The Banker

One of the very first interior decorators that ever worked in our little city was a gal by the name of Mickey. She was good friends with the owners of this house and suggested they call me about doing some work in their house. These are very nice people and we got along famously. I discovered that he was a retired banker and his wife was an elementary school teacher, who was still working at the time. He had always enjoyed landscaping and outdoor work as therapy from his indoor high stress job as a bank manger. As a result, he started a landscaping and patio business and had a lot of work. In his own house, he was very fussy, but when he recommended me to one of his clients for whom he had done an interior renovation, I soon discovered that his work should have been limited to outdoors. There is a very different standard for retaining walls than there is for interior drywall.
I hung some beautiful wallpaper in this house, and later, when they sold and moved into a high-rise, I totally re-decorated their new suite. They have since moved to the Okanagan. The customer he steered me too is still a regular, in fact we have a project at her house right now and is in the same neighbourhood.
You cannot see it in this photo, but the front door is painted navy blue. When I did it, she was thrilled and it was her pride and joy. Before the high gloss paint had a chance to completely cure and harden, the paper boy threw the daily paper against it one morning and put a small scuff into it. She was mortified and called me back to re-paint the door. She said she was going to squeeze the money out of the paper boy. I never heard back to learn if she was successful. Paper boys are not that wealthy, but they can certainly learn to improve their aim.