The purpose of the hand sketch is basically to identify major installation
issues. This is remembering that you need a ladder in a certain place. This is
remembering, oh we've got to bring extra electrical, you know, extension cords.
We're going to need special kind of tape. We're going to need special kind of
attachments and we're going to have to hire a handyman or we're going to have
to use a professional receiver in this particular space. That's what the hand
sketch is all about. I actually created this in Word document. Very simple
example. All I did was I used shapes and I used my entry hall so that you can have
an actual example. I put a line for the front doors. I put a little box right
here for a key table. A circle for the chandelier. Just a rectangle here for a
console and then another rectangle over here for another console. This
is not to scale but what I would do is just mark up on this. I'm going to need
a handyman because somebody's going to have to get on a ladder for the
chandelier. And what this does is it helps give you a marker for the space
and it separates the planning portion into two manageable sections. The first
portion is just getting your head around what you want your holiday home to look
like. What rooms are we going to tackle this year? How, you know, how are we going
to navigate the space? This portion of the planning is all about, okay, well now
we've got the space we know we're going to tackle. What do we need to not forget?
And it's really about making lists, figuring out if you're going to have to
have handymen, professionals, if you're going to have to hire your family, bake
some extra cookies, do all those sorts of things. So on these pages for the
execution, the installation planning, I always say use the same pages throughout
the series no matter how messy they get. One of the things that we often do is
use those clear binder covers. They're just little plastic sheets that you can
get at a local office supply store and you put the piece of paper in it and
then you can write on top of it with a sharpie and make notes on it. What's
really nice is that then you can use, we'll use these pages later when we
start to sort through the rooms and start to pull in, actually choose the
colors. So what are some of the things that you want to not forget in the
execution portion? On page number 10, I have what I call the little extras. These
are the things that will help you install your job like a professional or
if you have handymen or you're using professionals, have these things on hand.
They make a huge difference, especially if you've got a group of people coming
in and you're trying to knock out your holiday home really quickly. The first
thing that we do is we use white gloves on our hands and we actually have long
sleeves. One of the things that I'll do is buy old t-shirts at either a thrift
store or order them from a Kmart or a Target or a Walmart and we'll just
simply cut off the sleeves so that whoever's working on the job can put
them on over their clothes and their hands are protected. When you're working
with greenery, even faux greenery, and you're installing things for the
holidays, it's very easy to get your hands nicked and that little thing can
help you. If you're installing your house and you're working four hours or even
eight hours, having your hands and your arms protected goes a long way. The
second thing I recommend having are what we call prevention and repair kits. These
are things like wood fixers, little felt pads to protect your banisters.
You put these on underneath so that when you put on the garland it doesn't
scratch the wood. I always have matching twist wire and we have links for these
on the member page for you so that you actually know the items and
we've got links to things like Kmart and Walmart, you know all the places that
we buy these things. We also have booties and wipes and booties are those little
white shoes that you they're almost like a like what a doctor would wear and you
put them on over your shoes. It helps protect your year-round floors and your
decor, especially if you have to stand on a couch. The other thing we provide are
wipes. I'm gonna take a sip of my coffee.
These are furniture wipes, you know the pledge wipes, things so that you can go
back behind and just clean up little messes. The other thing I've included for
you on this list is what I call the decorators medicine kit. I actually put
it in red and in bold for you so you don't forget. And these are the things
that we put together and have in every single room. I know a lot of people might
like to have a central station and we do typically have a central station when
we're installing a holiday job, but your life will change dramatically and your
stress level will go down if you have individual what I call these decorator
medicine kits in each one of the rooms that you're installing. And these are the
things that I include. Scissors, tape, pliers, wire cutters, magnifying glass,
tweezers, felt, sleeves, gloves, like we talked about long sleeves and white
gloves, superglue, wire, extra lights.
extension cords, extension cords, and more extension cords. Sharpies in the color of a space. And I like
these big ones because if something gets rubbed off you can just go back with a nice sharpie in
the in the same color. It's one of those fantastic decorator tricks. A stylized trim kit. And what a
stylized trim kit is, let's say you're doing a series of garlands or you're working with a
particular decor or something else, ahead of time we might make a few repaired or pre-grouped
vignettes so that if something falls or if something doesn't quite look right we're able
to just take that and shove it right in where it needs to go so we don't have to create it on site.
I would say a stylized trim kit which is basically extra pieces of the styles that you're going to
use. And then my strong recommendation is that every room is finished before you move on to
the next room, especially your first room. If you can get your anchor space, let's say it's your
entry hall, you get your anchor space designed and you've decided on a density and a formality
scale and you've got the space done, then you're not running from room to room to room with a pile
of ornaments or a pile of decorations trying to figure out am I going to stuff it here, is it
going to work here, is it going to work here. It just saves all of that chaos. So get your first
room done and then move on. The only exception to that is if you are working on a massive project
and you are using professional receivers and you have teams placed in each room.