When my husband and I purchased our home in 2016, every single room needed updating. The previous owners had lived in the home for fifty years and had lovingly cared for it, but it was extremely dated and in need of major upgrades. We coined our home “The Block Family Fixer Upper” because when we purchased it the Chip + Joanna Gaines show was at the height of its popularity and we wanted to be just like them.
The day we closed on the house, we began peeling wallpaper and tearing up old carpet. We spent a sweaty summer scrubbing walls and painting every single room, and my husband and his dad refinished the original hardwood floors that we found underneath ancient green carpet. Years later we took our primary bathroom down to the studs and renovated it ourselves. We poured so much time and effort into making the house feel more like ours while also sticking to a very strict budget as fist-time homebuyers with a young family.
As a person who loves to cook and entertain and who has three children who constantly need to eat, I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. Sadly for me, the state-of-the-art kitchen that was installed in the early 1960’s and probably dearly loved by the family who installed it (but deeply hated by me…) would be the last big project on our list.
In late 2020 I reached out to David Supple at NEDC to discuss a major remodel of our kitchen and potentially an addition off of the back of our home. NEDC had been an advertising client of Boston Moms for a bit, and I loved David’s entire team. We met several times to discuss options, and during that time I found out I was pregnant with our fourth baby. We were thrilled, and a remodel become more necessary.
And then I miscarried the baby.
My miscarriage launched me into a year of paralyzing grief, as it came just months after the death of my mother. We cancelled all of our plans. We tabled the idea of a kitchen and of an addition, and I focused on getting the help I needed to heal. We didn’t work on any house projects for two full years, while the need for house projects piled up. David’s team didn’t bat an eye, and patiently waited for us to reach back out to resurrect our plans while continuing to work with Boston Moms on our advertising partnership.
I’m not sure if the NEDC team knew what we had experienced in losing my mom and our last baby in the span of just a few months. But their kindness when we need to walk away from the conversation was something that stuck with me.
So, in early 2023, two years after our initial conversation, we decided it was time. After years of sharing how NEDC lifts spirits with spaces in Greater Boston to our Boston Moms audience and genuinely believing in David and his team, I knew that if we were going to tackle a major project, the only company I could see myself working with was NEDC.
To be continued…
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