On the eve of Independence Day, I was flipping through some photos and found this picture of a little gypsy village just outside of Oradea, Romania.  I am quickly reminded of a trip my husband and I took to Romania several years ago.  Along with 13 other team members, my husband and I traveled across the world to build a home for unwed mothers. 

At that time, Romania's poverty was so bad that women would abandon their babies in the hospital.  With no where to go, the hospital staff would feed the babies rice milk and swab them with RAID to keep the insects off of them.  Most were left to die, not necessarily from starvation, but from the lack of attention and love.  A very brave young lady (social worker in the States) visited Romania and fell in love with helping the children.  She opened an orphanage and three years later convinced the government to donate a piece of property to construct a home for unwed mothers.  Her heart felt compelled to stop women from leaving their children by giving them a home.  In this safe environment, each woman could be taught a trade (sewing), earn money and eventually learn to provide for their children.  We were very fortunate to be apart of building Agape Home. 

Here is a photo of a nearby gypsy village.  Most homes pictured are built with clay & mud.  Some homes have roofs made from scraps of plastic and cardboard.

Here is Agape Home. 

Believe it or not, here I am holding the wall while it is being secured.

Here is Agape Home completed in just 8 days!  We were careful not to overbuild for the neighborhood, after all, it sits in the middle of a cornfield and just outside a gypsy village.  2400 SF.  I know all of you stagers, would love to get your hands of this one!!

Here are the little gypsy children playing nearby.  Their clothes torn and tattered.  Children under five are sent out to play without clothes so if they need to go to the bathroom they just squat and go.  The entire time we were there, the children were always playing and having fun.  On the day we left, we gave them clothing and sweet treats.

Here in the States we have beautiful homes, wonderful jobs (as Stagers, of course!) and freedom to come and go as we please.  Let us not forget the price that was paid for those liberties.   Let us not forget those who sacrifice everyday so that we can call America "Home".  Most of all, let us not forget just how blessed we are!  God Bless America...indeed!!!!!!!!!

Today, I simply staged a home located near the heart of Charleston.

A very nervous investor hired me to stage a property located in West Ashley, just minutes from downtown Charleston.  This investor had never used a stager before and therefore, did not have a budget for staging.   Just last week I wrote a post "Staging for the future..." in which I discussed the problem of a non-staging budget and this was a perfect example.  

As we worked out a budget for staging I explained that I wanted his future business.  The investor agreed to give staging a try.  Here are a few photos:

As the investor walked in, he said...Wow!  Unbelievable!  As he stood gazing, he said... I have another property that I need you to stage.  In my mind I began to cheer...S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!!  I love it when a client becomes a staging believer.

If some of the items look familiar, it is because one of my properties sold so my team and I de-staged that property to stage this property...all  in one day.  Now that is staging at its finest!

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Stage It Now, LLC is dedicated to helping clients present their home as the "perfect package" to potential buyers. In a buyer's market, you only get one chance to create that first impression. Stage it now and get the most out of your investment.

Stage It Now, LLC also offers products for stagers. Please visit www.TheStagingMart.com to see our amazing Foldable Staging Furniture (patent pending).   Visit us at www.stageitnow.net and www.stagedhomes.com and www.TheStagingMart.com

Recently I moved my daughter home from college for the summer.  During the move, my daughter pointed out that the remaining furniture would be placed on the curb the next day and that it would be taken to the garbage.  She said that if there was anything I could use, I was welcome to take it.  Feeling like scene out of Sandford & Son, I loaded a 12 X 24 Mirror with gold trim (now painted black) and a unique gaming table in to the trailer.   I was so excited because I had just scheduled a staging job that had a huge bonus room.  I could picture the gaming table in that space. 

From College Trash to a Stager's Treasure.  This beautiful gaming vignette was simple but effective.  I purchased a glass chess set and added two leather chairs.  Now I am thinking a foldable gaming table would be fantastic to add to the Foldable Staging Furniture.

Stage It Now, LLC is dedicated to helping clients present their home as the "perfect package" to potential buyers.  In a buyer's market, you only get one chance to create that first impression.  Stage It Now and get the most out of your investment.  Stage It Now, LLC also offers products for stagers.  Please visit www.TheStagingMart.comto see our amazing Foldable Staging Furniture (patent pending).

Visit us at www.stageitnow.net, www.stagedhomes.com and www.TheStagingMart.com

According to www.StagedHomes.com " there are 6 main ingredients that make up the sale of your home: 1. Location; 2. Condition; 3. Price; 4. Terms; 5. The market and 6. Staging." With this in mind, why not build a team of professionals to help you get your home sold.

Just think about it... highly trained professionals also known as experts in their field. These experts can advise you on the latest trends, what buyers are looking for, and how to prepare for today's market. When experts are involved, the element of guessing is eliminated.

Team player - A Staging Professional- hiring a Professional Home Stager will help you prepare your home inside/out. This expert can share information with you on what buyers want and what they do not want. They will advise on paint colors, landscaping, furniture placement, updating furniture, de-cluttering, and organizing. They also can bid the job at hand so that you can continue to do what you do best.

Team player - A Realtor - hiring a Real Estate Professional will help you to determine the price of your home and the terms available for potential buyers. This team player will also be your advertising agent by... listing the home on the MLS, advertising your home on the internet, holding open houses, preparing for agent caravans and networking with other agents to get your property sold.

Other possible team players: Handyman, Landscaper and Painter

A great team will work together to accomplish one goal...to get your home SOLD!

If you are looking for a Professional Home Stager to join your team, call on Stage It Now, LLC @ www.stageitnow.net.

Lightly Staged Vacant Remodel located Charleston.  This beautifully remodeled home located at 6825 Amberlake Drive is now available.

                   Before                                                                   After

                 Before                                                                          After

                     Before Kitchen                                                After - Adding just a little color

                 Master Bedroom Before                                   After with Foldable Staging Furniture

                  Bonus Room Before                                              Bonus Room After

A lightly staged home gives the property just enough appeal for a sale!  This home was lightly stage two weeks ago and already had several prospective buyers. 

It appears for the past year couple of years, we as stagers have been creating an awareness of the need for staging homes. In our quest for public responsiveness, we have inundated our Real Estate Agents with information regarding staging and its benefits. Some of us have joined teams and even blogging communities to share the good news of staging and what it has to offer. It has been truly amazing to see the how the public has responded to our efforts. With all of our hard work and good efforts paying off, I feel there is still an element of education that needs to take us to the next step in building our staging communities and that is... budget.

Lately, I find my self educating Realtors, Builders, Investors and Homeowners on the importance of adding Staging to their budget. What I have found, is that most of my potential clients want to stage their property because they understand the importance of staging. For the most part, they understand my fees and the amount of work that goes into making a property the "perfect package". But the reality is, some clients have not added staging to their budget. With that being said, it is important for us to remember...

Builders and Investors will always be building, remodeling and selling their homes therefore, we should be educating them on the importance of adding staging to their budget. The average homeowner will buy and sell homes several times in their life time, therefore, building a relationship with them requires that we also educate them on the importance of a staging budget. Last but not least, are Realtors. It is a Realtor‘s passion to help clients sell and buy homes, therefore, let's talk about the a "Staging Budget" with them and their clients.

Several months ago I staged a home for a client who was moving out of state. During my consultation, I began to educate them on the benefits of staging and I also began to talk to them about the future. I explained that in their new home they may want to choose paint colors that are popular colors for staging and they may want to budget for staging for their next move. They were so excited to sell their home in just 7wks (1^st week they had an offer, they turned it down) that they asked if I could help them prepare their new house. I plan to visit them and help them with their new home next month. They understand the importance of staging their property and plan to budget staging for their next move.

Could you imaging a future where everyone had a budget for staging their properties?

Furniture for Staging UPDATE!!

Several month ago, I posted a blog Foldable Staging Furniture...A Stager's Dream and it began to rain. Thank you activerain for the over whelming response for the Foldable Staging Furniture. Although your responses were wonderful, there were a few of you who could not find the furniture on the www.StageItNow.net site. The Stage It Now website was designed to host information regarding my staging business and it was not designed to be a web store. However, there is great new! You can now find the Foldable Staging Furniture at wwwTheStagingMart.com .

TheStagingMart.com is a premier retailer for Home Furnishings, Home Decor, Foldable Staging Furniture(patent pending), and Accessories. This site is designed for Professional Home Stagers, Professional Organizers and Professional Decorators. The StagingMart.com is dedicated to helping Professionals build their inventory with unique Home Decor Items and Accessories. Over the next several months, we will be adding an amazing amount of products to our web, store so be sure to visit us often.

We also strive to bring new and innovative ideas in home decor so that professionals may experience one stop shopping for their business. As a part of that commitment, we offer special buying privileges to our customers. Please visit www.TheStagingMart.com and press the email button and send us your name, company name, address and phone number and we will add you to our mailing list and send you a letter with details of how to earn points. Just sign up today and begin earning Home Decor Points (HDP). These points help you to earn free art, furniture and accessories. A great way to build your inventory.

It is amazing to me that a simple idea continues to grow and grow. With this in mind, I would like you to share your ideas about the site and how we can help you grow your business. What do you need and what would you like to have access to? Let it rain, Let it rain, Let it rain!

 Again, Thank you Activerain!!!

Crust -

1  pkg butter receipe cake mix, 1/2 cup of butter softened

Filling -

2 oz of HEATH Toffee chips, 3 ( 8oz) pkg cream cheese,( soften to room temp), 1/3 cup sugar, 3 tablespons of all purpose flour, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoons rum extract.

Topping -

1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup chopped pecans.

Heat oven to 325.

Combine cake mix and butter at low speed(until crumbly), reserve 1 cup of mixture for topping.

Press mixture in bottom and at least 1" to 1 1/2" up the side of a springform pan(ungreased).

Combine cream cheese, sugar, flour and rum extract beat at the lowest speed until creamy.  Add eggs and mix well at lowest speed.  Stir in toffee and pour into crust-lined pan.

Combine reserved topping mixture with brown sugar and pecans, sprinkle over top of cheescake mixture.

Bake at 325 for 70 to 80 minutes(center will be firm).  Remove and cool for 30 minutes and refrigerate for 5 hours before serving.

*** when cooking cheesecake there are two important factors:

1.  Mix slowly- this will help decrease the amout of air that gets into the batter when mixing. Air causes chessecake to crack.

2.  Place a shallow pan of water on the shelf under the cheesecake to prevent cheescake from cracking. 

Be careful not to eat the entire cheesecake by yourself!!!Ha!!!

How many times have you had to get rid of a piece of furniture that you really love just because it was scratched?  With todays busy times of renting out staging furniture, there is hardly time to discard scratched furniture.  In this Real Estate Market, stagers often need more furniture, not less. Here is an example of how to save your furniture.

I recently worked with a client who had beautiful dining furniture.  When I first viewed this room, I assumed that the reason this tabled was covered was to protect it from the everyday clutter that accumulates from having a business.  However, the client informed me that table cloth was there to hide scratches.  I suggested that we remove the table cloth and try to repair the scratches so that the table would show well.  She laughed and said, you may want to see the table first. After viewing the scratches, I said to her let me try to repair it because I am not fond of table clothes.  She agreed (she probably thought to herself "it can't get any worse").  Here is the before photo:

On the day of staging, I removed the table cloth and begin to work on the scratches.  With my Gardsman Touch-up Pen in hand, I began to fill in the scratches by applying lightly in the direction of the grain.  Immediately I began to rub with a soft cloth to remove excess.  After a few minutes of drying time, I used Old English polish to give the table a radiant shine.  Here is the after photo:

Our Stage It Now team removed the insert and two chairs to make the room appear larger.  Now the table shows amazing well.

I also repaired a kitchen cabinet door that had been scratched and appeared worn.  The cabinet door now looks wonderful and you can't tell it was ever damaged.

Be sure to add this wonderful tool to your staging caddy!

 A little change does a fireplace good, especially when it is old, outdated, and has a buck stove.  What about that wall attached to the fireplace?  Fire hazard??? What would HGTV do?  Thinking back to the many episodes that I watched of HGTV's, Real Estate Shows, "Design to Sell" and "Flip that House. I remembered seeing others transform old fireplaces with stone.  What a wonderful idea, but first things first.  The old buck stove had to go.  Great idea! Let's just pull it out and take it to the dump. 

Here is some trivia...How much does a buck stove weight???? Answer...just enough to feed my team lunch.  That's correct, instead of taking it to the dump, I took it to the scrap yard (it was closer than the dump Ha!). Next on the agenda, move...that...wall!

Here is the before photo and yes that is a cord that was used to plug the blower in.  Now you know why the wall was so close.  Creative, don't you think? 

Fireplace before

Below are the shocking results.  The wall was moved, sheetrock was installed, the fireplace was covered in Travertine stone, and a solid cherry mantle was installed to match the new hardwood floors.  This photo does not do this fireplace justice because you can't see the overlay-ed pattern at the opening of the fireplace.  The fireplace remained intact, we just gave it a little face-lift.  Then my heart cried out Stage It Now!!!!

On a side note... I was getting the room ready for staging when I heard the sweet little bird chirping.   At the time, I was by myself.  All I could think was that the damper to this old fireplace was open and this sweet little bird got in and now it was trapped.  What should I do?  I stuck my head up in the fireplace to see if I could rescue it, but it was too dark to see anything so I waited for my husband to return.  When he returned he said to me, Patty, you may want to walk outside for a moment and he had this strange look on his face, which told me to take him serious.  Low and behold the bird was really a bat.  Can you imagine if that bat had taken flight with me and my head up in that fireplace?  Nothing on HGTV could have prepared me for that!   It is funny now, but no so funny when it happened.

So here is my favorite part...the end results!

Stone is great for updating old brick fireplaces.  Travertine was use here to match the kitchen flooring. Layering of stone can give a dramatic 3D effect.

It is so much easier to stage a beautiful room.  Don't you agree?

I love designing, but I really love to see the end results.

 **Please note:  No bats were harmed during this transformation. The bat left and a screen was installed over the chimney cap the next day.