It Aint All Glamour, Ya Know! - Home Staging in Vancouver, B.C.
When we first get into the business of Home Staging, we have images of flitting around a property, wearing designer clothing, and gently placing a vase here, and an orchid there. Our nails are all finely manicured and painted the latest soft pink. We gently brush back a rogue hair away from our brow, as we contemplate the placement of our vase and move and rearrange said item until we are perfectly satisfied, before moving on to the next "objet".
Then reality strikes us like Dorothy's house crashing down, and we exclaim "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore"... The fact is, being a Home Stager is far from glamorous work. In fact, it's just darn hard work! I use the verb "schlepp" a lot, because I seem to do a lot of schlepping or lifting, or crawling, or fastening, or bending, or tucking, or hammering. The list goes on and on.
I was thinking about all this, as I went to the furniture dealer and picked up a new dining room table and six chairs that looked fabulous in the show room. My, I thought, wouldn't they look great in a staged property. I drove my van around to the loading bay (really, really not a glamorous spot), and the loading bay guy brought out the first of my chairs... in a box! Oh! I have to assemble the chairs. Hmmmm, ok, not a problem; how hard can that be? Six chairs, two chairs in each box, and a big flat box that represented the table. Phew! Drove home and schlepped unloaded the boxes into the house. Opened the first box, pulled out the directions with all the diagrams and letters and pictures of screws that all look the same. The directions said that the chairs would take 20 minutes each to assemble. Wow, that's not bad - great! I'll get started.
Well, I found the enormous bag full of washers, screws and round thingy dingies and was amazed that it took so many screws for one 
little chair. Not to be daunted, I carried on. Gee, I guess the manufacturer wasn't too concerned that the hole doesn't really match up very well, and therefore the screw is having a hard time making it through the hole. Grrrrrrr. Oh, and it's really hard to turn the screw driver because the hole is flat up against the side of the seat, so I have to sit in an extreme yoga position, I believe they call it the screaming cat, to be able to get the screw in at the proper angle. Turning and fighting with the screws has resulted in very sore, swollen fingers.
However, there is a silver lining, and one and a half hours later, I had 2 chairs assembled... and only 4 more to go! I think I need to take a rest, put on my fluffy slippers, pour myself a nice glass of Champagne, put my feet up and read the latest interior design magazine, chock full of the latest, cutting edge designs in Europe. Ahhhh, one can only dream.
THE REAL NUTS AND BOLTS ON BEING A HOME STAGER!
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