I love what I do because of nights like last night. I met my neighbor/builder/friend for a drink to talk about Fix or Find and we barely made it through the first slide of my presentation before diving into an unexpected tangent, “Do you really think a house can make you happy?” What caught his attention was the buzz word that I have printed right there on my business card, Find Your…Happy Place. I realize now that his mind went immediately to the suburban idea of “Keeping up with the Joneses,” where there is a very real and contagious epidemic of trying to spend your way towards happiness, through our homes and possessions. But that’s not sustainable, and not at at all what I have in mind for my clients.
The question of whether or not a house can make you happy is the exact reason that I decided to get my real estate license, and is now at the core of what makes Fix or Find unique. Architects and Home Designers are trained to make beautiful buildings, myself included. But it takes more than a thoughtful use of space, materials, proportion, and light to make the perfect HOME. Location, Location, Location. You’ve heard it before but what does it really mean? It means, if you want to be happy, you better build or buy in a location that makes sense for you, where you are surrounded by the things that interest you, with access to the parks, schools, transportation, shopping, recreation, jobs, and people that matter to you and your family, and that promotes the life that you want to live.
Before I had my Real Estate license, I wouldn’t have considered asking my design clients “Before we get started with design, let me ask you, Do you love your neighborhood, Do you love where you live?” And in a similar fashion, I don’t know many Realtors that would go out of their way to help their clients stay in their existing homes, by renovating, but that’s exactly what I do, with the ultimate goal of finding them happiness. This consultation requires impartiality, a complete financial analysis of construction costs and market conditions, and a designer’s perspective to observe and discover all possible options.