A Day In Our Life

A Day In Our Life

The Ultimate Blog Challenge is winding down! Today is day 26, only 5 days left.  I have enjoyed coming up with my own topics and using the suggested UBC topic other times.  Today, the suggested topic is to write about a day in our life.  Some of the questions that were asked were, “do you have a routine that you follow”, “are you completely spontaneous”, “do you handle work one way and your personal life another way”, and “what kind of meetings do you have”.

 

My husband and I have owned our interior decorating business for 50 years and love meeting new clients, designing window treatments for their home or business and seeing how happy they are when the treatments are installed.

 

So sit back, grab a cup of tea and I’ll fill you in on a day in our life.

Hubby wakes up early, usually by 4 AM and I sleep in until about 6 AM.  We watch the early news then head out to our store.  Many times we have early morning appointments so we do those on the way in.

Other times, we head right into work. There are also times when we stop at Chick-Filet  for a breakfast biscuit to go. Of course I have a coupon!

 Once our day starts at the store, it goes like this….. we pull out a work order and start planning the design, cutting the fabric, stitching it together and when completed, it’s ready to install.  While hubby is cutting and stitching the treatments for the day, I am doing some paperwork and planning the next project to get started on.   I wait until 9 AM to start making phone calls that came in after hours and set up appointments.   I do have to check the area code to make sure the client isn’t on the west coast, don’t think they want to be woken up at 6 AM!

 

If we don’t have clients come in the store, we stay busy in the workroom fabricating treatments and get them ready to install.  This is me putting a swag treatment together that is put together at the home more than the workroom.

 

 

We plan our afternoon appointments and deliveries for after 2 PM, that way it gives us all morning and early afternoon to be at the store. Many of our clients are out-of-town, the send us a key and we go measure and come up with ideas, doing everything through email.

Since many of the homes and condos we measure are along the coast, I always take a photo of the ocean while measuring, this is about the only time we get to see the water!

 

Now there is one thing hubby does out of the norm when out on our afternoon appointments.  If we are in the area between 2 PM and 5 PM, he will stop at Steak ‘n Shake and get me a half price milk shake! I guess we could consider this doing something completely spontaneous.

 

 

When our day is done, it’s time to head home for a delicious dinner. I do my dinner planning the night before so I can get busy cooking as soon as we get home.  I love seafood and steak with sautéed vegetables are another favorite.  Of course, Wednesday is special, its Zalad Day at Zaxby’s so we get take out salads. If we miss a week, the next time we stop in, they ask where we were the last week!

 

After dinner, it’s a mix of work and personal time. It’s a time to complete any quotes that need to be ready for the next day and time to get morning appointments set up. As for personal time, that’s when I finally get to have fun on the computer, check my earning sites and write my blog posts!  Then with the clock strikes 11 PM, it’s time to find my pillow and come 6 AM, we have an instant replay of the day before.

So as for the questions that were asked at the beginning,  yes we sorta have a routine we follow,  we usually aren’t spontaneous unless someone is in town only for a day and they found a renter pulled their drapery rod out of the ceiling or a stop for a milk shake.  I think we handle work and personal basically the same since even during time at home, work is always on our minds.  Funny tidbit…..when ever we’re at a restaurant, my eye immediately go to the window treatments!

 

So this is what our day looks like, from morning to evening, we enjoy helping our clients turn their house into a beautiful home.  Hubby and I have been doing this routine for 50 years so we can almost do it with our eyes closed. I love being creative and coming up with unique treatments that fit the client.

 

We have been voted Grand Strands Best Decorator/Designer for two years in a row, 2015 and 2016 and since we don’t advertise other than word of mouth and referrals, we are quite proud of this award.  So that’s a day in our life, I hope you enjoyed following us around the shop and on appointments!