MARY LOU TEAGUE'S BLOG

SO HERE IS TO THE ONE THAT SAID MY HAIRSTYLE WAS "DATED" !!!!

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:25:47 -0500

Now I am not about to suggest that I look like her, however a couple of months ago I got a nasty e-mail from a reader on AR that suggested that I might like to update my hair style...This photo was taken several months before we even knew who Sarah Palin was...so to the nasty letter writer...MAYBE I AM NOT SO OUT OF STYLE AS YOU SAY I AM... So now I can cancel my therapy sessions and get on with my life...and you and you know who you are...can find someone else to rag on....

Mary Lou Teague

Home Style and Staging LLC Knoxville, TN

WWW.homestyleandstaging.com

NEED TO KNOW HOW YOU GET THAT "SMOKE" SMELL OUT

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:49:12 -0500

Recently I received a call from a homeowner who has had her home on the market for over 4 months and has had 4 showings...during our discussion I asked what were the comments from the potential buyers after they saw the house.... She said they all said the same thing..that it smelled like cigarette smoke..

She informed me that she was a heavy smoker......

I have seen the photos on the Realtors website and it is a lovey home...the price is right...the only draw back is the smell of cigarette smoke...

I have an appointment to go and see the home...I need advice as to how to get the odor out. So please any and all advice is welcome....

HOME STYLE AND STAGING, LLC

WWW.HOMESTYLEANDSTAGING.COM

MARY LOU TEAGUE

KNOXVILLE, TN

HOMESTYLEANDSTAGING@COMCAST.NET For your Staging and Re-Design needs in Knoxville and East Tennessee

HELPING OTHERS GET STARTED...I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS JUST STARTING OUT

Thu, 22 May 2008 17:23:10 -0500

I remember when I was just starting out on this venture. Starting my own business, not knowing what to do or better yet how to do it !!! I had questions and more questions. I decided to get my training at HSR and realized right away that I had made the right decision to sign with them. I was singing at the top of my voice !!!! It has really paid off...I get referrals from the HSR website and lots of weekly information from HSR... So that is how HOME STYLE AND STAGING LLC was born....

I got an e-mail from someone who was thinking about starting her own business and wanted to ask some questions...well did I ever fill her ears full !!!! I told her just how wonderful HSR is and all the benefits that come with it...I think she is going to sign up with HSR...!!! I wished her well and asked that she keep in touch and let me know how she is doing...

So lets keep the good words flowing about HSR....

HOME STYLE AND STAGING LLC FOR ALL YOUR STAGING AND REDESIGN NEEDS IN KNOXVILLE AND EAST TENNESSEE WWW.HOMESTYLEANDSTAGING.COM HOMESTYLEANDSTAGING@COMCAST.NET

YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU ARE GOING TO MEET.....

Sat, 03 May 2008 20:05:45 -0500

I had a staging appointment yesterday with a homeowner who has had their home on the market for only a couple of months, but they know that in order for their home to stand out from the others that they needed help from a stager...so they "googled" home stagers in my area and HOME STYLE AND STAGING, LLC came up...Thanks to AR !!! ( I can never thank AR enough )....

Walking into the home I was greeted by a very friendly Golden Retriever ..I knew right then and there it was going to be fun...I did a walk through with the couple, talking notes and giving them ideas as we went. We had coffee and chatted as we did the walk through, it was more like I was a friend that they had invited over for the afternoon. So during the conversation, I was very pleased to find out that they were both teachers, had lived all over the country, he had been to Iraq last year, she was home schooling a girl who is on the riding circuit, and could not attend school during the regular school year. But wait.....it gets better. He is an author and has written books and has another one due to be published soon. He gave me a signed copy of his book

"SHIPWRIGHT" BY M. RANDOLPH MASON ... So I asked if he would come to a meeting of WWW BOOK CLUB,

Wine, Women, and Wisdom Book Club a book club I founded a couple of years ago... How often does a book club get to have the actual author at the meeting...not many times.. I can assure you !!! He was so kind to say of course if he was in town....

Not only did I get to do what I love best, re-design and staging, but I met a very interesting couple. Now I can say that I feel that I came away from this gaining more than they did. You just never know who you are going to meet. In this job ( can you really call something you love doing so much ..a job? ) you can meet some of the most fascinating people...who interesting have you met while doing your "JOB" ???

HOME STYLE AND STAGING LLC FOR ALL YOUR STAGING AND RE-DESIGNING NEEDS IN KNOXVILLE AND EAST TENNESSEE WWW.HOMESTYLEANDSTAGING.COM HOMESTYLEANDSTAGING@COMCAST.NET

WHO IS "HOME STYLE AND STAGING, LLC" ?????

Sat, 03 May 2008 19:24:11 -0500

So who is this Mary Lou Teague founder of HOME STYLE AND STAGING, LLC ?? Please go to http://www.homestlyeandstaging.com/ and get to know her....

I am really glad to see our own Tennessee group, to exchange ideas and hopefully make new friends and

contacts. If I can help in anyway please just give me call or e-mail...Looking forward to meeting alot of new people here...

HOME STYLE AND STAGING LLC FOR ALL YOUR STAGING AND RE-DESIGN NEEDS IN KNOXVILLE AND EAST TENNESSEE CALL NOW FOR YOUR HOME AND OFFICE HOLIDAY DECORATING

I KNOW THAT I PROMISED..BUT COULD NOT HELP MYSELF..COMMODE COVERS MARCH ON

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:03:28 -0500

I have received an e-mail from Gina McNew on the continuing story of the commode covers. Gina sent me the link to COMMODE COVER TATTOS, YES, you read it correctly, it seems that instead of a "germy" , "nasty" cloth commode cover you can now have the luxury of a beauiful print or color tattoed right on the commode cover. LISTEN... I cannot make this stuff up. I never thought in a million years that my off the mark comment about commode covers would become such a blogging phenomenon. That people would be walking through department store and take photos and send them to me...

(Thanks to Sandy Ridway, Designs For You.)

I was watching a "flipping show" when the "flipper" had staged his own "flip" and right there on the screen in 2008 was a commode cover set...so I felt I needed to make a comment...and did I ever, and now the world knows me as "Queen Loo Loo" a cleaver play on my name don't you think ??? Gina also provided this nice cover photo......Once again the story marches on...

http://www.toilet-tattoos.com/ Yes it is an actual web-site..!!! For some fun and to keep the "COMMODE COVER" story going.... Please check it out...

So I know I said that I would "CLOSE THE LID" on this story, but some stories you just can't let go of !!!

HOME STYLE AND STAGING LLC FOR ALL YOUR STAGING AND RE-DESIGN NEEDS IN KNOXVILLE AND EAST TENNESSEE

HOW FAR WILL YOU GO ??? TRAVEL TO DO A PRESENTATION..THAT IS !!!

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:54:38 -0600

I send out e-mails every quarter to Realtors and this past week I got a response from Realtor that is about 70 miles from my home town. The e-mail was asking for Partnerships..Believe it or not a get great feed back from these. Anyway, back to the question. They are about 70 miles from here, and yes I am going to go to their office EARLY ( leaving the house at the crack of dawn ) one morning next week and do a presentation for their weekly sales force. They have, I am told, around 12 agents, that will be there. I am planning on taking breakfast ( I want to know what you do ). How far will you go to do a presentation ?

My Partnership is that I will accompany the Realtor when they take the photos for the web-site where they will show the photos of the home. I will be the one that gently tells the homeowners that all the photos of nice Aunt Betty will just have to go for now.

I have gotten some great Partnerships this way.

Now this had a alot of Aunt Betty photos !!!

LIBERACE WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS BATH !! GOLD LAME' FROM THE 60'S

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:27:10 -0600

I absolutely cannot wait to show this to you..Liberace would have loved this bath !!! He would have loved to had his piano in there. Complete with gold wall paper on the ceiling, the brass fixtures, and matching tile in the bath and on the floor. It made you dizzy just to walk into the room. Here are the before, well actually I do not even have to say the "before" because if you should not be able to distinguish between the two, well you may want to consider another line of work. The wallpaper was professionally applied so it came off in sheets (lucky for us ). We took out the sink and replaced it with a sewing machine table and added the bowl. All of the fixtures were taken down and sprayed with a bronze spray paint. I made the curtain out of material found on sale. The walls were painted. Then there was the subject of the ceiling...That lovely ceiling that was adorned with matching wall paper. We purchased the tin tiles and placed on the ceiling. New mirror and we did away with the light fixture on the wall as this is actually a powder room and the over head lights were enough. The look ? Well you can see for yourself...I know, I know these photos are REALLY big, sorry about that I could not get them smaller..I tried, but obviously I do not know what I am doing in that arena.

HOME STYLE AND STAGING LLC CAN HELP CHANGE ANY ROOM THAT YOU MAY HAVE INTO A WORK OF ART !!!

GIVE US A CALL (865) 368 8484 OR E-MAIL HOMESTYLEANDSTAGING@COMCAST.

www.homestyleandstaging.com HOME STYLE AND STAGING LLC FOR ALL YOUR STAGING AND RE-DESIGN NEEDS IN KNOXVILLE AND EAST TENNESSEE

ASHSR EAST TENNESEE CHAPTER MEETING TO BE HELD KNOXVILLE, TN

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:02:51 -0600

I would like to invite all those that are local to the Knoxville, Tn area to come to our first ASHSR East Tennessee Chapter meeting. It will be held at Copper Cellar on Kingston Pike at 11:30 AM on February 12th. We will have a Realtor on hand to answer questions that we may have for them. This will be a round table discussion. Please if you are interested in attending go to WWW.ASHSR.COM then to Chapters.. then East Tennessee.. and you can e-mail me your RSVP if you would like to join us. Looking forward to a great meeting.

AM I WRONG, BUT AREN'T COMMODE COVERS A THING OF THE PAST ??

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:55:25 -0600

Gotta say this....yes I do watch some of the "staging" shows on TV..the other night while flipping the channels I was taken aback when I stopped to view a show where someone had "flipped" a home and the Realtor was doing his final walk thru. The "flipper" was so pleased with himself, telling the Realtor and those of us in TVLand that he had done the "Staging" . I think that the Realtor right then and there should have said...WHOA there big guy, you may want to stick to flipping and leave the staging to the professionals... What got my attention was when he was so proudly showing off the master bath, right there before my eyes...burgundy, YES you read correctly, burgundy !!! A burgundy toilet seat cover, tank cover and matching toilet rug, you know the kind that has the cut out for the bottom of the bowl ? Oh and then he didn't stop there, there were burgundy and white striped towels, WAIT it gets better, yes you guessed it, fake greenery all over the place. Am I wrong, you don't do that, do you ??? Have I missed something ? The really scarey part is that this was a new showing, it was taped recently. I guess that someone somewhere thought that it looked good, but it was not staging...Me Bad ???? That is why people who see shows such as that one think that they can stage their own homes for sale.

HELP, I NEED HELP..WANTED: E-MAIL LETTERS TO SEND TO REALTORS

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:12:26 -0600

I have had very good luck with sending e-mail letters to Realtors, ( for every 30 that I send out I usually get one reply) however, some of my letters are getting very "tired" and "worn". Need ideas or would you please share your letters with me, I am in Tennessee so anyone in another state would be safe in sharing with me.( We would not be sending to the same Realtors ) I need your help, I have run out of "catchy" ideas for e-mail letters..HELP !!!!

STAGERS GETTING A BAD NAME, AS IF WE DIDN'T ALREADY HAVE BATTLES TO FIGHT

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:01:38 -0600

I was recently contacted by a local mortgage professional. He was working with two Realtors in my area and had dropped by when they were having an open house. Much to his surprise the house had been staged ??? and was to say it mildly, a disaster. The stager ( can she actually call herself that ???) had told the Realtors that they could just keep the sofa and the staging "props"). This "stager" had brought to the house a worn-out couch, a picture frame with no print in it ( hung on the wall ) and this is the deal sealer.. a small bistro set was placed in the dining room. The mortgage professional and the two Realtors were taken aback to say the least. However, they could not voice an opinon as the stager had been hired by the homeowner. When the homeowner came by after the open house, needless to say he was not happy about paying $450 for this staging and then on top of it all, he was left with the mess and having to remove everything. I guess what I am trying to say here is that, what with the all the things that we have to deal with, the oppositions to staging and homeowners and Realtors thinking that they can stage themselves, we also have stagers out there that give us a bad name...have any of you come across a similar situation ? One very good thing did come from this, I have met and will be working with two go-getter Realtors and a mortgage professional that is an awesome networker.( That by the way found me here on AR ).

WHAT TO DO WITH A TV CABINET FOR THE HOLIDAYS, DECORATE !!!!

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:12:04 -0600

I was decorating this home when the homeowner said that corner looks bare...and yes it did. It was the TV cabinet and the top had nothing sitting on it...So I put my thinking cap on and this is what I came up with. After a trip to Dollar General store for mini lights, white candles, and some white plastic snow flake decorations. The wandered through the owners home ( don't you just love "shopping" in someone's home ? She had these wonderful antique white candlestick holders and vases...I had a great time making this bare corner BRIGHT WITH LIGHTS !! Let me know what you think.. and I still do not know how to place the photos...sorry..

HOT TUB , WANT TO JUMP IN ???

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:22:40 -0600

The Realtor that I worked with had placed the "Before" photo on his web-site, as you can see it was uninviting and you could not even see that the lake was right there. How relaxing, sitting in the hot tub, glass of wine and a view of the lake !!! I did the staging, showing off the view of the lake. Now he has placed my "after" photos on the web-site and he had a call just one week after changing all the photos. You gotta show it off and make them want to jump in and have a glass of wine..Give me some feed back...

BATHROOM FROM DRAB TO "SPA-LIKE" IN A SMALL SPACE

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:13:20 -0600

Oh what to do in a small bathroom to give it that "SPA-LIKE" feel ??? .. Give me some feed back, the owner loved it and wanted to keep my things. I keep all white accessories handy for making a bathroom into a spa. However, this was a little challanging since the room was long and narrow. Since I am fairly new at this let me know what you think, what I could have done, what maybe I should have not done... The realtor had the photos on his web-site that were my "before" and after I did the staging he changed his photo on the web-site.

NO MONEY TO CHANGE OUT CABINETS ! YOU CAN ALWAYS PAINT

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:57:14 -0600

I recently was asked to stage a home on the lake, well it became something more. The owner asked that I do a little more that staging the home, she asked what we could do to make the house "POP". The house was older and very dark. I suggested that she paint the cabinets and replace the hardware, paint the paneling in the kitchen. I hired a painter to do the work. I did some of the work, instead of buying new hinges, I sprayed them black. Actually I had forgotten about them and since this location was far from the local Lowe's or Home Depot, I had to improvise, since the hinges really did not show, it came out very well. Here are my before and after photos.

One way to get your name out to the public

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:31:43 -0600

I needed to get my name out in front of the public...so I decided to make an arrangement for "Fantasy of Trees" it is a week long gala showcasing trees, arrangments etc for the benefit of Children's Hospital. I made the arrangement shown and mine was sold the very first night....my name and company name were shown in the newspapers, fliers etc..I got my name out there as a designer and home stager and also did my part for the benefit..which is the main focus...( I hope that this picture comes through )...

Marketing to Realtors

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:27:06 -0600

Since I have just gotten my certification and started to market myself, I need to get some hints on what has worked ( or not worked ) for others. I am in Tennessee and so far I have done marketing to local realtors and to manufactured home dealers. I have an e-mail that I send to realtors that has worked very well for me. In fact for every 30 I send out I get a return of 2. This is amazing, they either need more info, asking for help, asking to meet with me, the results have been very good. I would like to hear from others on what you are doing and if you would share some of your secrets...I am in Tennesse so I will not be stepping on anyone toes !!! Do most of you have web sites ? Thanks for all your help !!! I am just 6 months into this and learning something new everyday. Thanks !!!

Getting furniture from furniture companies for staging

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:49:32 -0600

Where do you get your furniture for staging vacant houses ? I am just starting to venture into the vacant homes staging and need to know where you get your furniture. I spoke with one furniture dealer and they do not "rent" or "lease" furniture for staging. Need to know the best places to go, as I, as I stated, have just started the vacant home staging and do not have a surplus of furniture to use. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you

Home Staging: Working with realtors and homeowners

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:51:14 -0600

When thinking about "home staging" are you working with the realtor or the homeowners more ? I have found that working with the realtor on the front end has worked best for both the realtor and the homeowner. If you are a realtor do you prefer working with the home stager or having them work directly with the homeowner ?