The Source

The last several clients and their homes came from the mother load, the owner of this house. For my protection, I will call her Marlene, not her real name. She is a full time nurse and a part time drapery specialist and interior decorator. She no longer lives here, but she is the one who brought this house into the modern era, although you would never know by the outward appearance.

When I first met her, she still had a husband and three teen aged sons. She began her makeover in her master suite. In the following years, she renovated and renewed the old house until it sparkled and shone and looked like a million dollars. There are so many stories I could tell about her and her house, but I will restrain myself. While I was working there after the renovations were well under way, she found her husbands credit card statement and was puzzled over the trip to Paris and the fur coats. She had not been to Paris, neither did she own a fur coat. She dug further and to make a long story short, she got a divorce. Her husband was in the leaky condo fix up business so needless to say he was wealthy. She got the house and continued to spend money on it. At one point she was without a kitchen for six months because each time her new cabinets were installed, they were either the wrong colour or the wrong style. (Different from what she had ordered) Her boys had BBQ'ed hot dogs beside the pool for six months.

She was very particular about how things were done and when she found that I could meet her standards, she started referring me to her decorating clients. We have had a very good working relationship for many years now. I meet her every so often at the hospital when I am there visiting a new baby in the family or dealing with an aging father. She always has time to chat and invariably the chatter goes to the health care system. She has been in it for all her working life and has some interesting observations and ideas on how to make it better. But, as all people who do the day to day stuff and know how to improve things, she is not listened to. She is putting in time now and no longer cares and just wants out in order to get her pension and get on with her design business.

She has built two houses since then and I have worked extensively in each one. She is one of the many sources of work I have had over the years.