Renovation Coaches

Last month, one of my clients told me about a service I never knew existed - that of renovation coaches, also called renovation therapists. WOW.

Check out this Chicago Tribune article from 2008... !

That is exactly the role that I asked Tom and Gleanne to play on September 6, 2018 via WeChat when I first thought about setting us this website. At the time, I had no idea how much they LOVED "all things renovating" until they called last month and offered to renovate our guest bathroom for us.

Are you SERIOUS... ?!



Unfortunately we couldn't get it together before they flew out to visit us, a trip that was planned awhile ago.

So instead, they offered to take us to tile/cabinet/paint stores, give us an introduction, and show us the ropes. Tom was so excited when he stepped through our front door that he didn't bother taking off his jacket before heading straight to the areas in question, lol.



For the week that they were here, Tom and Gleanne went from being really good friends to really good renovation coaches.

They walked us through the many kitchen designs at IKEA (see video above). Tom gave us ideas on flooring options and back splash designs at Home Depot. And Gleanne convinced us that our walls are too dark, going back to Home Depot to get color samples for us to consider.

Gleanne played referee as she showed us (separately) how to choose paint colors. Bless her heart, she managed to get us to agree on color palettes!



After attending a fundraising gala in the city, the four of us even had a full-on, group therapy session that lasted until 2am in the morning!

Best of all, when it became clear that Joel and I could NOT move forward, Tom insisted we bring in a general contractor to tell us what can and cannot be done and how much it would cost. Arguing in circles about issues that we know little about was not getting us anywhere.

Two days later, our dear friends Neil and Janet came to the rescue.

The date was Sunday, March 10, 2019.



Not only was Neil a general contractor for many years, he is someone who cannot be swayed by my blinding beauty and charm, as seen below.

He will tell us what he thinks, whether we like it or not.

So when he said that our concerns were a non-issue and gave the thumbs up on my design ideas, I was like... YES!



Most of all, after learning that workers do NOT need to enter a confined shaft from the underground garage (with hard hats and flashlights!) and crawl all the way up to the gap space between our floor and the unit below us - just to move plumbing and electrical - we were SO RELIEVED.

For us and for those poor workers... !

We are forever grateful for all their help - Tom, Gleanne, Neil, and Janet too who's been my own therapist in this process. It has been a real blessing.

And with that, we can finally move on.

NEXT.