Part II. Tony. "Handsome Hubby"
I saw this meme on instagram and it went something like, “My wife just started measuring a wall in our house and I don’t know what she’s up to but it’s probably going to be expensive.” Tony, is that you? (Tony is Jolene’s husband, or “Handsome Hubby,” as he appears in Jolene’s contact list).
Featured here, “Handsome Hubby” looking ever so regal.
As the garden unit resident, I’m privy to Jolene’s incessant “fussing” around the property to make it more beautiful. In the course of an afternoon the placement of furniture and planters will undergo a timelapse before my eyes. The chaise lounge will move from the far left corner to the far right corner. Cushions will appear on the sofa. A rug which started under the sofa, will end up under the chaise only later to see it back under the sofa. By evening the chaise will have found its way back to the far left corner where it started and all cushions removed.
According to Tony, “Jolene is passionately impulsive in life, word, and thought.” I can corroborate. Earlier in the pandemic when Shelter in Place had just started, I received a text from Jolene asking if it would be okay if she practiced roller skating upstairs because she wanted to participate in a TikTok recording. I had to clarify that she meant for her and not her 11 year old daughter, Ava. Then last month, I got one of these:
Jolene: “Would you kill me if I got this?”
Me: “No, but Tony might.”
What was it you ask? An inflatable hot tub from Amazon. I empathize with Tony as I too resigned, “But I won’t be surprised if it’s there when I get home.”
Jolene pictured above enjoying Beckett’s kiddie pool while catching up on this month’s DECOR magazine. (Likely origin of her Inflatable Hot Tub seedling).
“Handsome Hubby,” looking dubious over Jolene’s latest proposal or just the epitome of adoration? Maybe in this house, they’re the same thing.
You see what you need to know about Jolene is, she has big ideas and she’s always tinkering to make life more enjoyable. (Don’t even ask about how many iterations of hanging up market lights we went through--ahem five.) But Tony is here for it all, albeit sometimes with protest, “Jolene we already have (fill in the blank)!,” but mostly I think that’s just a husband formality. What he loves about Jolene is that “you never know what to expect.” Rollerblading for TikTok and an Inflatable Hot Tub? Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that.
Tony further advises, “Listen carefully to Jolene because what she says most often brings a huge smile, brightening your day, sometimes at the risk of peeing your pants.” This is excellent feedback because although Tony grew up in Southern California, he’s got an East Coast vocal range. In response to some of Jolene’s “big ideas,” I’ve had to nervously ask, “Is he yelling and are we in trouble?” Jolene chuckles taking it all in stride, “No, that’s just Tony.” This house has good bones.
You can count on Jolene to dream up big ideas baked with absurdly fun details. But don’t worry, they’re always grounded in her quest for perfection and function. My advice, if you’ve got a crazy idea- run it by Jolene. She’s not afraid to hash out the details with skeptics and has a way of making them come to life.
xo,
Sam, The Neighbor Downstairs
P.S. We’re still waiting on the hot tub.
Part I. Jolene. Scope Creep
In this four part series, each week I introduce you to one of the Lindner’s, giving you glimpses into our at home interactions that are inevitable with shared city living spaces. We hope these mini anecdotes give you a little laugh and a deeper appreciation of the person behind the design. Hiring someone to come into your home requires vulnerability, it’s only fair that we return the favor.
Part I. Jolene. Scope Creep.
Scope Creep. Do you know it? Wikipedia with the assist, “In project management, refers to changes, continuous or uncontrolled growth in a project’s scope, at any point after the project begins. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled.”
Hmm…there’s something oddly...familiar about that, but not in project management speak. It’s my relationship with Jolene. It started out innocently enough. Jolene would leave my packages at my door, I would say thank you. I offered to babysit once, she gave me a bottle of wine. When they’d come down to hang out on the patio, they’d invite me. I wasn’t sure where to hang my new Samsung Frame TV, Jolene advised (FYI - “artwork should be 60 inches from the floor to the middle of the piece”). I tried to pawn off my Pottery Barn chandelier light fixture, Jolene wisely redirected me to hanging it in my apartment, it’s now one of my favorite focal pieces. Soon I found myself hoping they’d come down to the patio, offering to babysit more often, and poking my head out to say hello when I’d hear them come in the garage. I started receiving invites to dinner and texts about leftovers. Neighborly niceties quickly evolved into those friendship feels. Suddenly I was having dinner with them, staging elaborate Halloween events for 3 pre-teen girls and unofficially AirBnB’ing my unit out to her mom for spring break visits. Then one day Jolene posted she was hiring on Instagram and like any interested party, I slid into her DMs. Now I’m writing this blog for her business. My how things have escalated! Neighbors to friends to business associates, talk about scope creep.
The trouble with Ding Dong Ditching in this era is that your targets have cameras in their doorbells. Lucky for Ava, they were greeted with a sultry sorceress.
A word on Jolene being totally fun. Remember that epic Halloween party for 3 pre-teen girls? Right. Well Jolene is “not like other moms, she’s a cool mom.” A very cool mom who donned a very regal black wig for the event, excitedly announced after receiving a ding-dong ditch from the local school boy crush, “let’s get em back!” Really?! Oh my! I couldn’t…(I am rather shy so this was a particularly thrilling Friday evening for me). Jolene, myself with Beckett on hip, and three 10 year olds ran down the street to ding-dong ditch, the cutest boy in school. Hearts were pounding as our feet raced down the pavement of San Francisco’s Marina district, all of us, adults included, screaming like giddy little girls.
But that’s Jolene. She’s open and generous and likes to bring people together (and she’s super fun!) I suspect her clients experience something similar in the opposite direction, what starts out as a client engagement leads to a genuine friendship. Jolene has relationship scope creep, in the best kind of way.
That’s all for this week, see you next Saturday for Part II. Tony. “Handsome Hubby”
xo,
Sam, The Neighbor Downstairs
Jolene, Sorcerer by night, classy Interior Designer by day.
Welcome to Scott Street.
Hi, I’m Sam. I live in the garden unit under Jolene and we share a patio. We have since May of 2018 when we both moved in within a month of each other. I had just separated from my husband and was reeling in grief, shame, and uncertainty. (If you know, you know) Being the introvert that I am, I would scurry in and out of the side door like a cockroach trying to avoid the light, careful not to have any extended interactions with “the neighbors,” fearful that I might have to explain what I was doing living there...at 30. Alone. In a 500 square foot studio apartment. Aren’t you supposed to be married with a child in a beautiful home that you own, perfectly curated with pinterest precision? My fellow “Elder Millenials,” as comedian Iliza Shlesinger refers to us, know the fault lines of this narrative well.
Time crept by and Jolene crept in (more to come on that later) and as my shame slowly dissipated over my “life status” at thirty something, my notion of what makes a “happy home” started to shift. One day I realized how much joy walking into my little haven made me feel. Small, but tidy and beautiful. Everything in its place and with a function, (mandatory in small quarters such as mine). Slow burning candles and Saje essential oils twirling in the background create a serene and cozy lair.
The funny thing is, I come home for the peaceful solitude, but I stay for the company. Scott Street hums with the lively pitter patter of a 4 year old’s sprints up and down the hallway chasing remote control cars and the thumps of his 11 year old sister’s ballet classes and TikTok outtakes. Then of course there’s the occasional (and inevitable) shout to “get in the bath, bud!” All of these subtle yet familiar sounds are the signs of life upstairs, the Lindners, with Jolene at the helm.
Letting Jolene into your home is like being embraced in a big warm blanket. She’s welcoming and inclusive, funny and playful. The more I got to know Jolene, the more my “garden unit apartment” blossomed into a home and a haven. A measurement here, a suggestion there. A forwarded link with a possible “patio enhancement,” with the ever implicit, “Don’t tell Tony” (Tony is Jolene’s husband). All of this served with a side of wine and giggles. I highly recommend you let Jolene into your home. Did I mention she’s an interior designer?
Welcome to Stories from Scott Street. Here we’ll share stories from behind the scenes of JL Interior Design. What it's like to make little changes that go a long way and sometimes how turning it all upside down lets you put it right-side up. Since in today’s world, home is where you eat, sleep, work, educate your children, socialize virtually from a physical distance, exercise, relax, fight, laugh, cry, and create, we’ll be sharing All. Of. The. Things. We’ll keep it real, make it playful and do it with a sense of humor and of course, style.
Join us here next week for a four part series, “The Neighbors Upstairs,” where each week I introduce you to one of the Lindner family members, from my purview as the downstairs neighbor. You’ll get to know Jolene “at home” and from multiple perspectives. Intimate? Maybe. But so is picking out furniture together, amiright?
xo,
Sam, The Neighbor Downstairs
Next week: Part I. Jolene. Scope Creep.
What happens when a stranger becomes a neighbor becomes a friend becomes a business associate.