Our First Design Coaching “Client” – With 3 Kids Under 3, A Builder-Grade Kitchen And A Lot Of Ideas

Acouple of months ago we put out the call to find a reader (or apparently two, more on that later) to help coach through a remodel. It was extremely hard to choose the right family/project – I wanted to do all of them. Some were a full house “where do I start – it’s a gut job”, most were solid design challenges where I could feel the overwhelm come through the writing. I’m so sorry we couldn’t interview everyone (and in true Emily fashion I ended up choosing two – just NOT being able to choose). But like hiring a new team member, it really came down to chemistry, the potential for design, compatibility, and frankly our collective excitement level. IF this is a project that I am dedicating my team’s time to (through meetings and content creation, not design work) I wanted us all to really really enjoy it as much as possible. While this is “free” for them (we aren’t being paid by them) EHD isn’t paying for the renovation, so making sure that someone was serious about doing it and genuinely excited to do the work that it would take to do without relying on us was a key factor. After culling through them all it’s clear that there is a big hole in the market – that design coaches or consultants could be a real career for so many people who can’t afford the true luxury of hiring a designer and yet just want someone to help them through it to avoid massive pitfalls and wipe the tears. I know this is part of what The Expert is doing but it’s clear the need is really large. ANYWAY, that’s all to say that I’m excited to introduce to you our first family – Peter and Chrissy (+ their three young kiddos).


The application came from Peter on behalf of Chrissy – be prepared for this sweetness. Here is the letter he wrote:

“Emily/Gretchen/team!

Peter Cambor here. So nice to e-meet you and really excited about this post you and the potential of you assisting in our remodel! First of all, I am an actor/writer/director/producer/bit-of-everything that moved up to the Portland area a few years ago with my wife and now 3 kids (was only one kid when we moved in 2021 – we now have 3 kids under 3.. Insanity! But the best kind!) So nice to e-meet you!

Okay. Real talk. My wife, Chirssy, is an amazing human being, a full-time mom, a huge fan of your blog, and she has been doing design for, well, forever – She has done small projects for other people, but she mainly does improvements and designs to the house we are living in at any particular time. She sent me your blog post saying how cool she thought this would be, and I am totally on board, and well – I figured I would just apply before she got the chance! We have done a number of projects together on a few different houses that have had incredible transformations, and this house we just moved into has, well, a number of projects to be done (Work in progress, Emily. Work. In. Progress.)

Side note: In some strange twist of fate, I have become Chrissy’s handyman/contractor over the last few years. This from man who didn’t own a drill – and now I am not too terrible at the remodel stuff (thanks YouTube!) So we do a lot of projects together. My ability is….let’s say I, too, am a work in progress – but I have learned a ton in the past few years…

Basically, our house in needs a lot of work, and Chrissy and I are sort of torn about how/what to do with it. We have been sort of chipping away at it, small project by small project, but the thing we would be bringing to you is our KITCHEN, which is, to put it lightly, a total disaster. It is a full-on 90s nightmare. For reals. It literally keeps Chrissy up at night. There are a lot of interesting challenges with the space, and we have a few game plans in place, but just don’t know which way to go with it. From what you said in your post, this might be a good fit for you and what you are trying to do.

We want to do this on a budget (we are pretty savvy – scratch that – CHRISSY is pretty savvy at doing things on a budget – I don’t have hard numbers in front of me but we do have a pathway to doing it around 20K – no joke – and I think we have good options to do it that way. There might be a bunch of different cool angles in which this could work for your format. 1. The Kitchen remodel itself obviously, 2. The fact that Chrissy is sort of looking for mentorship/guidance in design and building confidence 3. ME looking for mentorship guidance in my JV Contracting abilities, 4. The on-camera stuff is totally cool with us and we get it – photo or video – I have done a lot of TV through the years as an actor… I do more behind-the-camera work now. Not sure how much of this is video or blog posts/photos. But all good either way.

Chrissy was really excited at the idea of this being something to do as she loves your blog/work – but also I think to build her confidence and sort of get her interior design juices going! She’s been such an amazing mother and gladly immersing herself in being a mom and just hasn’t had the time for the design stuff. But design is her happy place and she’s so good at it( I’m her biggest fan!) Anyway – she sent me this (your blog post) said she was into it, and, well I thought I’d just jump in and apply!

…

With Gratitude,

Pete, Chrissy, Claire, Beau, and Birdie”

The effort put in here, the sweetness and enthusiasm were just infectious – while other people might prefer more cut-and-dry applications, getting to the point, etc, I’ve always hired or chosen projects/employees based on my excitement level (remember I’m an enneagram 7). Peter went on to show us the projects they’ve already done themselves – take a look:




What this shows is that they can execute a good design, that they understand the work that it might take, and that they appreciate good design. I was so impressed. Doing these projects with small kids means running around means they must love it. One of the things I feared with doing this “coaching” is that since I have no control over the timeline, budget, or design choices what if they don’t ever finish or it takes three years or god forbid our personalities don’t mesh then I’ve launched this thing that you guys get invested in and we don’t ever finish. So seeing what they have done before on their own, gave us hope.



So we jumped on a Zoom call and as predicted as so much fun. We found out that Peter is in the entertainment industry (I didn’t google or do any background checks, of course) and like us, they moved up from LA during COVID. So if you recognize him (I didn’t because I haven’t seen his shows but Jess did as soon as she saw the photo of them! Grace and Frankie and NCIS:LA anyone??) know that is NOT why they were chosen. Their application was just extremely compelling, their project was perfect, and our chemistry was immediate. So this is them:) We are so EXCITED and later this week we’ll show you all the ins and outs of their kitchen project. You can get a little sneak peek from the opener photos. xx