Missing/Endangered: Tweetie Bird

I had my first paying gig as a home stager this weekend. Ah yes, I can hear you: "a who-wha?" A pillow fluffer. A curtain preener. Someone who comes in to make homes for sale all "ooh" and "ahh".

Okay, for a slightly more technical definition, check out my website: www.room-to-move.net. If you like the tasty little sample picture and want to gorge on some fun "Before & Afters", you'll want to check out my Photo Gallery page while you're there. (Isn't that bed just yummm?)

I sent a letter to the realtor who helped us purchase our current home, letting her know that I started my own staging business. As luck would have it (lucky for me, anyway, not so much for her), she just lost her best stager and had a house in desperate need. It's been on the market 2-1/2 months, and has had 3 or 4 seriously interested parties who kept saying "this is one of our top two choices". In each case, the buyers chose the other home.

It's a nice house - two years old, in good condition with some great features - but there was nothing really memorable about it, much less "wow". After six hours of staging on Sunday (preceded by an unmentionable number of hours spent shopping for props), I think "wow" was achieved. The realtor and homeowners were both thrilled, anyway.

I was pretty pleased myself. I felt a bit like the cat who swallowed the canary.

Hopefully it will now sell quickly, the true measure of success. I feel like a million bucks even without that affirmation though .. the homeowners told the realtor that I was "delightful" and completely dissolved their preconceived image of me as some "hoity toity decorator". (I know, far-fetched and laughable! The delightful part, that is. Heh.) They asked if I ever help people get set up in their new homes as well, so hopefully there's another gig lurking in my near future.

Now, if I could get a job a week, I'd be the dog who swallowed the cat. (Add Sylvester to that missing/endangered list, why dontcha.)