The Trailer Diva

This has been an interesting week - lots of battles being fought and on the good side reconnecting with great role models.

After getting an SOS from my sister that’s building a stunning home in Oklahoma I headed up 35 to see how I could help. From the beginning it’s been obvious that we are sisters - she and her husband didn’t want a home that was like every one on the block. They wanted one that embraced old and new, had character just like their family definitely does, and was full of the love and craftsmanship our parents brought us up in. This wasn’t a project they took on as a whim - finding the right lot and the right components has been a decade long search. They were also looking for partners in the process that could share their passion and to be honest they had no issues with compensating people for their time and involvement. As a person and as a professional there isn’t one thing that I would have done any differently than they did.

When interviewing builders they spent over a year talking to other consumers that had built in the area, visiting homes built by various builders and almost gave up on being able to find the right partner. Finally they found one that said the right things and was as anxious to get started as they were.

Fast forward almost two years, and my sister is still waiting for the home to be completed. It’s become the nightmare that we all hear about - the builder is never around and with subcontractors that have no supervision or guidance my sister is having to take on pretty much the builders role to move the house forward.

So much comes down to attitude - her family is very sensitive to smoke and they discovered one day that the trim carpenters had been smoking in the house… a lot. They asked then not to smoke in the house because of the health issues and yet the contractors continued to - never even stepped outside to indulge in something that has been proven to be a health hazzard to them as well as everyone around them. Plus the fact that the painters were working in the house with very flammable stains and lacquers. If the builder had been around to see this it should have been his responsibility to handle this with HIS subs and to be sure that the work was being done on time and with the craftmanship that was promised.

As someone who makes their living in the home building industry, I’m embarrassed to have people like this call themselves professionals, and it’s people like this who hurt all of us. My sister and her family are ending up paying a very heavy price - instead of getting to spend as much time as she would like to with her family and her husband’s business she is having to manage subs and do the work that they have paid others to do. Sadly, I think if they knew how much building a home was going to affect their quality of life for this many years they might not have ventured down that road.

Fortunately there have been bright spots. It’s a family trait / curse that we don’t ask people to do anything that we wouldn’t do ourselves and many times we work right along side the people we’ve hired and frienships evolve. One of those is a soul that there aren’t even words to describe -someone who has given his time, his sources, and his treasures to make my sisters home as special as they had hoped. He has understood their vision (unlike their builder) and has discovered architectural components that have been around for hundreds of years and will continue to have a place of honor in their home. Their stone work is a masterpiece and you can tell it is a labor of love as is the pool complete with it’s own grotto.

I’m sure I’ll be adding to this subject in the future. What this has taught me is that it doesn’t matter if your new home costs $20,000 or $2,000,000 - every family and every home deserves to be treated with respect and with the quality we would expect if we were building it for ourselves.

I spend a lot of time doing research on trends,and it seems like one of the fastest emerging hobbies is cooking. People are starting to turn away from boxed, “quick fix” meals and are swinging the other way towards great homemade food. Food is love - when made by our own hands it can nourish the soul as well as the body. People are wanting to spend more time with their families and friends in the kitchen.

As a Lifestylist(r), my job is to listen to what my customers want and help them customize their envirnoments to achieve that quality of life. Every day people are paying more attention to how their kitchens can function -not just look pretty, and asking for help in coming up with the perfect space for them.

There is a woman on the FoodNetwork named Sandra Lee who came up with a concept called Semi-homemade. Her show is about using store bought ingredients -usually from a can or box - and fooling your family and guests into thinking that it’s really homemade. Why even try to fool someone? It’s like lying - a lot of times it’s easier to just tell the truth than to make the effort to fool or deceive. Why not just do it right from the beginning?

I’m enjoying the new trend of Cooking with Kids - parents are seeing the value of good nutrition and that it makes a difference in how their kids act and feel. When the parents cook healthy for the kids they cook healthier for themselves. We have research today that we never had before about what chemicals and preservatives do to us so we have no excuse. Cooking healthy is usually less expensive and can be just as fast. And it can be a great creative expression for the kids as well. I have a nephew who loves Alton Brown (I do as well!) He makes cooking fun, and gives a lot of excellent information in a relaxed setting. Kids think he’s really cool and see how a lot of cooking is about science - how different ingredients interact can make all of the difference.

Last week I was at the Manufactured Housing Show in Hershey, PA and it was nice to see that kitchens and cooking are just as important and on trend in that industry. I saw homes with kitchens that could rival those in a $1,000,000 home - brick ovens, 2 dishwashers, refridgerator drawers - it was all there. It was rewarding to see that spending time in the kitchen will continue to be more important than ever.

Life is like a box of chocolates -you just never know what you’ll find in the middle. If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be “decorating trailers” I would have called you a liar. But here I am in Hershey, Pennsylvania working on some homes for a manufactured housing show and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing.

Why manufactured housing instead of traditional built homes? Manufactured / PreFab/ Modular/ FactoryBuilt homes are cool! In this crazy semi-homemade world where we’ve been told it’s OK to take shortcuts, it’s nice to see homes built the way they should be built - with attention to detail, engineered, and built to suit the customers lifestyle.

Where will I go from here? I’m looking forward to seeing this type of building grow into its potential, and being able to be a part of the success.