Saying Goodbye

Hi Readers,

I just finished a really great project & it is time to say "good bye" to it. Along with their builder, Don Denning of Artisan Homes (my husband) I helped a couple to create the retirement home of their dreams. I so enjoyed working with these clients. We spent a lot of time together creating their vision of "home". It began about a year ago. Since the couple would be sharing their home with their two large dogs, many of the surface selections & design details were selected with the dogs in mind. Starting with the travertine floors that could handle doggy paws & ending with the dog head knobs for the laundry room, it was definitely an animal friendly home. We had a great time researching fans & lights & cabinet knobs & took many trips to see granite slabs. The clients found the "perfect" redwood burls for the fireplace mantle. We labored over the right art pieces & the right bedding & shopped till we dropped for the pieces needed to add to their already existing furnishings. We had a lot of fun doing it. I want to thank them for being such great people to work with.

Many of their friends & neighbors as well as hundreds of complete strangers were invited to visit their home as it was on the annual home builders tour. I guess that people really liked it because many came back for a 2nd visit & brought their friends back to see it. The home also received 4 nice awards from the Home Builders judges. In our price group we won "Best Architecture, Best Kitchen, Best Value & Best of Show. The most valuable reward though was the clients pleasure in their new home.

When working with people on a project like this, they become more than clients, they become friends. Although I am saying goodbye to this project I plan to keep in touch with my new friends. I hope they have many happy years in their new home & that they will invite me to a dinner prepared in their fabulous kitchen . It is a kitchen of dreams.

I will also post all the other pictures on my website later this week so check back. I wish the pics had turned out better. We tried a different way of doing the lighting & it just didn't work out as I had hoped.