2020 Tour of Homes
How can we sum up this year’s Tour of Homes? Blood, sweat and tears, lots of laughter, water (and a few margaritas), lack of sleep, hours of music, and a vat of caffeine! (Scroll to the very bottom of the blog for funny moments, experiences, etc..)
The 2020 COBA Tour of Homes was our biggest challenge to date. Not only for the number of houses we had the pleasure of staging (15 - including one home in the Marion and Polk County Tour of Homes in Dallas, OR), but we had to do it all amidst a global pandemic. Seriously, we had 15 full stages, not including our regular staging jobs - in a pandemic - where everything was shut down, we couldn’t order online, we couldn’t get a hold of our vendors due to them manning down, and the struggle to buy toilet paper for our warehouse was real!
Luckily, we made it through and with TWO WHOLE DAYS TO SPARE before the opening day!
The Tour of Homes itself went by smoothly, even with COVID-19 precautions in place. Social distancing, required masks, sanitizing, not reusing your same booties from home to home, and one-way walkthroughs made tour safe for everyone. However, this year was extra special…each home was available for 3-D virtual walkthroughs thanks to Dry Sky Photography using the Matterport. Not only can you work from home in your sweats or pajamas, but you can attend the tour in the same outfit while staying safe and staying home! NEAT!
Simplicity by Hayden Homes
We staged two homes for Simplicity this year. One big beautiful home in Tetherow and one very stylish home on the East side of Bend with an ADU (accessory dwelling unit). ADU’s are very desirable right now and we saw a couple of them featured on this year’s tour. Check out Simplicity’s Blog for more information on these homes!
Bear Creek with ADU by Simplicity
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Feature – ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit)
Tetherow Resort by Simplicity
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best of Show, Best Kitchen, Best Landscaping, Best Master Suite, and Best Value
Pahlisch Homes
We were able to stage two model homes that Pahlisch had on the tour. We love the opportunity to stage model homes, but it’s always a lot of pressure since they will last for a couple of years! In this crazy housing market though…probably less! Check out Luderman Crossing in the heart of Bend and Triple Ridge in SW Redmond!
Luderman Crossing- Bend
Triple Ridge- Redmond
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Kitchen
Woodhill Homes
We were running all around central Oregon for Woodhill this year! They had us stage THREE of their homes, one in each town - Bend, Redmond, and Sisters, Or. Woodhill has some of our favorite floorplans on the tour. They’re now building in Corvallis as well, and Mariah is hoping to stage a home over there so she can visit her alma mater (GO BEAVS!) hint hint, Woodhill… Check them out!
Saddlestone- Sisters
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Master Suite
Hawley Estates- Redmond
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Kitchen and Best Landscaping
Ogden and ADU- Bend
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Feature (ADU) and Green Building Award
Pacific Construction and Development
This was one of the first tour homes we completed! It took us a couple of days, but going outside to check out that mountain view was a nice refresh! We love how they paired the floating shelves with cabinets and had a butler pantry as well. Really neat ideas. We look forward to working with Pacific Construction and Development in the future!
Grand Peaks at Sisters- Sisters
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Feature (Butler Pantry) and Best Interior Finish
Lifestyle Homes
Lifestyle Homes took on the COBA Showcase home this year, and let us tell ya….lot’s of talented people came together for this project. The COBA Showcase home is 100% donated time, materials, and so much more! SS&D donated between $7,500-$9,999 this year (include’s Karrie’s design time and coordinating between contractors and the staging itself)! This home was so perfect the first person to see it BOUGHT IT!
COBA Showcase Home- Redmond
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Architectural Design, Best Feature (Smart Home), and Green Building Award
Palmer Homes
We had a tight deadline to get all 14 homes staged and polished before Dry Sky came in. Palmer Homes was one of three homes that we had booked on the same day, so the three of us had to divide and conquer! This home is so sleek! It has big bright windows and a wide-open floorplan to make one big great room that transitions to the dining room and kitchen. It was a real treat to do a full stage in this one!
Redtail Ridge- Redmond
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Master Suite and Best Value
Dunlap Fine Homes
What a special community Dunlap is building, Josie Meadows in SW Redmond! These homes back right up to pastures with peeps of mountain views. The finishes in their homes are also bright and unique to each home! The lot sizes were also to die for, and so close to town as well. I mean, you don’t hear about RV parking, three-car garages, or an option to build a shop in the backyard anymore! Check out our staging for Dunlap below!
Josie Meadows- Redmond
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Kitchen, Best Landscaping, Best of Show, and Best Value
Allybrooke Custom Homes
We had two homes for Allybrooke Homes, one non-tour right next door to their tour home, so it was convenient to load the trailer up with decor and art to walk back and forth! Allybrooke always does a fabulous job of keeping up with design trends for their homes. Modern light fixtures, live edge kitchen and island countertops, floating shelves, shiplap walls, etc… It gets our creative juices flowing!
Hidden Hills- Bend
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Architectural Design, Best Interior Finish, Best Landscaping, Best of Show, and Best Value
Hayden Homes
The final two! Once again, we staged two more model homes on this tour this time for Hayden Homes! The first McKenzie Meadows in Sisters right across from the high school. The model home captures the feel for Sisters, especially when you walk outside and BAM! There are mountains! The second is in SE Bend at Arena Acres which, if you drive by and look up, you might be lucky enough to spot the golden eagles! They’re incredibly majestic and HUGE! The model home floorplan in bend is the Orchard, which is one of our all-time favorites with Hayden Homes. Check out the photos below!
McKenzie Meadows- Sisters
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Feature (Three-Car Garage), Best Landscaping, Best of Show, and Best Value
Arena Acres- Bend
COBA Tour of Homes 2020 Awards: Best Kitchen and Best Master Suite
SS&D SPECIAL MOMENTS
Get ready for some laughter (and some funny tears)! Check out these SS&D “Special” Moments:
So it’s 11:30 pm and we’re so close to being done with all the homes. Karrie is locking the key back up when BAM! The skin on her finger gets stuck in the lock box! It took soap and a chisel tip screwdriver to pry that sucker out. We’ll never look at a lock box the same.
We had frequent days where we looked at the clock and it said…it’s 1 am!!!
Another late night…we are heading home from Redmond with our trailer when we hear something fall. We pull over next to a Rite Aid and Karrie hops out to check. Mariah lent her her phone so she could use the flashlight (Karrie’s phone was dead). Suddenly, Mariah looks up to see an inebriated man stumbling towards Karrie speaking gibberish (UM NO THANKS). Mariah is ready to brawl and secures her Hydroflask to beat up the guy, hand on the door-handle (since Karrie’s phone was dead and couldn’t call 911) and she wasn’t sure if Karrie knew he was coming over…Suddenly, Karrie runs into the car and we book it out of there! Close call for sure. We laugh about it now because the SS&D team loves a good crime show/ podcast/ book/ movie which made us aware and prepared!
Hanging art one day, hammering a nail in, a colossal mosquito flying straight for Mariah’s head. Naturally, she screams bloody murder and nearly smacks her finger with the hammer.
Right when we were in the middle of tour season, hot, tired, and stressed, we had to reorganize our entire warehouse for the annual fire inspection! All of this while we are receiving deliveries of new couches and other big inventory from giant semi trucks. Ugh!
Yet another late night. We’re in Dallas, OR (near Salem) heading to our next hotel in Eugene for the next job in the morning. Not familiar with the area, we type in the address into Google Maps. Miss Google takes us on the darkest, narrow, curvy back-roads! So sketchy! Mariah thinking she’s the DJ/ comedienne she is, plays spooky music. Finally, when we make it to I-5, there’s more obstacles! Karrie is having a hard time seeing, there’s steam billowing up from the road from the 90% humidity, road work at night with bright-flashing lights, workers walking right next to the road, cones placed too narrow, do you get the picture? Once we pass the roadwork and other nightmares, Karrie is taking up a lot of the highway since it’s so late and nobody is driving around. Mariah is laughing at the fact shes hogging the road and plays “King of the Road” by Roger Miller. It’s now our theme song anytime we are hauling the trailer.
Towards the end of tour we had 3 houses booked for the same day and we divided, conquered, and accomplished!
We had an apartment staged in Portland for about a year. It served as their model unit for showings. One day in the middle of tour season, we received a phone call from them saying they sold out (yay for them!) but they needed the model unit destaged immediately……..hello anxiety. We were already working our movers to the bone, but they happened to be in Portland the next day for a different client. We asked if they could fit it in and they COULD! Cue Mariah playing “You Sexy Thing (I believe in Miracles)” by Hot Chocolate.
Lower back pain, ankle pain, throbbing feet, twisted wrists, stiff necks….life of a stager!
Have you ever looked at directions to put furniture together? It can be really confusing! Luckily, we have our wonder woman Tosha, who is an expert at all things puzzles, packing, and building the furniture. No directions needed!
So you know how everything shut down and closed up for COVID-19? We were really struggling with the fact that we had 14 homes to stage in Central Oregon and were quickly running low on inventory…. THANKFULLY stores began to slowly open and we made it! However, when we went to Dallas, Or to stage another tour home, we could only fit so much in our trailer, so we needed to buy more decor. Deschutes County was in phase 1 of reopening at the time, Marion and Polk were not yet open…We may or may not have begun to chew all our nails off? Fast forward to staging the home in Dallas with what we had. Not too bad, just needed a few key items. Another miracle happened, we called the Salem TJ Maxx and they OPENED THE PREVIOUS DAY!!! We’re saved!
To piggyback off of the above situation, we’re at the Salem TJ Maxx and have four shopping carts FULL of sweet deals and decor. It’s obnoxious to most shoppers, but it’s work ya know? We will not turn our back on a great deal for staging! Anyways, four carts full when we see these patio chairs we absolutely need for the job in Dallas. They’re lightweight wooden chairs that are so sleek, it’s perfect for the patio in Dallas, we agree. Mariah is standing guard of the chairs and the carts so Karrie can find someone to put them on hold. Here comes a couple eyeballing the chairs. The man picks one up and they nod approvingly. Mariah turns around and sees this and kindly says, “Hi! Sorry, I’m actually going to purchase these chairs”. They respond and I’ll spare you the details, but this begins to be a 10-minute conversation- nay- a guilt trip on why this couple wants- no- NEEDS the chairs, etc, etc… Mariah still cannot roll her eyes anymore about this interaction. She doesn’t budge and holds her ground. She saw them first, the chairs belong to her now! An associate comes over finally to put the chairs on hold at the front. Karrie says, “We better hurry up to the checkout, I have a feeling they are going to try to take our chairs!” Mariah walks next door to Rite Aid to purchase lightbulbs and other hardware. Once done, she heads back over to TJ Maxx where Karrie is waiting in line to checkout. Eye contact is made and Karrie looks irritated! Mariah walks over to her where she walks by the man who tried to take the chairs, he looks at her with disdain. Karrie fills Mariah in that her suspicions about the couple were correct, they tried to take the chairs while they were on hold! THE NERVE! Thank goodness for the associate who chimed in saying that they were reserved for another customer. The couple then proceeded to lie and say that they overheard the customer decide she didn’t want the chairs (mind you, Karrie was RIGHT behind them, heard everything, and was ready to chime in!) Also, they had no idea that Karrie and Mariah were shopping together and thought they were in the clear! HA! Long story, sorry, but it still grinds our gears!
Finally, the three of us looked forward to our shower beers at the end of a long day! It’s a serious game-changing refreshment.