Many moons ago my dad bought my mom a little cabin in the woods in the southern tier of NY. It was a dump with potential and lots of spiders. No matter, she said. She was going to make this place beautiful. She sat us down at the kitchen table with graph paper and a pencil, and with many Sunday evening episodes of This Old House under our belt, she gave us each a room assignment. I designed the dining room. My sister designed the kitchen. Mom designed the living room and so on. I was 8 years old at the time but that didn’t stop my excitement. I loved designing with her! She was really good at it and helped me grow my confidence in it too. Construction didn’t intimidate her. She had a full fledged tool box and could fix just about anything that broke in and around our house. Toilets. Faucets. Drywall. Appliances. Landscaping. The pool filter. While I was never fond of toilet repair, I definitely caught the remodel and design bug from her. She was always the superhero home decorator with an amazing eye for design and detail and color and space. She loved making her house a home. In 2009 we lost my Mom, yet she’s still such a profound influence. I find myself on the other end of a hammer a lot these days doing our own remodel, or on jobsites helping my clients navigate their renovations. Most days it feels like she’s right there with me. She pushes me to go when I wanna give up, constantly revealing my vision as motivation for when it’s all done. It’s reminding me that with all the different careers I’ve had, and all the things I’ve learned in life, I love to do this work. It's a full circle moment; very much an extension of who I am. It’s familiar. It’s tradition. It’s roots and history. Inherited from her, and her dad before her. I always knew I was supposed to do this. From the age of 6, I was writing stories about being an architect, building houses with legos for hours on end, and playing real estate agent with my brother. I went on every trip my mom took to the paint store. When college came around I had no question what my major would be. I remember my sister telling me that project management was in my DNA, and that paired with my designer brain I was destined to work in this way. After spending decades in corporate careers, I’ve finally come full circle.