I'm perched on broken down office chair I brought in from the walkway and my Surface Pro sitting on a stack of moving boxes. I'm typing like a maniac on the keyboard in my lap. I've spent 4 days arranging the space for a new client. I've managed to get him a craftsman inspired design in one of the cookie cutter tract homes built in 1950's Sand Springs. My boys are the greatest in recreating designer drawings on a regular basis. I love hiring the best and brightest from the VoTech in the county. I have all the subs I need anytime I need them. I have JD. Fortune with INXS screaming about Vegas in my earbuds, my sundress is fluttering in the airconditioning and my bare toes are tapping to the music. I whisper along as I blast email and text messages to the teams working on the other houses in the neighborhood. On a tiny screen to my left there's episode of This Old House playing mutely with the closed captioning on. I'm still waiting as Garth Brooks croons Fever in my ears. Suddenly the door to the house sweeps open and there he is, Wade Tygert. I drop the ear buds and star at the man I have never me but has me half in love and half irritated with him through late night phone calls and lunch time video chats. I have seen everything that man owns. Now I'm going to watch him orchestrate moving in. This I had to be here for, not just to accept delivery of the semi truck full of home stuffs from New Orleans. The man is an Adonis though only my height. Perfectly proportioned limbs of lithe muscles start orchestrating the arrangement of Wade's home. His staff understanding his points, grunts and short hand speak start arranging the wares they bring in as well as expertly locating the accessorizing boxes stacked around me. Wade saunters over to hug me in his linen trousers and cotton bowling shirt and huaraches a puca shell necklace is around his neck with friendship and leather bangles around each wrist. His spiky short light brown hair highlight his dancing gray eyes. There's a touch of a sunburn on his broad nose and a wicked smile on his full lips.
"Debby, my darlin' what are you doing here in corner when the front porch was made for a southern beauty like you in that sundress to lounge while young houseboys fetch you cooling drinks, fans with flowers and morsels to make your taste buds say "ah"... he wrapped me in strong arms and kissed my cheek. Once he shifted out of our embrace he kept his left arm draped over my shoulders and looked back toward the front door. With a snap of his fingers spectacular items floated in from the front yard. Bronzed men in white work wear carried in ladders and tools and lined the NE corner of the living room with brass curtain rods and eyelet lace curtains of the palest yellow. A swag of gold velvet joined the outside edges of the lace meeting in the corner with a near mirror effect. Each curtain panel just kissed the floor. In front of that v of golden velvet a golden goddess sets a revolutionary war era candle stand, then Wing back chairs and half in Magnolia Home Fashions Belmont Mist join either side of the table. A regency buffet settles against the north wall the guilt highlights setting off the yellows of the other furniture. A butter colored leather sofa from Ashely stands out from the buffet and is pulled in onto the muted toned rug on the floor. Two small ottomans are tucked under the hydraulic round conversation table. An aged barn wood console table is tucked behind the couch 2 nesting tables go under the console to hold extra things when needed. this is where my surface is placed and I am rolled over to sit at the makeshift desk. Beside me another pair of velvet and lace panels are being hung from near the ceiling and a sunburst mirror in bronze is hung btween the windows and over the buffet. Hems and haws of disdain come from my client as 4 extra tall barristers book cases are slid in behind me. the same level of change is happening in the adjacent bedroom, Denim drapes are being hung over the window with blue and white toile valances over the top. The ceiling fan is taken down to allow for the canopy bed of red maple to be assembled. From my perch in the living room, can see the arrangement of a small reading chair in the far courner with a swing arm lamp behind the bar cart turned night stand. It's a shiny black finish. the bedding is denim eyelet lace and blue toile over jersey sheets of the palest blue. A low dresser stands in for the night stand on the right of the bed. A cottage corner cabinet and toile covered bench fill the interior wall and corner. A thin maple colored chest on chest stands between the bedroom door and the closet door. For easy access to the closet and those clothes that just aren't hung up that often there;s a slididng barn door with pegs and hooks that fits well between the dresser and the wall corner. the blues in the room are so mellowing. a little pop of red in personal items makes the cooling blues dance. The ruig comes in last is wedged under the bed then unrolled in. The convoluted edges and certain opening makes it look like the skin off of some wooly mammoth died white. the long hairs look ticklish to me. One of the crew asks me to move so he can slide in the sewing machine to face the north window. I glance up to see the Barrister shelves are being filled with standing rolls of fabric one color per shelf. As I slide onto the yellow sofa, I realize there's another sewing machine against the interior wall. I start looking around for Wade as he carries in a design wall on a interior door. hooks in the door are matched with loops in the large door frame to the spare bedroom and bath, this conveniently \hides the mechanical closet and also has a fold out ironing board. on the back,. with 3 loud hand claps wade draws the attention of all the people in the house. "Thank you girls and boys for putting my house together for me. These are all I need today but tomorrow we shall assault the kitchen, laundry and dining wing come ready for demo. We have a 3 day turn around on that part of the house. Get rested and no boozing tonight please. " then the small man waved the crew out of the house took the chair opposite me and smiled.
"Darlin' you did a wonderful job adding in all the Arts and crafts items I asked for. Once the outside is transformed I can imagine actually living like an Arts and Crafts home owner with only blinds or shutters and bare windows, but until then, I want cocooning fabric in here". two final people come into the house as everyone is leaving. Each has a suitcase with them, curiously I ask wade if he's "invited guests all ready because the other bed isn't set up yet." The small Asian girls twitter instead of giggle and look away from me. AH so Wade is one of those men, a play boy with a yen for young Asian. Wade shakes his head and points to the low ottomans under the round table. One gal grabs one and moves toward me the other sits at Wades feet and starts to unpack her wares. An unseen house boy brings steaming tea kettles to the table each is wrapped in a quilted cozy I designed for Wade's magazine. One kettle is set next to the young lady at my feet and the other is set across the table near Wades seat. The young man offers us glasses of libations he crToons in a deep south drawl. Wade introduces him as Wade's housekeeper Dean. Dean grew up in the French Quarter and knows the best recipes for liquids and solids alike. Dean winks at me in a wicked d way. The mans a poster boy for the armed services, tall muscled mustachioed, well groomed hair and straight back. I began to wonder if he were Wade's personal friend as well as an employee but then Wade admonished Dean for looking down my cleavage a little to long. "Forevermore Dean, if you're going to undress the gal take out for a glorius dinner, dancing and moonlit walk first before just tweaking her nipple through the dress." Dean turnd a becoming shade of pink under his tan and asked if he could have the business card on the table behind me. Wade sighed in exasperation, "the man could find any woman he wanted at the mall but somehow believes I bring him a buffet select from. But for now relax and let us indulge in Mani Pedis from the Fong twins. Dean brings in Iced mint tea for me and a Mohito for Wade. Instead of allowing me to ask question about his trip, Dean starts asking me about how I lived in this house and why I wanted to change it. As The Fong twins began on our feet I described the house as it was in 2012 then the changes as things feel apart. the final straw when the floor furnace wouldn't work and winning a sweepstakes to "renew my home". That got the ball rolling, I used the sweepstakes money to buy the house, I got grants to modernize the heating and add forced air then a lucky sale to replace all the windows. My last luck was a grant from This Old House to insulate, rewire and sheet rock the house. In my two pronged project with them. Ask \This OLD House came out to film ripping out walls and wiring to replace it. Another episode covered installing the new hvac system, then windows. The last project to do was the bathroom but you bought the place before it could be done. The back bathroom finished so we're in good shape but walking through the kichen to get to it is going to be a challenge for that week. Wade and I laughed about High school and college and the years we had been apart. the Fong twins pampered my feet so much I was ready to buy them each houses and businesses in Sand Springs and make sure they kept a Friday morning appointment open for me every week "Flipping houses will keep your pedicure covered in steel toed boots." Wade laughed. I gently glared at him and said, " I don't wear shoes at work, I'm always on the phone and computer, I can do those from bed and if I want to go out to the public I put on sandals and go to the triangle yarn store. His attention rose when I mentioned that. The Triangle store he had heard of, me working at the store was new information. I told him I had the best of 4 worlds around that triangle. A quilting store opened up where I was planning to put the yarn store so I moved over one unit and gained an upstairs apartment. Then we could really tear this place a part. There's a Mexican restaurant, and Italian restaurant and a café that has awesome bakery items. When I need to do some research I walk over to the historical society building and dig through the museums archives. I get inspiration from the other people around the triangle . It's been great although I do miss the space here. It will only be few weeks before we start placing the homestead house on the new parcel here in town. that will be nice. "Yes Deb, you have those TOH people wrapped around your finger don't you. You've filled their episodes up for 2 seasons with 2 houses and little vingettes here and there." In my defense I replied, "I had to, they hired Kevin O' Connor befoire I even knew the position was open, before they met me. Now I'm getting as much time with the crews as I can before PBS gives up on them completely."
"I also have and I with Discovery and MIke Rowe and Mike Rowe Works. to keep the emphasis on craftsman type jobs the kids can try before college. It's really helping me get to know the kids needs in the town and those that have , really dig deep to give these kids mega opportunities. We're trying to make a model of this work in New York too. So I'm spread thin when it comes to down time and luxurious moments like these.
Wade and I giggled and joked with the gals and Dean for the rest of the night. Dean came away with watermelon toenails, mine looked like peaches, I had yellow roses on my finger tips. I was afraid of working on quilting tomorrow for the show and not messing up my nails. This was going to be a fun fall.
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