Demo Days

It became clearer and clearer the Front Street property was my best option. So I took the next step and hired someone to demo and remodel the inside and outside of 312 Front Street in downtown Laurel. As I look back on all of the summers I spent in Laurel only two doors down from that very building, I can’t help but think God’s plan was already laid out for me and my son by the time I was about 7 or 8 years old. I started visiting my sister and brother-in-law at their business, Lott Furniture Co. as a small child (there’s a HUGE age gap…HUGE!) 😂 and every summer I came back for two weeks and “worked” for Ms Nellie Rowell for those two weeks. I thought it was so cool to be able to walk from Lott to Fred’s or Trustmark all by myself doing errands for Lott. So I knew the area well and so did Michael (he followed in my footsteps and stayed with my sister many times just like I did).

In the midst of the demo of the Front Street building, we were moving back into our newly renovated home by HGTV’s HomeTown and trying to get settled in. We were so happy to finally get into this amazing home with history and have the luxury of a custom kitchen, living room, studio and entryway. We loved every square foot of it and still do.

I must tell you, even though I had built a home in Houston, Texas and decorated several, it was pretty stressful renovating a building and hiring contractors. I can’t imagine if I had taken on a building as big as Arthur’s. The renovations were supposed to be finished by September. They weren’t finished until the middle of November. I had ZERO inventory ordered, Zero furnishings purchased except for an awesome Bassett leather sofa and two custom chairs from Lott that were orders. I had zero supplies…nothing. Nada. I had no place to store anything and didn’t have the money to rent storage buildings.