| After a lot of thought, I’ve made the decision to officially close the doors to Stage & Style by Leigh. I loved staging homes. I really did.I loved walking into a property and figuring out how to make it work harder for the seller. I loved the transformation, the problem-solving, the beautiful spaces, and especially the people I met along the way. But staging is also a very physical business. There is a lot of lifting, moving, carrying, climbing, bending and generally asking your body to do things it occasionally questions. And these days, my body is giving me a pretty clear message:“That’s enough, Leigh.”And you know what?I’m okay with that. I’ve worked consistently for the past 40 years, and staging was just the most recent chapter of a pretty varied working life. I’ve been a bartender. A server. A heavy equipment operator. A REALTOR®. A planner and scheduler. And finally, a home stager. Quite the résumé, when I look at it all together. Every job taught me something. Every chapter brought different people into my life and gave me skills and experiences that eventually found their way into the next thing I did.And now I think it’s time for the next chapter to be about me. For me, staging was never simply a job or a career. I genuinely love real estate and everything surrounding it. My biggest goal was always to help homeowners get the most equity possible from their property through professional presentation. Most of us work incredibly hard for decades. For many people, owning a home has been one of the biggest goals throughout their working lives. When the time comes to sell and move on, I believe homeowners deserve the opportunity to capture as much of that hard-earned equity as possible. Because they put a lot into that home over the years.I’m incredibly grateful to every client who trusted me with their home, their investment and, sometimes, a pretty important chapter of their life. Thank you. Truly. I’ve met so many wonderful people through this business. I’ve watched incredible entrepreneurship, determination and hard work up close. I’ve walked through homes I never would have otherwise seen and driven through some of the most beautiful corners of Edmonton and Alberta.There are places I now know because of this business that I would never have discovered on my own. And then there are all of the people. The homeowners. The REALTORS®. The builders. The photographers. The movers. The cleaners. The trades. The fellow stagers and all of the other wonderful people who crossed my path.You’ve each been part of this chapter, and I’m grateful.To my fellow stagers and colleagues: You are an incredibly talented bunch. I’ll be watching from the sidelines now, cheering you on and looking forward to seeing you and your businesses continue to flourish and grow. As for me?I’m looking forward to finding out what retirement looks like.A little less rushing.A little more time.More country roads. More animals. More camping, fishing and travelling. Thank you to everyone who has been part of the Stage & Style by Leigh journey.It has been one heck of a ride. Take care, everyone. Leigh 🌸 Oh FYI….I may have hung up my stager hat, but I am still open to decorating projects and Short Term Rental designs and setups! |
