Wanna see what it’s like to live with the Zebra?

July 3, 2008 |

Well, then check out this article in the local C-Ville weekly.

It was a lot of fun to be interviewed, but it couldn’t have happened without the help of our wonderful designer, Andrea Phillips.  She receives well-deserved mention in the article, but what it doesn’t say is that she was able to pull together a design for our house in less than a week.

How it started

Phone rings. . . voice answers:

“Hello, this is Erika.”

“Hi Erika, this is Daniel Rothamel, you called me about featuring me in your “A Room of Their Own” series.”

“Oh, hi Daniel, thanks for getting back to me.”

“No problem. I listened to your voice mail, and the first thing I thought of was my car.  I mean really, my car is the place I relate to the most.  See, my wife and I recently moved into our house, and we really haven’t gotten around to decorating all that much.  It’s kinda spartan.”

“Hmmm. . .that’s a little far afield for this type of story.  I’m sure we can do something on your house. It doesn’t have to be extravagant.”

“Well, I guess I could figure something out, when do you want to do the interview?”

“How about next Wednesday?”

“WEDNESDAY!  Today is Thursday.”

“I know, but we had someone else cancel.”

Moment of terror.  Then an instinctual response.

“Sure, I guess that will work.  Come on over.”

As soon as I hung up the phone, Kari and I looked at each other and said, “oh, crap.  We are going to need some help.”

Luckily, Help Came Fast

Kari called Andrea next.  Andrea lives in our neighborhood, and we had already talked with her about helping us out with our interior decorating. In fact, we had talked with her weeks before the interview, but we hadn’t really committed the way that we should have.  We desperately wanted to have a home that reflected our style, but we just couldn’t find the time to make it happen.  We work so much that we need our home to be a sanctuary, we just needed some help getting there.  This interview provided the perfect occasion and motivation to get it done.

That is where Andrea came it.  Kari and I are very good at helping people buy and sell homes, not so good at decorating them.  For Andrea, however, It is something that she loves doing, and had done before for friends and family.  We love her and her sister Laura, who is our fabulous real estate assistant).  We also know a dynamic duo when we see one ;-).  Andrea told us that she and Laura could get it done, so we told her to go for it, and that she had less than a week.

“No problem.” she said.

Boy, was she ever right.  She met with us and asked us what type of style we were looking for, things that we liked, things that we already owned that we wanted to use, all of those types of questions.  We told her.  She asked how much we wanted to spend.  We told her.  She did the rest.

What she was able to pull together over the next few days was nothing short of a miracle.  She decorated our entire main living area.  The only pieces we provided were the couch, chair, tv, entertainment stand, dining room table, some shells, pictures and shell postcards we had bought in Florida.  She did all the rest.  She did it on time, and under budget (and that budget was not large by any means).

The result was magnificent.

She took us from having a house, to having a place where we feel at home.  As I said in the article, every day we say, “man, I love this house.”  It is all beautiful, and we couldn’t have gotten there without Andrea.

Help us thank Andrea

We can’t thank Andrea enough.  What we can do, hopefully, is help her do what she loves, designing rooms and decorating them for people like us.  So, if you are in the Charlottesville area, and you need help with your interior decorating (admit it, most of us do), then call me or send me an email.  I’ll get you in touch with Andrea.  You’ll be glad you did it.  I know we are.

Posted by Daniel Rothamel | Filed Under Blog, Fun Stuff, Home Repair/Improvement, News 

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