In this current world culture of hurry, me me me, and making money, it is so refreshing to find someone with your integrity. I know that you have a service to sell, but you are more than a person trying to sell a good service. Your integrity, honesty and compassion for doing a good job are evident in the way you approached my initial call. You returned my call very promptly and spent time discussing our particular issues.

There is no doubt in mind that if we had the space in which to encroach for our project that we would use your services. However, as we discussed, in addition to not being able to extend the exterior or interior spaces, there is also the issue of over building our home investment.

Marcia, you are a very special person in this universe. It is not often I am able to meet someone like you, but when I do; it renews my faith that the world is ok.

Regards and wishes for much success,

Marilyn Spence

Greetings,

I'm currently involved in remodeling a couple of older houses in Perry and hired Marcia Lyon (Creating Spaces), syndicated columnist, to help give me direction. My experience working with Marcia was overwhelmingly positive and incredibly helpful. Besides having a winning personality, Marcia has solid architectural skills and didn't hesitate to crawl up in attics or down in basements to check the structural integrity of the houses I showed her. But way beyond that, she initiated casual conversation with me that elicited information regarding my intended usage of the houses, budget for working on them, material and style preferences, timeframe for construction work, availability of local contractors/labor, interest in energy conservation items and a myriad of other items that could impact the ultimate re-design. She listened very closely, providing friendly, clarifying comments and feedback to ensure that she was understanding the clues I was giving her.

Her creative re-design of the space available was inspired, extremely cost effective and will make the houses so much more usable.

By the end of a long, stimulating day of working with her I came away with not only a Before and After drawing of the remodeling plan for each house, but a clear mental vision of what they will look like when completed.

She also provided many useful tips on materials and construction, color and lighting, and brochures on specialty products that might be utilized. Although I paid a consultation fee for each house, which was a lot of money for me, she earned every penny of it and will save me a great deal more than that in the long run. I believe that with her personality, skills, creativity and thorough command of the mechanics of home remodeling Marcia's got a winning thing going.

It seems she can work within any budget and as high-brow or common as suits the desires of the owner. Obviously she loves what she's doing, the people she meets and the projects (and problems) she's presented with in her work.

I think she's on the cusp of a potentially big move into a more public spotlight, with aspirations to make the stars on the home-oriented television shows share it.

Barb Wolling

I love reading your column - I've been so inspired by the ideas for
restructuring existing space!

Kerry Bowman

Marcia,

Several years ago you and I conversed on the phone [you had a cold and it was nice of you to take my call], and one question I asked was whether I needed to add a fourth bedroom to my house before selling.
Your answer was an unequivocal "No", for which I thank you.

Along those lines,your recent column in the Detroit News was one of the best yet. I loved your solution of converting the fourth bedroom into a hall bath and walk-in closet, and the former hall bath into a master bath. The new layout is SO much nicer and useful.

Soon I will be moving to a farmhouse-style home in southern Virginia and I hope to implement the lessons I've learned from your column over the years.

Regards,

Holly Hartman

(Marcia, Please feel free to post my letter ... hopefully it will help to keep your column on the front page of Detroit's real estate section!
I also wanted to let you know how much I like your redesigns which accommodate peoples' pets. There are those who don't appreciate how important these loving'surrogate children' are to us in today's increasingly isolated lifestyles. Holly)

Dear Marcia,

Glad to see you are back with an even better column in the Des Moines Register. I really missed it for awhile and wrote the Register asking about it.

You did a design for our house 5-6 yrs ago...we are the BBQ couple in Johnston. We did do some remodeling yet ended up making only the existing space functional, moved the laundry to main level, great improvement to our family/living/dining room, more attractive front entry, and a finished downstairs to use! I was disappointed that we could not do your entire design at first, yet have not regreted at least doing this much.

Any time you are in the Des Moines area, we would love to have you come see our new space Still in process of changing furniture/accessories to accomodate new space.

Thanks again for being the incentive to improving our home!

Barb Woodsmall
Johnston, Iowa