Whats New with the Lifestylist

Sadly, when many people think of manufactured housing they think about mobile homes that were built in the 70’s with no design or interest in the floorplans.

A Patriot Home is anything but a mobile home - they are well built, beautifully designed and in many cases come complete with designer options that you have to pay an additional change fee to get in a site built home.

Patriot Homes of Texas announced this month that they were upgrading the design and finish of many of their faucet, lighting, and cabinet hardware selections. Lifestylist Suzanne Felber helped them identify the trend that finishes are going to a more distressed patina and the pewter and antique nickel finishes are what consumers are looking for. Many companies have gone to an oil rubbed bronze look, but this style seems to be running it’s course with the antique nickel taking over the consumers choice position.

Sometimes it really pays off to keep an open mind. I had the manager of the Rochester Country Curtains call me about the Ronald McDonald Homearama House I’m doing with @Home Builders, and express an interest in being included in the home. The name scared me because the home is anything but country, but I told them to send me a catalog and I’d take a look.

What a pleasant surprise! The colors were right on trend, the styling was beautiful and the prices were great. They have been an absolute delight to deal with as well, and I’m looking forward to seeing everything installed.

I just don’t understand the firestorm around Lisa Garza and the fact that Gasp! she likes to dress well, look professional and act like a manager. Seeing and watching her has made me rethink my image - are “casual days” really such a good thing?

Food Network loves to show the voluptuous Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade Cooking by Sandra Lee in costumes (I just can’t bring myself to call them just clothes) that have included flowing sleeves dragging in food and long hair swinging freely over the food she’s preparing. There are a few “stars” that could probably use a stylist or new stylist. Sandra Lee got an Emmy nomination for hairstyling? On a food show? I would be so proud.

The one thing that they really didn’t go after Lisa Garza for were her skills and her food. It was the first challenge and she wasn’t eloquent about her “platform” but I’m thinking that will be something that will evolve.

If you want the truth about Lisa, read what Nancy Nichols at DMagazine has to say. I know and respect Nancy, and trust me she won’t write it if it ain’t so. Nancy is a food critic and has known Lisa for awhile.

No matter what happens in reality land, Dallas knows the real Lisa and will stand behind her. Great food, great style, period. What else do you need?

I am so excited that Dallas Superstar Lisa Garza has made it to the finals of The Next Food Network Star!

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet her and experience her food, and she not only deserves to be on the show she deserves to win.

The first time that I noticed Lisa it was at a Savor Dallas event that her restaurant was participating in. She has such great style - every time that I’ve seen her it has been with her wearing one of her signature aprons that I love. She just has such a great presence, and seems to understand what it takes to be a public presence. I can’t wait to see the show and see how she does!

Happy Memorial Day! This was a wonderful family filled one for me - I drove up to Oklahoma City to spend the day with my parents, sisters, and their families.

This month I’ve been very busy doing model homes across the country for Patriot, and also working on my new Lifestylist Design products that will be launching in January. It’s been really exciting to see the Lifestylist program come full circle, and to see how people have embraced the concept and made it their own.

My sister is the perfect example of what Lifestylist Design is all about. It should be about you - your life, your loves, your discoveries, not some designer or other persons interpretation of how they think you should live. I was finally able to get up here to see the new home that she and her family have been working on, and it’s spectacular! And the best thing about it is that when I walk in the home, or even when I drive up to the home there is no question that this is an active outgoing family who loves life and are individuals. From the start my sister refused to get “typecast” into a specific style or theme. Instead she incorporated things that they saw on various trips, items that were gifts on very special occasions, and was wise enough to encourage her subcontractors to be partners with her on this journey. The result is a marriage of craftsmanship and character that will never be replicated the same way again, just as my sister is a one of a kind.

“Rules” are meant to be broken, especially in the design world. The next time someone tells you what you can or can’t do with your home tell them that you practice the Lifestylist Design philosophy where what you love is never put in question.

Western New York is such a unique part of the country and is rich in history, especially in the Rochester area. It’s absolutely beautiful almost any time of year but I have to admit my favorite times are lilac and corn seasons.

Rochester is also the home of the Kodak corporation and camera junkie that I am when I’m in that area I try to go to as many flea markets and thrift shops as I can to find the perfect addition to my growing collection. At one time my collection was over 400 still and movie cameras but I’ve thinned it out a little and some of my very lucky builders got some very cool cameras in the theming of their model homes.

I’ve been keeping in touch with the wonderful Ronald McDonald House volunteers that have been gathering goodies for our Homearama house by @Home Builders and as luck would have it a wonderful woman donated a large collection of cameras and Kodak memorabilia that had belonged to her late husband Leonard Coleman.

When I collect I try to learn as much as I can about where the items came from or who they belonged to so when we were able to learn about Mr. Coleman I was thrilled.

Leonard Coleman was an avid collector and had a life-long love affair with photography. His collection had included over 2,000 cameras, most manufactured by Eastman Kodak and some manufactured as early as 1890. Mr. Coleman started his career with Eastman Kodak in 1948 as a messenger when he was 17 years old. He worked his way up through the company and retired as a vice-president in 1990.

Mrs. Coleman has been very generous with sharing the amazing collection that her husband had put together. Much of the collection was donated to the George Eastman House, and thankfully she has also decided to share some of the collection with The Ronald McDonald House ABC Sale and with us!

If you love photography and cameras as much as I do, the home and the fall sale will be one that you won’t want to miss. All of the collection will be either be included in the rooms that are auctioned after Homearama or in the ABC Sale. As soon as I have more information how you can bid on these items I’ll share it here.

Sometimes things just happen for a reason, and today was one of those days. A perfect Spring day with colors that in Texas we only get to enjoy a few weeks a year, my Homearama house that I’m designing for @Home Builders just keeps getting better, and there was a great article about Kodak and the digital age in the NY Times.

I was busy updating one of my blogs last night and came across an entry that I had written about Hewlett Packard and my frustration with the printers I had purchased from them and their disinterest in customers, customer service and the quality of their product. Hey - they are HP and they own the market - why should they care?

So here is the story about Kodak and how they are really focusing their business to compete in the digital age and I couldn’t agree more. Here is a company that understands what customers look to them for - images - and they are taking that into new areas that they haven’t been competitive in before. It was a eureka moment for me - my point and shoot digital camera is a Kodak that I turned my camera snobby nose up at when it was recommended to me and now I can’t imagine life without it. This Lifestylist® is going to turn these five lousy expensive HP printers that I got talked into and that”Sam” can’t seem to get to work into planters and go out to check out a brand that is as all American as the town that it is headquartered in.

Let’s face it - with all of the media coverage about the “housing slump” consumers are expecting more and willing to pay less for the home of their dreams. We are having to really evaluate the return on every dollar that we spend and what the return can be on that investment.

As someone that makes their living merchandising model homes nothing hurts me more than to visit a builders community and see homes that aren’t living up to their potential. I was in Las Vegas for a speaking engagement last week and went out to look at what was new and exciting in the Vegas market and I had a huge surprise. The most exciting, innovative, and memorable communities were multi-family and the most disappointing were communities that were built by national builders and had at least 8 models (and some a lot more than that) in each area. I’m going to write at length about the multi-family communities at length later, but until then if you are anywhere near the Las Vegas area be sure to take a look at Manhattan West. I was not only impressed I was blown away by the presentation and professionalism of the experience and loved the fact that the theme that ran throughout the presentation was Lifestyle. As a Lifestylist® it’s always exciting to know you are going down the right path.

But back to the beautiful planned development I visited. I was told that this was the latest and greatest and the developers welcome center and staff was very impressive. They gave just enough information to make me curious enough to visit the builders models and to understand the goals of the community. So I drove out to see the first builders collection of 11 models and when I walked up to the door there was a sign that stated their homes were closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and lucky me I was visiting on a Wednesday. The next builder had 18 models which ranged in price from $200,000 to $500,000. I walked some of the homes but I guess the builder decided to have the merchandiser stick with the standard wall color - beige - and wallpaper and after about 5 homes I couldn’t tell you one thing about any of them except they all looked the same.

On to my last stop - Toll Brothers. Fortunately I saved the best for last! I was greeted by a smiling welcoming sales person who offered me cookies right out of the oven and a water even though he understood I wasn’t going to be a qualified buyer. They had three homes but they were stunning! Each one had different colors, lifestyles, and personalities and I was finally excited enough by what I saw to want to walk through every room and every home.

I also walked through the Kimball Hill community that you had to drive by to get to the planned community. They did a great job on a much smaller budget then their competition across the street. They were wise enough to position themselves strategically near a competitor that would spend marketing dollars on billboards ads etc. and bring traffic right past Kimball Hill’s homes on the way to theirs.

By knowing your competition and taking advantage of their strengths and weaknesses, you can not only survive in a tough market you can flourish.

For many people, choosing colors for their homes is a very scary process. Think about how many people’s homes that you’ve visited and the walls are still “Builder Beige” because they’ve been afraid to make a wrong decision. Do you live a beige lifestyle, or is your life full of color and excitement? Or would you like it to be? It’s been proven that color has a direct effect on our moods, so adding a little to your life might make a world of difference.

Here are some tips to start you in the right direction to find the perfect hue:

1. Ask Sherwin Williams or an expert at your local paint or home improvement store. Color is their life so they can help steer you in the right direction. I personally love Sherwin Williams because of their color palettes that they put together that give me fool-proof coordinates in a family of colors. Be sure to check out their new Concepts in Color - great fresh new colors with brochures that show the colors in an actual room.
2. Be inspired by your surroundings. When I lived in Arizona I fell in love with the desert colors so when I was ready to paint my family room I took my swatches outside to match up the colors that I had fallen in love with in nature. Technology is a wonderful thing (sometimes!) and many stores now have a machine that can match up teh color of almost anything that you can bring into them.
3. Start Small. Before you paint an entire room in a color pin some paint swatches up on a wall in the room and see how the lighting in the room affects them during different times of the day. The perfect blue in the store may become the imperfect violet with your lighting on your walls. When you’ve narrowed down the choices, buy a pint of a sample of the colors you’ve chosen, paint a 2ft by 2 ft section of wall if possible and take a day or two to live with the results. Many times I’ve thought I wanted to go light, but when I see the color up and view how it playes with the colors in my carpets or furniture I decide to go a shade or two richer.

Keep in mind as well that you don’t have to paint an entire room - sometimes an accent wall is all that it takes to give you the look that you’ve been wanting. Paint is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to remodel your home and your life, and can add thousands of dollars of value if you are selling to a potential buyer who is as afraid as you were of color.

I’ve had some really frustrating technology days lately -because I had to have an iphone (which I love) I’m using AT&T for my internet provider and other services. To say there customer service is non-existent is an understatement - I’ve been waiting here all day for a tech guy to come and fix my service yet again. The appointment was for 8am and still no calls or tech.

I’m getting better at fixing things myself - a skill that I have no interest in but it’s out of necessity, and after messing with things for awhile I realized my new modem isn’t working. Funny - the old one that they told me wasn’t working started right up when I tried it so we seem to have a temporary solution, but now my brand new HP printer refuses to work.

The logical next step seemed to be to go to the HP website and see if I could find a solution, no luck there so I called the 800 customer service number. After having to call back 15 times because when I talked to “Sam” - each time a different person and each time “Sam” either couldn’t comprehend English or I got disconnected, I realized that HP really wasn’t interested in keeping me as a customer and that Sam must have been the code word for “we’ll just string them along until they get tired of calling.”

I’ll never buy another HP product and will use them as an example of how lack of customer service can kill a company. How you treat your customers after the sale is as important as the product or service you are providing, and a bad experience can undermine all of the things that you are doing right. The next time you are in the market for something, keep in mind how you will be treated after the purchase and if their customer support is handled locally or farmed out overseas.