Real Estate Blog for Buyers & Sellers

Seas: 5 EP: 219 (April 1st show) Designer Sandy Blue of 2b Design Solutions talks design for the new RE/MAX Magnolia

April 23, 2023 | Posted by: Michele Cummins

Seas 5 EP 219 - Designer Sandy Blue of 2b Design Solutions talks design for the new RE/MAX Magnolia

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Michele Cummins
Cell: 778-885-4659
Email: mcummins@remax.net


Curtis Pope 0:22
All right, well here we are. It is time again for the Cummins real estate show with Michelle Cummins and myself Curtis Pope. See I got it right. Two weeks in a row. Michelle,

Michele Cummins - PREC 0:32
I'm very impressed. Very impressed.

Curtis Pope 0:34
I will screwed up next week guaranteed No, you

Michele Cummins - PREC 0:36
all I might. Habits are hard to break.

Curtis Pope 0:39
They are they don't have the habit. They're very difficult to break. But quarters. This is a habit of ours meeting here every single Saturday morning. Oh, foolin just about a Yeah, no, no, we're not going to April Fool's not gonna make any April Fool's jokes. I'm going to behave today. Yeah, right. I'm going to try to behave today. I'll believe it after today. Okay. Well, we'll see how it goes.

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:01
I'll follow up with Kelly on that one that Well, there

Curtis Pope 1:03
you go. And I'll try to stick to her. I mean, there's already salt in the sugar shaker shaker and things like that. Oh, my gosh, get over that one every year. Come on. Do you do that at restaurants too? No, no, that's just mean that is cruel.

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:16
So I can't believe it's already April 1. It's really crazy how time flies. But I'm grateful and thankful for every day. I'm here on Earth. So I wanted to announce today we have a special guest and we haven't had a guest in a while we have it. No.

Curtis Pope 1:32
Although we thought we had this guest in before for some reason. We had a big discussion about this off air last week. And it turns out we were wrong.

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:40
And we were like we have to get her in. Yes. And who is this mysterious

Curtis Pope 1:44
lady? Well, you're the one of the big introductions. It is

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:48
Sandy blue. She is here with us right here. And she is a Home Designer and stager. Hi, Sandy, good to be here. Thank you for coming. Even though we already thought you were here. Thank you for coming back. Maybe you probably thought you were already here too.

Unknown Speaker 2:01
I think so. Yeah.

Michele Cummins - PREC 2:03
So I have you here, just so the audience knows, because we did announcement last weekend about the new REMAX Magnolia office franchise coming soon in Michigan, and you are the one who is designing it for us. So exciting. Yeah, it's beautiful. And so many home owners need designers. And even when they don't think they need them, they really should bring them in. And even though I might think, Oh, I can just do this. No, I need a professional I do. And that's why I hired you. And you've been so amazing. Thus far, so good. And I'm so excited to go through the whole process with you to the very end. And I'm so excited about our grand opening and what it's going to look like and you've had so many great ideas, and you have so many great connections. And so I wanted to bring you on so we can introduce you to the audience. And have you explain how you work with homeowners from start to finish or strata buildings, you do a lot of strata complexes and like you're doing my office space. So wanted to talk to you about that. And your company, your it's called to be ventures. And so we're going to talk more about that. And I want you to to first let us know, how did you get into the home design because my sister is a home designer in Southern California as well. And she's been doing it straight out of high school college. She loves it. And so kind of maybe share with us in the audience. Yeah,

Speaker 3 3:26
absolutely. Well, this goes way, way back. So when I was in junior high, my parents had a paint store. And I went and worked in there. And I learned to mix pain to deal with carpet and flooring. And I thought everybody knew how to do that. And then years later, I just you know, people would call me and say, Oh, this isn't quite right. Can you help me with this? And I would do it. I thought everybody could see color and tones and figure out which textures worked. And lucky for me they can. So I get to go in and help people achieve their vision, like figure out what is it about this, that doesn't work for me, and what do I need to do, and then I can help them through the whole process.

Michele Cummins - PREC 4:05
It's amazing how it's very, it connects your brain, your senses, your emotions, like the space you're in, it's really important. And I feel for work for life for home. For everywhere it's in, you actually help with those textures as you talk about and colors. It all makes you feel a certain way. And it makes a big difference.

Speaker 3 4:23
It really does. And when I'm working with a homeowner, in particular, what I'll talk about is turning their house into their dream home. Because they're there for a reason. The reason they're calling me in is they need it to be better or different. So I look for what it is What do they want it to feel like and simple things like how many people actually live here and you know, do you have dogs and do you play hockey or like whatever whatever it might be? Because all of that has to work for them. And the reason that they've called me in is usually because they're super frustrated that they couldn't do it on their own.

Michele Cummins - PREC 4:51
I remember when you walk through our space, which I will announce the location next weekend. But when you initially walk through it, I remember the questions you asked me like What's your vision? How many offices? How many realtors, you know, we're going to talk about a manifesto later on is, you know, the vision for the space and all that. So that makes a big difference. And I like how that's part of your process.

Speaker 3 5:13
Yeah, it's really important because you have to have a really good fit, you have to work well with the client as a designer. And people sometimes ask me, What is your style and it really matters, not whatever my style is, because it's to achieve your vision. And sometimes people want something to feel a certain way. But sometimes they're married to a particular product that's really out of their budget range, or whatever, I can find something that will work for them, and still help them have it feel like the best place they've ever been. The

Michele Cummins - PREC 5:38
wallpaper samples that you brought me and the different like rock and, and the like, my vision is farmhouse to gas town to New York loft, right. So that's like mixing those two together. And it is to do with feeling and with of course, the name is REMAX Magnolia and the manifesto and and what I want to give the experience, so when you brought in those samples, and from the you know, higher end to medium and to what works, what's more durable, we, you know, everything there was, it was really great. And in fact, you you have this amazing book that you give to homeowners to get them prepared. And it's actually quite nice. I'm going to show it on the video. But this is great, because it helps homeowners really prepare and it helps you get to know them really, really well before you go through everything.

Speaker 3 6:33
Yeah, and usually, sometimes I work with households that are combining or splitting or, you know, there's more people coming in or more people leaving. And so to try to figure out of the people who are going to be there, it has to work for everyone, not just the person who might be my individual client. And so figuring that piece out and understanding what they really need. And being realistic about timelines, because there's still supply chain issues. realistic about budget. So budget timeline, and having really excellent communication with people keeping in touch, like you and I have done, you'll be off doing something and say, What do you think about this? And I'll say yes, good, or let's talk about it,

Michele Cummins - PREC 7:08
oh, my text messages, this photo, that photo,

Speaker 3 7:11
don't buy it just quite yet. Let's just look right, because those are the things that are really important. And when people go to a furniture store in particular, they get very overwhelmed, they get the scope and the scale wrong, because there's enormous furniture and lots of it. And people buy, you know, either living rooms or bedrooms about like whole sets of you know, two three dressers, side tables, beds or in the living room, they'll buy all this stuff. And then we'll go it doesn't fit and it doesn't work. It's

Michele Cummins - PREC 7:34
true, you go in there, and there's so many beautiful things, and you just want almost everything, you're like, Oh, I like that I like this, and you think it's gonna go together. And then you know, I send it all to you. And I'm like, but can you put this together because I, I think I like this, but I know I don't have the whole the whole, I can't, I can't cook. And I should not either decorate my own office.

Speaker 3 7:56
The other thing about it too, is working with me, I've got lots of contacts in industry. And if I get an industry discount, I pass it on to my clients. And that's something that you usually my fee is going to be less than what that savings is right? It'll it'll work out so that you're spending about the same or maybe even less than you would have, if you went on your own,

Michele Cummins - PREC 8:14
you got the golden ticket, you got this magic number and card that you get discounts for. And I know that because my sister gets that too for her clients. And that's a really that's That in itself as well, like hand in hand is really important. Especially when everybody's on a budget

Speaker 3 8:31
they are in you need. Even if you have a lot of money, you still have a budget for your project. So making sure that all of the things that you imagine having happened right down to your complete finished now we're done needs to work. And if you've forgotten a big piece that actually going to cost you money, that's going to be a little bit of an issue. Exactly. Oh,

Michele Cummins - PREC 8:48
I know. I'm like I have I forgot anything Sandy. And by the way, the first time I actually you had me into your home and it was just seen what you've done with your space, wowed me and and that and your professionalism and your experience and your portfolio and how you work your communication, like you said, so important. And you have a really good communication and and empathy for your clients. Well, thank

Speaker 3 9:14
you. And that's what's really important. That's that communication piece. And it's understanding, sometimes I'll work with a client and I'll go in and they'll have something that I walk through a home and I say no, tell me about this and that. And maybe I'll see a piece of pottery or a painting or something. And I'll say, Tell me about that, oh, we go down this best trip of a lifetime. I think that that should be in a place of prominence where you look at it every day. And sometimes an entire home design will be based around the feeling that that piece of pottery evokes.

Michele Cummins - PREC 9:41
That's amazing because that's actually what John Joanna Gaines mentions a lot in her, you know, design world is she sometimes takes that one piece and designs all around

Unknown Speaker 9:52
it all around it. That's how it goes.

Michele Cummins - PREC 9:54
I've got I want to mention talking about that. I have a manifesto and An idea for it and I'm going to talk to you about how I should implement it in the office space when we come back from break.

Curtis Pope 10:06
Sounds great. You know, maybe it's just me when my mind works. Every time you say manifesto, I start to think of the Unabomber for some reason. And I don't think that's the way you're going. No, at least I hope it's not there a year ago and Okay. All right. So if people want more information about you, and perhaps to read your manifesto, where would they go? Michelle cummins.ca. And we'll be back with more right after this.

We are back with segment number two of the Cummins real estate show with Michelle Cummins and myself Curtis Pope and our special guest, Sandy blue,

Michele Cummins - PREC 11:21
Sandy blue. I'm very excited to have her here.

Curtis Pope 11:24
Absolutely good. Because again, we've for some reason, felt that we'd already had Sandy on which is a real screw up on our part. We should have had her on much sooner. Yeah, it's

Michele Cummins - PREC 11:33
like that show. No, it's not anyways.

Curtis Pope 11:37
It's like this, but it's not. We just screwed up. That's it that ultimately it's our bad and we're fixing it right now.

Michele Cummins - PREC 11:44
That's right. It's better to it's how you overcome things. It's how you deal with that. Right?

Curtis Pope 11:48
That's right. That's important. That's not the mistake that was made. It's how you fix the mistake. How

Michele Cummins - PREC 11:52
could we have not had her on before?

Curtis Pope 11:55
I blame Richard? Always. Yeah, yeah, I do too, because he's not here. So we'll blame him. It's your husband's fault. There we go. Sorry. I feel so much better now. So

Michele Cummins - PREC 12:06
we were talking about my manifesto, and and, you know, what, how should we should implement it into the office space? And so I want to just read what it is okay. Because this is, you know, announcing it.

Curtis Pope 12:18
No sunglasses today. And no.

Michele Cummins - PREC 12:22
Maybe next week, though. So, you know, as we have, well, I should say, Chip, and Joanna Gaines have tried to be on our show so many times. I know. And so in a way, we're bringing them on our show, again, through through, it's their manifesto, not mine, I did not create this, but I connect with it. And so I want to implement it in our office space. And you know, they go hashtag we believe so we believe, and I just love it. So if you if you don't get their journal, we will have it I'll have it at the office ever come in every month. But they have this and it's at the end of all their journals. And it's we believe in home, that it should restore us from today and ready as for tomorrow. We believe in friendship, because friends who feel like family are the best kind of friends, and that nothing matters more than family. We believe in seeking the balance between hustle and rest and learning to find contentment in both. We believe everyone deserves a seat at the table and everyone has a story worth telling. We believe in human kindness, knowing we are made better when we all work together. We believe in courage in cartwheeling past our comfort zones and trying something a little bit scary every day. We believe that failure needn't be a negative thing. Rather we learn from our mistakes and feel smarter next time. We believe in doing good work that matters. And in choosing that nudging others toward doing the same. We believe that newer isn't always better and that it's time for the pendulum of trend to swing back to the basics. And we believe in unearthing beauty however hidden or subtle it might be and we believe that each day is a gift and that everyday miracles are scattered about if only we have eyes to see and of all heroic pursuits large or small we believe there may be none greater than a life well loved.

Curtis Pope 14:27
That's a wall full it's gonna take up an entire wall.

Michele Cummins - PREC 14:30
Oh, hey, maybe we're onto something. It's true, though. Isn't that beautiful for for everyone for community. I want the office to be all about community. I want us to be a BC Children's Miracle Network office that supports and loves and and sees our future and our children and and loving and caring about our lives. Our families lives, our neighbors lives and each other colleagues, everyone. So Sandy with that What's your vision?

Speaker 3 15:02
But you know what, this is the thing that's so important. That's one of those things I talked about about, is there one thing that you want to incorporate, and you get to the end and go, Oh, I forgot that. We didn't know about this before. No. So now, surprise. So now that I know about that, I have a vision for where that could be and what it could be like, I visited a supplier yesterday that I wasn't familiar with before, who does the most amazing work and they have a way that I'll be able to show you that you can incorporate that, but you can't even imagine. Oh, I'm so excited. I know. So good.

Curtis Pope 15:33
Now, I'm looking forward to seeing this too. But yeah, it's a lot to you know, to get over it is a great manifesto. And I mean, there's a lot of great ideas in there. And, and a lot of great lessons. You remember

Michele Cummins - PREC 15:45
the SAT? Was it Santa Claus, no miracle on 34th Street, where it's like we believe, right? Like we believe in Santa, we believe in miracles. We believe in love. We believe in all that. So it was like we believe and it's interesting that they've used it so beautifully in the way they've used it.

Curtis Pope 16:03
Absolutely. There is no way chip wrote that, by the way. No, no, Chip had very little to do with that. Joanna said this is what it is. He's like, okay.

Michele Cummins - PREC 16:13
You you're not wearing your hat today.

Curtis Pope 16:15
No, I'm not. No, I should not demo

Michele Cummins - PREC 16:17
day yet.

Curtis Pope 16:18
No, it's not. I should be. I shouldn't be wearing my hat. Actually, you

Michele Cummins - PREC 16:21
know what, when the contractor first does the little bit of Yeah, we should have you there with your hat. That's what we're going to do.

Curtis Pope 16:27
Yeah, you know, what I should I, you know, I break that out again, it's on my wall in my, my hat collection. So you have a hat cloud hub? We have a lot of hats.

Michele Cummins - PREC 16:36
And do you have a drum collection?

Curtis Pope 16:39
Well, I have an electric drum kit, but that's about it.

Michele Cummins - PREC 16:41
So drummers they don't have like, going off on a trail here. But they don't have like a like an axe collection like guitarists have, like stop thinking about

Curtis Pope 16:50
how to answer this, I feel it's gonna get your husband in trouble. Maybe not even know he just some guys love a couple kids, they might have a kit for playing, you know, when they're doing gigs and something they keep it home just kind of stuff to practice. But I'm not a professional. I'm not an amateur. I just like to bang around the drums at home from, you know, my years as a drummer. But notice your different sounds. Yeah, I mean, I in the electric kit, they used to not be very good, but now they're quite good. And they take away less space. And I can throw the headphones on and my wife or my wife hears me tapping along like that she doesn't hear the loud drum. So it works especially

Michele Cummins - PREC 17:24
good in like stratas Yes, exactly. Neighbors. Exactly. So Sandy, we were talking about, you know, how you work with home owners a step by step process. And one of the reasons I wanted to have everyone kind of go through the process of what it's like, for me and and the office and definitely having you there for the grand opening at can you kind of explain how the process goes?

Speaker 3 17:48
Yeah. So usually I work on a referral. Usually somebody has said, you know, you need help, call Sandy. So I start with a conversation. I've talked to them. And I asked them questions before I ever meet them. Tell me about your house. How old is it? Where is it? How many people? What is it you think? Are you planning to stay there? Is this for sale? Like what is it that you're planning to do? And even that reveals a lot of information, you know, it was my family home, and we've returned and we want to keep it kind of original, but we want to update it. So it's modern. And you know, occasionally we have people who come and stay for a week. So they need a separate space. And all of this stuff kind of reveals what they really want. And sometimes I'll ask well, I always ask what is your style? And sometimes people will say like, I had one lady tell me one time, cat bohemian? And

Michele Cummins - PREC 18:35
I'm like, Oh, well, that's an interesting one. Okay, so but but usually

Speaker 3 18:39
people say, You know what, this is a new house and it has no personality. The floors are all the same, which is a good thing, by the way. But the floors are all the same, the walls are all the same color. And this has, it has no personality. And so I'll say okay, well, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna go through with you. And we literally go through every room, just so I can spot those pieces of pottery or the thing that's the inspiration piece, and walk through with them and say, like how you're using this room. And sometimes we'll even have them swap a room. Like sometimes we'll swap if someone has like a grand piano. It takes up a lot of room. But they have it in the living room. And there's no room for them to sit, but they don't use their dining room. So we'll put the grand piano in the dining room and make the living room like a great room so people can actually use it. And so figuring out what the use of the room is how you achieve it. Are they keeping all the furniture they have? Are they changing it? And then I'll go away. Once I've done all that I take copious notes, and then I'll go back and I write a recommendation. Here's what I heard. This is what I'd recommend. It can include flooring, paint colors, swapping the rooms about buying new furniture, lighting, lighting is really important. Whatever it is they need, and then I review it with the client. And if they've gone through the book, it's called room ready handbook. If they've come through that. Then they have step by step they know what to do. And then once they're ready, then I can come in and Bring in the furniture and hang the artwork and make it all work for them. So it's really start to finish

Michele Cummins - PREC 20:06
and, and also brand new homes. So so many of the pre construction, new construction home owners, they get a very plain, you know, the show home is always fancied up. They've had a designer design it, it always looks beautiful. And then you get into your new home, and it's just white walls. And it's hard to envision that character and then they're like, where do we start? So maybe can you explain how you work with the new construction?

Speaker 3 20:30
Yeah, so what I'll try to do there is to figure out like, what was it about? If I actually know what the show home looks like? That's kind of helpful, because something about that is part of their decision to buy. So figuring out how that was done, like even the furniture, was it fabric? Or was it leather? Was it? People always imagined a sofa when it probably was a loveseat? Yeah, so figuring out what it was. And then what I'll do because I have lots of sources, local, we have source things and say, like this size will fit and this will look like this. Is it the right texture? Is it the right feel? Is it in the right price range. And from there we go. And we're actually able, I'll do a 3d 3d rendering for them of the floorplan and what it looks like the things we're putting in, or as we did with you, I'll do a mood board that has elements of the pieces in it, it'll show you various tables or chairs, or lighting or paint colors, so that you can look at it all in front of you and be very visual and go yeah, that really works. Or I like it to be more like this or more like that. So that of the million decisions to be made. You're able to narrow it down to something that's like that's almost right. But the color needs to change or something like that. It really helps

Michele Cummins - PREC 21:35
when you put it all together like that. The mood board like that. Curtis, have you ever thought about doing something like design ever?

Curtis Pope 21:46
Well, you see, I've been married for a long time. 23 years, and I realized very early on in our relationship and our marriage that I have no say in the decor of our house. Anything that I want to put up on the walls or any kind of furniture, that's all in the garage.

Michele Cummins - PREC 22:02
I remember walking through, well, a couple houses with you. But I remember when and you had this vision you wanted one thing I'm going to kill and I had a fun conversation together.

Curtis Pope 22:14
Yeah, no, I there's no, I have no say and and rightfully so. I shouldn't have a say. So my

Speaker 3 22:21
question might be then, at the time that you purchased this home, how many of your expectations Did it meet? And what gap? Are we trying to close here? And that might be a way to get the things that you wanted and weren't able to voice? A little bit into the way it goes? Well, I've

Curtis Pope 22:37
learned that when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. So I'm perfectly happy letting my wife do what she wants with the house,

Michele Cummins - PREC 22:44
the smart man there.

Curtis Pope 22:46
I've learned a lot of the lessons the hard way, let's put it I'm not smart. But I have I can learn a lesson.

Michele Cummins - PREC 22:53
So I hope that you come back, actually on our show at maybe after our grand opening, that would be kind of a nice time to do it. I think that's great. Yeah. Okay, because I know our time is short here. We don't have as much as time as we love. But is there anything else you want to share? Because I don't want to talk about your history in the area? And do you to help people design outside of the area via I don't know, zoom, or maybe a little bit quickly on those things?

Speaker 3 23:22
Yeah. So if somebody's working outside the area, I've done some vacation homes for people, and we do it via zoom. So they get to where they are and the same. They take their phone and they walk me through and the same questions. What do you want it to feel like what stays what goes like all that stuff. And then I can do the same thing I can, you know, if they have a floor plan that they can send me I can work from that. Or I can make one that's close enough for them to be able to envision it. And then I do exactly the same thing. So it can happen. Virtually. I served the Lower Mainland, specifically now. But I've done work on the island and in the interior as well. And I do like helping people when they're just even at the planning stage for new homes. And then also work with them once they're coming in and changing a home that's already been built that they're in. So yeah, thank you so much. Pleasure.

Michele Cummins - PREC 24:09
So we'll go on to our extravaganza event we're having today because it is today and it's no April Fool's. We're having an open house extravaganza. And so if you're looking for a home or you know somebody's looking for a beautiful home, if you're semi retiring or retiring, or you just want to get out of dodge and you want to breathe, and you want to be where the Eagles soar, and you want to live where you play. Well then you want to go today to our extravaganza we've got nine properties, six homes to walk through all in Harrison Highlands, the beautiful community on Mount Woodside, and that is in the Harrison Mills Agassi area, and it's out towards Harrison Hot Springs, the Sandpiper Golf Resort. It's the base of the mountain of Sasquatch is nearby. The Harrison river is there Harrison Lake is there so much fishing and there's trails you can ATV there's so much to do in that area. And the hang gliders jump off a mount Woodside right over this community. It's absolutely gorgeous. They're all new newer homes. And yeah, so we got six homes to walk through two pre constructions, and one in construction and there's two Showhomes from phase two of Odessa's Harrison Highlands plan. So come out between 12 and two and we're gonna have refreshments and it's going to be a lot of fun. And if you want to map just contact me or look on my website or my social media, the map of the locations are there. And you can just put into your GPS 1479 Highlands Boulevard, Agassi and you will find it just follow the signs. And now Curtis, I give you a challenge last week

Curtis Pope 25:47
you did you told me to come up with a quote. And I've got a quote for you. My attitude has always been if you fall flat on your face, at least you're moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again. Sir Richard Branson, that's great. I like my billionaires just like my real estate agents just a little crazy

Michele Cummins - PREC 26:10
crazy is is crazy does that's

Curtis Pope 26:12
true. People want more information about your listings about what's going on about Woodside things like that, where can they go Michelle cummins.ca And join us again next week and we will talk real estate in order to unlock your real estate potential on the show where real estate is maximized. Thanks for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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