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