Buddy System Eases Drudgery
(Ran in HighFlyer Sept. 2001)

    If you’ve been following The Great House maker for the last few months, you’ve successfully organized your projects and brushed up on the elements and principles of design.  Now it is time to get started with the fun stuff.  But, before you open that first can of paint, I’d like to suggest a fun way to get a lot more done on your house in a lot less time.  Remember the old adage, "many hands make short work"?  Well we are going to use that little snippet of wisdom to get our houses decorated the way we want!  

    If you’ve ever done a decorating project by your little lonesome self , I’ll bet your realized very quickly that decorating is HARD WORK!  All that climbing up and down ladders, push around heavy furniture, lifting and hanging, hammering and drilling!  Not that decorating doesn’t have it rewards, but the actual process of transforming your house into your dream home takes quite a bit of work.  Returning home from a hard day on the job,  I’ve often been discouraged by all the unfinished projects at my own house.  Why is it I can work my magic in the homes of my clients but come home to such a mess in my own house?  As my lovely but  smart aleck-y daughter pointed out years ago, "We’re kind of like the cobbler’s kids who have no shoes, aren’t we Mom?"  Could it be because I’m a terrible procrastinator?  Could it have something to so with the fact that we have seven children and were foolish enough to buy a wonderful old farm house  on fifteen acres?  Sure it helps that when I’m on a jobsite I’m being paid by the hour, and it helps that I don’t have any distractions such as the dryer buzzing for attention or the telephone ringing or the children needing tended to,  but the number one factor that allows me to accomplish so much for our clients in a short amount of time is team work!!  

    How about  forming a decorating co-op!  Trust me on this, if you team up with at least one other person  you will be able to accomplish an amazing amount more than you could on your own.  Now I know some of you out there work wonderfully with your spouse, so you already have a built in decorating buddy.  For the rest of you, I’d like to suggest you look around for two or more fellow decorating enthusiasts and form your self a working support group.  The ideal decorating group would consist of someone who sews, someone who paints, and someone who can walk into a room and visualize the perfect furniture arrangement.  Your team needs to decide how much time you can each devote to helping each other.  It could be once a month, once a  week, or whatever else works for your group.  Then you simply take turns working on each others projects.  When it is your turn, you need to be totally prepared when your buddies arrive so you don’t waste any of the valuable time.  Of course, you and your buddies will have to sit down and lay out some ground rules regarding who is in charge of what at any given time.  We have a simple rule, only one person has to think at a time!  There is no reason for all of you to be standing around arguing about how to best accomplish a particle thing.  Other that the occasional skirmish over who gets to decide the use of the fabulous vase we found under a client’s sink,  we never waste a minute of time arguing.  On our team, whoever is in charge of a particular project, whether it is accessorizing the mantle or coordinating an entire paint technique, has final say.  In fact, no one else is even allowed to put in their two cent’s worth unless specifically asked by the one in charge.  This strategy  saves countless hours and protects fragile egos.  "What do you mean, you think that picture should go over a little to the right, I think it looks great"!  I’m warning you, don’t even go there!  Now obviously you will have to have some kind of agreement regarding who is good at what...we have someone who is awesome at dressing windows, someone who can’t be beat on accessorizing a shelf, and someone else who can flawlessly hang a room full of pictures in a matter of minutes.  

    Start looking for some buddies to make up your co-op!  Siblings, girlfriends, neighbors, parents, anyone is fair game.  Hey, you could even advertise in the HighFlyer.   Next month we will begin to tackle a project and whether you are working alone or with a group, we are going to have a blast!!!

Denise Wilder