Hello, My name is Leanna Patton and this is my home remodeling story.

For those of you that know me and my family, you know that we have moved a lot! In addition to our day jobs we have built, sold and remodeled many times over the past twenty three years. We have moved over a dozen times, in addition to spec houses that we sold but did not move into. I’m grateful for every house that we have ever owned, but I’m especially grateful for the one we live in now. This time last year we had movers lined up to move and did not know where we were moving. Not a great feeling!

So here’s the story.  We sold our house and bought a lot to build on. We had  trouble finding a house to rent. I had approached the seller of a home that had been on the market four or five years about renting his home. He was reluctant at first, but I told him we would stage his house and have it ready for him to show. We signed a six-month lease with the intention of renting month-to-month after that.  After all, the house had not even been shown in a year. No problem, right? Wrong!

We moved in and staged the house. We were there one week,  and the realtors lined up a showing. They loved it! They came back the next week and started negotiating. The house sold! Are you kidding me?  (That’s the power of staging,  my friends!) So now the heat was on! We still had a little over five months to have our house built and move. It was a great plan, but it didn’t work out. When we went to get our building permit and found out that the tertiary plan had expired, it threw  a kink in the plans. Never heard of a tertiary plan? Well, I hadn’t either until then.

So short story long the plan had to be drawn and the permits filed with a little over four months to build and move. Not going to happen! We decided to look for a house that was already built because of our timeline. With no luck on a few houses that were short sales, we were back to the drawing board! This house was not listed but the neighbors told us that it was for sale and the people had moved out of town. They owned several restaurants, so I called and left a message at one of them. I didn’t really even expect to hear back; but,  a few days later,  I received a phone call and they sent someone to come meet us at the house. Two weeks later we were moving in! Success!

Over the past year we have been working bit by bit on our ongoing home remodeling project. We put in a new kitchen, renovated the bathrooms, painted throughout the house and refinished hardwood floors, among other things. As we continue to improve our current home,  I’ll be sharing before and afters with you, along with other homes I’ve worked in. Stay tuned if you are interested in learning more about creative design and interior decorating!