look as good as possible to as many potential buyers as possible — increasing its chances for a quicker sale and at the highest price.
• Buyers will emotionally connect with the house and see themselves living there.
• Buyers will see and appreciate the home’s special features.
• The house will stand out from its competition!

When sellers stage their homes, they make more money. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development reports that a staged house sells, on average, 17% higher than a non-staged house. In today’s market, it’s more important than ever to make your house stand out from other comparable properties in the same price range. Staged homes sell faster in a slow market and for more money in an active real estate market.

Staging helps the seller see the house from the buyer’s point of view. We’ll counsel you on the repairs and improvements you can make to make the buyer feel the property has been well maintained. By investing in a few improvements, you will be more likely to get top dollar for your house.

Staging a home creates more favorable impressions with potential buyers and real estate agents. If agents aren’t favorably impressed with a property, they tend not to show it to other buyers.

Read more at SpaceLiftColorado.com!