My First Time on TV! Holy Smokes!

Well, the time has finally arrived.  I’m going to be on This Old House for the first time this weekend.  I can’t believe it!  I have to tell you that I am so nervous to see myself on TV.  Am I going to come across like a idiot (most likely)?  Does the camera really add 15 lbs. (because that would be totally unacceptable)?  Is the segment a snooze-fest (it would be me that made it that way if it is)?

The thing that really freaked me out was when I was looking at the guide on cable to record the show and I WAS MENTIONED BY NAME!  Someone pinch me!

I’ve been working on a couple of posts to give you an update on the overall project from an interior design perspective, but we’ve done so much, so fast that there is a lot to cover.  Hopefully, I’ll have the first installment up soon.

In the meantime, check out the show this weekend (Friday or Saturday on PBS- check your guide for time), and let me know what you think (but please be nice, I’m a wreck as it is!).

The Greatest Product in the History of Mankind!!!

Last winter in Newton Massachusetts, our bedroom was so cold at night that the simple act of getting into bed was absolute torture.  Allowing your skin to touch the freezing sheets felt close to bracing yourself for a firing squad.  I love our bed and after 10 minutes of swearing and an hour of warming up we sleept soundly.  But seriously an hour of warming up - NO just NO, I could not take it one more night- my feet were turning into permenant flesh popsicles.  I had dreamed of a better solution, maybe we could put an old fashion bed warmer under the covers or a hot water bottle- but that just takes care of your feet, what about the rest of your goosebump-laden body? 

Then I found this (see amazon link to left)  The Sunbeam Electric Heated Mattress Pad.  This is the best invention I could ever imagine- it's absolutly perfect in every way.  It has dual controls- yup thats right we can each control our own sides of the bed seperately.  It also has three areas on each side that are controled individually- if your feet need a level 5 warm but the rest of you needs only a level 2- you got it!  And Just when you thought it couldn't get better- there is a pre-heat setting!  Push one button 30 minutes before bed and the bed warms up then automatically shuts off 1/2 hour later when you're ready to hit the hay.  Now we look forward to getting into bed, we slip under the covers and lay there litterally saying the same words every night "Oh My god this is SO AWESOME, who knew life got this good"  We literally giggle like little kids who just got away with stealing a pound of candy. 

Now I want you to notice that the cost is under $100- seriously this is the best money I have ever spent.  Had to tell you about this!  I owe it to the interior design obsessed world to announce that the best money spent was not on designer fabrics or wall paper but this humble, inexpensive, never to be visually noticed product.  Happy warm feet to all- Cheers!

Guest Post - Rocking This Old House

Hi there, this is Melissa's husband, Kevin.  You may have noticed that Melissa has not been posting a lot lately (despite my consistent pestering), so I decided to jump in and brag about her for a bit (get over it honey....you can't really brag about yourself, but when it's true, your husband can!)

She has been missing-in-action because she has been busting it out with a bunch of interior design clients in Newton, Wellesley, Weston, Boston and Belmont, as well as putting in a Herculean effort for This Old House.  To give you an idea of a very small portion of the work going into the TOH project in Auburndale, the homeowner wrote this post about the mammoth number of decisions that must be made during the project and how working with Melissa was making the project so much easier and more fun.  My favorite part about this post is that she never even knew these pictures were being taken, and yet she is smiling and having fun in every one.  I never get to see her working on site with clients, but when you like your job this much and you are really good at it, it is no wonder her clients write such incredible testimonials.  I mean, these things made me blush and they weren't even about me.

Last week she was down in Fall River, MA at the Merida Meridian carpet factory filming an episode for the show.  I'm not sure if you've ever been involved in the filming of a television show, but it was a full 8 hour day for about 10 minutes of actual programming on the show.  Because the Sharmas (the clients for TOH) love rich warm colors and are eager to reflect that in paint and fabrics, they would find it hard to locate carpets that worked with the color palatte for the house.  Merida was great at allowing Melissa to custom color the carpets for the entire house so they connected all the colors and made the rooms truly come together.  The episode will walk viewers through this process and how carpets are manufactured (who knew they still made carpets in the US...yea!)

Her weekend project was pulling together, organizing, labeling and shipping all of the paint colors, samples, fabrics, carpet swatches, etc. for the entire project to This Old House Magazine so they can start writing up the article about the finished project.  Of course, being her, she couldn't just send them along, she had to pull together and photograph room schemes for the entire house, label each item with a key (i.e. living room wall = A1 paint color, window treament = A5 fabric), tie that key back to each sample, put the entire list into a spreadsheet documenting everything.  Needless to say the editors were blown away.  As Melissa said, "hey, a little OCD goes a long way".

I am hoping she does not either kill me for posting without telling her or erase this beacuse she feels too modest.(both very real possibilities)  Many of our friends are wanting to have viewing parties for the first episode she's in but if I know her she will be watching from under the covers and one eyeball sheilded to brace for possible horror if she doen't like the way she comes across.  OK, I could go on all day, but I need to get back to work.  I've been noticing that she's been devouring a ton of magazines lately, so don't be surprised if the posts start picking up again soon.