MEET US!

One designer + one willing husband + 2 crazy beagles.  That's us.

I'm Karie and that handsome fella's my husband Patrick.  The beagle in blue is Bob Barker, and the one in red is Chuck Taylor.  Maybe someday we'll have professional photos done for this page.  Here's hoping.

We've been married for 6 years and have already experienced buying and selling our first home (purchased at age 23 - go us!) that we lived in for close to 5 years.

It all started back in college in southern Illinois where we met.  Patrick got a job that moved him to Jasper, Indiana and a semester later, after he popped the question, I moved with him.  We bought our first house just a few months after getting married and slowly (very slowly at first) began renovating it and creating a home of our own.

After a sort-of "quarter life crisis," I felt I was missing direction in my life, and didn't see a fulfilling career down the path that I was on.  I don't know why it took me so long to realize it, but I eventually figured out that I already had many of the talents and personality traits to be an interior designer.  So I went back to school (even though I already had a B.A.) and got an Associate's in Interior Design.  I was able to finish all of the coursework needed for my degree in just two semesters (which was great since I was driving an hour each way on a daily basis to get to class).  I attended Vincennes University and graduated in the Spring of 2009 with my A.A.S., Summa Cum Laude, with the Distinguished Senior Student in Humanities award.

From there, I worked as a Design Specialist for MasterBrand Cabinets, North America's largest kitchen and bath cabinetry manufacturer, in their corporate office (which just happened to be located a few blocks from our house).  I designed photography sets for the Martha Stewart Cabinetry product launch (which can be purchased at Home Depot) and Thomasville (Orchard Park in Canada), among other projects.

But the demands of corporate life weren't for me, and I missed the feeling of working for a small, local company.  So I took a job as a Commercial Furniture Designer / Specifier at Hudson Office Solutions in Washington, Indiana.  I loved working there and discovered that although not quite as creatively demanding as kitchen design, commercial furniture could be a lot of fun.

In September of 2011, Patrick took a job with Chrysler LLC (the car maker) to be a Technical Trainer for their Cincinnati training center.  With our bathroom literally down to the studs in the middle of a remodel, he took the job and moved to Ohio.

I was fortunate enough to find Mahaffey Design Associates, a firm that needed to add a commercial designer / specifier, with the added benefit of being able to work from home.  So here I am now, with my little office set up and a sole proprietorship running.  Fluctuating working hours occasionally leaves me with a lot of free time, so that's one of the reasons I decided to start this blog.

The other reason is that we are buying a house here in the Cincinnati area and putting roots down, and I wanted a way to chronicle our journey and share it with our friends, family and anyone out there needed some inspiration or encouragement in their own projects.

That is my hope for this blog.