I'm actually away on 'vacation' for a few days of "r and r" up on Martha's Vineyard, but am occasionally checking on my e-mail and the activity on Active Rain...

On the way up here, I was thinking about the job that I completed on Tuesday.  It was a huge new construction in a very 'tony' area of Long Island.  The interior work was mostly completed with the exception of fixtures, cabinet fronts, back-splash, and faucets.  In addition some of the bathrooms were only tiled, so needed to be completed.

The furniture was delivered on Monday, and I staged most of the day, but decided around 5 pm that I really needed more accessories, and so went shopping until around 9 pm.

When I returned to complete that work on Tuesday afternoon, I discovered that more work was being done and that all of the furniture was covered with a film of white dust.  All of the kitchen counters that I had so carefully staged were torn apart so that the workers could install the cabinet fronts, molding and back-splash.  I was also informed that all of the wood floors on the first level were being redone, so all of the furniture and rugs were going to have to be removed and then put back when the work was completed.

What did I learn from this?  I learned that sometimes it is not all "cut and dried"....that we may be called in to do a job and then discover that we really have no control over the outcome.  Such is the life of a stager.  We have to be extremely flexible and ready to go from "plan A" to "plan B" and so forth.

It's really unfortunate that I won't be able to get back into that house before the big Open House this Sunday.  I can do 'damage control' next week when I return to my 'island', but I can't help but be saddened that I cannot get it all done BEFORE the Open House.  I did e-mail 'after' pictures to the builder so that he could put everything back after all work was completed, but in my heart I know that I will need to 'tweak' it and give it my personal 'touch' in order to restore everything to my high standards.

This is all part of being a Home Stager.  I would like to add that I have staged other new construction houses that also HAVE NOT been completed in their entirety...in one there were no kitchen or bathrooms and in the other a few of the bathrooms were incomplete.  As Stagers, we just have to be able to "go with the flow"...