Curb Appeal for next years listings

December 17, 2018Leave a comment

It is almost Christmas and while most folks are getting ready for family and friends, some of you out there are starting the plan of putting your house up for sale in the spring.

So many steps to include: fixing and repairs, painting, organizing, packing, setting things out that will be left for the Stagers and last but not least…..as a matter a fact a very important part of staging your house is the OUTSIDE CURB APPEAL…..

Curb appeal to those that are confused by what it means and why you need it: It is a very important part of staging that will bring attention to your house and help bring potential buyers into your house to view as their next home. It’s an important step to organizing, cleaning, trimming, mulching and fixing shutters, painting…etc. Making your entrance an invitation to come on in and look around.

I ran across this breakdown of curb appeal from https://www.openlistings.com/blog/getting-real-with-curb-appeal/

It is an interesting blog post explaining the steps to curb appeal and what it really means. I hope you find it as useful as I do with my clients.

Merry Christmas and please take time to breath and enjoy the season. Once Jan. 1st comes along, get busy on organizing and getting that house ready for the new buyer!

Happy to answer any questions you may have, drop me a line.

Deborah Lutz, Interior Designer, Landscape Design, Stager

Curb appeal

My clients work hard to keep their design looking grand…Yard of the month!

after photo

Farmhouse Chic redesign

May 9, 2018May 9, 2018Leave a comment

Our latest project for U&I was a lovely gal named Shanda who has a designers eye but needed some professional design help with demo, placement, and a whole new kitchen design. She handled the rest of the house remodel in living room, dining room, and bedrooms with a small amount of guidance on how to’s on DIY to save on the budget. Love that aspect of clients that want to do things themselves but need professional guidance….I’m glad to help. We are there anyway so why not! I love the Get it girl attitude and #girlswithtools are sexy

She was interested in two listing and gave her real estate agent with REMAX realty a call for a showing. Visiting properties with clients is something I have been doing for a while to discuss options of redesign as they go.

I, (Deborah Lutz, Interior Designer for U&I Decorate) visited both properties and gave design options for each redesign and a quick monetary value of each upgrade as we went…..she let me know as we walked the properties what her needs were and of course several pages of wants.

It didn’t take her long to make a decision and closed on the house she wanted. She called us up at U&I and said let’s get started.

One month later, lots of meetings and notes we were ready for demo and hard work. My subcontractors were scheduled ahead of time and ready to get to work. We finished with a beautiful product to hand over to our happy client. It was amazing working with Shanda. I loved doing the Farmhouse Chic design. We used a great stove hood from Houzz.com with a white subway tile from Home Depot. It turned out spectacular. Vinyl plank flooring from Mannington was used for a 100% waterproof floor and we matched the color and style to existing hardwood oak floors in dining room.

Main objective in the kitchen redesign budget was to use existing cabinets and do a larger layout by adding additional cabinets and painting them all white with an oil based paint from Sherwin Williams. Shanda took care of the window treatments through Home Depot with their Bali line of roman shades.

A special thanks to my crew, for I could not do what I do without them, hence the name U&I:

Bates Construction, Dixon Custom Paints, Nick’s Plumbing, McKown Heating and Cooling, Gaskins Tile, Prosource, Ashley Home Store, Kirkland’s, Absolute Kitchen and bath for countertops, and Home Depot

I will be happy to share our Sherwin Williams color palette and products used….just drop me a line.

A mind for refresh, reuse, rethink, redesign,

Deborah

We of course were happy to help…..

Before U&I

Kitchen after U&I decorates redesign

Here is a link to view the full project #farmhousechick design

While your there you can view other movies of our past projects!

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkQqLDFFhrRykjGE6pp5fFzpm8L_

New Year and New Look for U&I

January 9, 2018January 9, 2018Leave a comment

We have shortened our name and revised some of our services.

We are excited to get into 2018 specializing in Interior Design and Decorating. We also still offer Commercial staging with Builders and Developers in their amenities areas and Models.

We look forward to serving the Hampton Roads area and continue to strive to stay on budget and on time!

The day in the life of a Project Managing Decorator

March 9, 20131 Comment

The day in the life of a Project Managing Decorator…..

When people ask me what I do I will say “I’m an Interior Decorator”

“I’m a Landscape Designer”

I also do Home Staging with Custom Art thrown in

I hear “How exciting, I always wanted to do that for a career”

It is a rewarding career choice for me and I have to change constantly to stay up with all the new styles and ideas. Which I like that about my job.

There are some aspects of my job that people do not know and that is the Project Management side.

It is tedious, meticulous, constant, 24-7, hands on, different types of sub-contractors in one day, several location and car travel daily. Changes to the designs never fail.

It’s good thing that I am the Decorating Designer on the job to quickly approve the changes and keep the ball rolling.

The job sites must be touched in some way each day via hands on visit or phone calls to Subs, making sure everyone is showing up for work and if they are not call them to find why when and where?????

I have great set of guys that Sub Contract for me (I refer to them as THE BOYS) and even then there are always delays that can not be helped from UNFORESEENS (always). Schedules get pushed back, jobs then get pushed back, and before you know it one small cabinet not being hinged correctly has put a kink in the whole month’s schedule.

BUT that is why clients hire me….I am paid to be the calm one that presents to them solutions instead of problems, answers instead of questions, time schedules instead of delays…it’s what I do and I love it.

To my own demise at times being up all hours of the night figuring out jobs and what else needs to be done that may have slipped by me.

I am a huge note taker and have sticky notes everywhere, voice mails to myself to stay on top.

All in all it is about the client and I do my very best to give them their home back as soon as possible. All polished and new just as they imagined it Sometimes that is not the easiest part of my job…but I wouldn’t want to do anything else.

Loving’ my career choice and I’m getting paid to do what I love!!!! Dream big and work hard…that is the way to have success in your life.

Deborah