New Store Arrivals

We've been busy rearranging and moving furniture to make room for all of our new arrivals.  Be sure to stop by soon and check out the latest trends in fabric, accessories, furniture, and flooring.  I took a few minutes to showcase some of my favorite pieces in the photos.  If you have any questions, or if you'd like to snag them before anyone else gets the chance, give us a call at 712-722-3286 and we'll put them aside! 

Enjoy your weekend,
Annette

On the Road to Recovery

Imagine this, one day you wake up and head to the surgeon to repair a bum shoulder.  You go under peacefully at 11:00 in the morning with the guidance of excellent medical staff whom you assume you won't be seeing for awhile.  After waking at 2:00 you deliriously thank the surgical staff for their care and are brought home by your loving wife.  Home by 3:30 and of course you head straight back to work feeling just fine.  5:00 rolls around and you've put in a full day's work.  It's time to get some rest.

The next day you wake up feeling a few slight effects from the shoulder surgery yesterday, but all in all it's a fairly chipper morning.  Usually you head into work early, but you just had surgery, so you wait till 9:00 to come in and you feel ready to take on the world.  At 4:00 it's been a bit of a long day, but you decide to unpackage a carpet display on the loading dock. 

Long story short, it didn't exactly work the way you had planned.  You cut the shrink wrap and it lies dangerously close to your foot.  You proceed to push the carpet rack off of a pallet, but now your foot gets caught in the shrink wrap.  All of a sudden things start going in slow motion (it’s never good when things go in slow motion in stories like this) you  try to step off the dock to keep from falling –all with one arm mind you.  You look back just in time to see your leg bending like a bow and snapping from catching on the shrink wrap.  Your leg breaks in five pieces and you land on your freshly re-modeled shoulder.  This was Jeff's first wake up call that maybe he should take it easy.

Two days later Jeff was back into the same surgical center with the same surgeon and nurse.  One more surgery and five screws later he was out again, but this time confined to a manual wheelchair.  After a weekend of slight recovery he, his Dutch pride, and good old fashioned work ethic wheeled into the store.  After trying for a day or so to push his way around the store with one foot, he began experiencing excruciating back pain. 

Monday night it was back to the emergency room where they looked at him and sent him on his way reminding him to “take it easy.”  However, by the time Tuesday morning rolled around, the pain was so bad that it brought a third trip to the ER.  They finally kept him in the hospital with another sinister diagnosis to follow. 

Due to the multiple surgeries, Jeff had developed blood clots in his left leg opposite of his broken leg.  The clot had let loose and part of it decided to head for both lungs; a bad scenario at best.  To make matters worse, the back pain turned out to be gallbladder issues that will result in the gallbladder being removed at a later date.  The blood had to be thinned for the blood clots and was currently too thin for surgery. 

After an entire week’s stay in the hospital, Jeff seemed to be the butt of a very poorly told joke.  After all, between a broken leg, a surgically repaired shoulder, gall stones resulting in a gall bladder that still needs to be removed, and blood clots to top it all off Jeff was in pretty bad shape.  Whew!

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Work was forced to slow down to the extent his left-hand powered electric wheelchair would allow for a while, but now Jeff is back at it without his sling and able to crutch around the store.  While the recovery will still take a good bit of time, he has high spirits and is thankful for a skilled medical staff, a wonderful store staff, and a very loving family to go home to at night. 

For Sale: Staging for Success

It’s no secret that a well designed home will sell faster and bring top dollar compared to a cluttered, dirty home, but what are the tricks to the trade?  There are a few basics that will help your home show well and position you to make thousands more on your sale.  The good news is that we are here to help.  With a set budget and a free consultation, our designers will do wonders for your home!

I know that you’re proud of your Precious Moments collection and all of your children’s photos since kindergarten, but buyers have to be able to see themselves in the home, not you.  If it’s time to sell, it’s time to depersonalize.  Remove all of the family photos, trinkets, and collections and allow the space to speak for itself.  

De-clutter- Put the toaster away and clean up the kitchen.  Pull shirts out of the closets so that it looks like there is PLENTY of room for your buyers’ extensive wardrobe.  Make sure that furniture fits the space it is in and appears spacious.

Fix- Any leaky faucets, cracked tile, or holes in the wall have to go!  This is a great time to invest in your bathrooms and kitchen.

Clean- Smells can be a huge turnoff to buyers.  I think this one really speaks for itself.

Paint- It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do.  From tying together a kitchen to adding new life to a den, a fresh coat of paint will give you a huge return on your investment.

Let’s talk about the WOW factor.  You have 30 seconds to make a good first impression.  Start by sprucing up the exterior—mow the lawn, pull weeds, eliminate any evidence of a pet, and clean up the landscape.  Once inside the home, a buyer needs to see a spacious home that is move in ready.  Any fixes that are needed on their part just equal dollar signs down the road for buyers; this is not good.

Stage with nice furniture and accessories—this is where we come in again.  If you are considering putting new furniture in your new home, spend the money before you move in and use those pieces to your advantage as you set the stage for a sale.  A few well placed accessories will also give the appearance of a well thought out and friendly space.  Click here to email us about a free in home consultation.  Show them the possibilities! 

I hope to see you soon!

Annette

New Name?

Distressed finishes are designed to mimic antique furniture; but to me this seems to be a very inaccurate term.  How can you call something 'distressed' that makes you feel comfortable and relaxed?  The imperfections that are characteristic of distressed furniture are designed to evoke an emotional response.  The worn edges on painted finishes speak to generations of hands running over the surface.  The dimples, knots or gouges would be commonplace as children play on the surfaces running their toy cars around the room.  Hand scraped flooring reminds us of the sacrifices our great grandfathers made to allow us to live as we do today.

Why don't we coin a new term for this genre?

Well loved? Okay.  Corny.

Time worn? Sounds shabby.

Patina? Maybe a bit snobby.

Shabby chic? No, nothing shabby about it...

Think Breckenridge, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Sundance?  Not too shabby!  Help us coin a new term that speaks to this finish on furniture and flooring.  Comment below, E- mail, Facebook—give us a shout! Let's change the industry with a term that defines an emotion!

~Peg