Place. Hawaii: May 2011

Aloha and welcome to the PLACE Blog. My name is Lizzie de Reus and I will be helping you navigate your purchases on the PLACE website. I am part of the PLACE team and will be taking your orders and answering your questions, making shopping on the our website more customer friendly.

Here is how I came to be with you. I have been living on the Big Island of Hawaii for the past 10 years with my architect husband, Mark, and our daughter, Sophie. Like so many stay-at-home Moms living in a small town, I felt I needed the stimulation of a city. I phoned my friend, interior designer Mary Philpotts McGrath and asked for help. Knowing that I had become very adept at shopping online, Mary put me on her new website launch team.

I was so excited about my first week of work at PLACE and being in the big city. The studio that would become my new home each a month was rented sight-unseen. I was over the moon. I arrived at Hertz, where I was asked if I wanted an upgrade. “But of course”, I said, “as long as I have GPS”. I was told to go to slot 35; I found myself slowly approaching a small ship, so big it stuck way out from slot 35. It was a Lincoln Town Car. Could I drive this thing around Honolulu? I went for it.

I was excited to see the studio I had rented (the pictures portrayed a darling little studio,nestled into Pacific Heights). The landlord told me this area was where all the consulates were located and I imagined myself strolling through the neighborhood, looking at all the flags from different nations…NOT!

My faithful GPS got me to Pacific Heights Drive where I found myself steering my ship up a steep hill, careening out my porthole to read the street numbers. I finally found it. There was absolutely NO parking, not even for a Mini Cooper. I found a parking place a mile up the hill, docked my ship, and headed down in my 4-inch platforms, lugging my suitcase, laptop and carryon.

I reached the gate, slowly opened it and looked up to a building that was falling apart. To my right was my studio. I was in a state of shock. I slowly climbed three flights of 2-ft tall cement steps, unlocked the lock box and walked in. Reality hit hard, almost knocking me out of my shoes. The place was only big enough for me to make a 360 degree turn. The bed had not been made, the mattress was disgusting, the pillows stained, and I won’t even mention the comforter.

I turned on my heels and walked out the door, placed the key back in the lock box, and called the landlord. How did he make the pictures look like that? I was devastated, exhausted, and mad. My first thought was that I needed to check into a hotel; my second was that my husband would kill me.