“Bedroom contest finalists hope to sleep on it” |
| Bedroom contest finalists hope to sleep on it Posted: 03 Sep 2010 05:04 PM PDT Dear Christine Cartwright's bedroom: Sincerely, Severing any relationship is difficult: There are intense feelings of hurt, anger and betrayal, lingering memories — and just the pure logistics of starting over. But with a playful nationwide contest, a few area residents are ready to initiate the anguishing split — that is, with unruly, ill-matched bedrooms. Christine Cartwright of Bridgewater and the Wyatt family of Kingston are two of 87 US finalists — selected from more than 6,200 entrants — in CSN Stores' Big Bad Bedroom Breakup contest. The grand prize for the winner on the rebound? A $10,000 room makeover and a consultation with interior designer and "room relationship expert'' Michael Payne, of HGTV's "Designing for the Sexes.'' Votes can be cast on the store's Facebook page through Sept. 10, and the winner will be announced Sept. 30. Because, ultimately, a rocky relationship with a bedroom can affect a person's mood, well-being, personal relations, work — even their health, according to experts in mattressy affairs. "If the room you start and end the day in doesn't reflect who you are, it can definitely have a big effect,'' said David Ladetto, spokesman for the Boston-based CSN Stores, which operates 250 home product websites. Yet at the same time, just like with personal relationships, negative or not, "people have trouble letting go.'' For instance, Cartwright: The retired 74-year-old has held on to a broken bed set for 26 years, and it creaks and gasps in her in-law apartment over the garage at her daughter Grace Young's house. From the beginning, it was a bad match. She bought the bed set used (and already busted) off a severely overweight family member. Now, the sagging bed frame gives at least once a month, requiring her son-in-law, Chris Young, to do stopgap repairs. Still, she refuses offers from her adult children to replace it. "We have actually had several arguments over this,'' said Young. But that's not the end of the décor dysfunction. Young described an old-fashioned room with light pink walls, mauve carpeting, a bureau with "a million things on top of it,'' and an overall cram-jam of "too much stuff.'' Gene Wyatt, meanwhile, is writing his own "Dear John'' letter to his bedroom — or more like his whole second floor. Ten years ago, he began constructing his 1,600-square-foot house in Kingston from the foundation up. Over the past decade, he's made slow progress, drywall panel by drywall panel. But, still, it's unfinished — his family has yet to fully move up to the second floor. The master bedroom is just roughed out, and his 11-year-old daughter Maya's room requires a good amount of finish work. Hers would be the first candidate for the grand prize; as Dad explained, she'd love a log cabin look with a mural of a dog sled team. But Mom and Dad's room could use it, too. "I would just love walls,'' Gene's wife Lisa said with a laugh, noting the stress, embarrassment, and sacrificed privacy throughout the lengthy process. "It's just a skeleton of a room. It's not livable. No matter what you do, you have to have your house in order — and it hasn't been.'' Her husband agreed that "it's been a construction-in-process mess for so long.'' Ultimately: Life got in the way. Maya was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes; Gene and Lisa's parents have had illnesses; and Gene dedicates several hours a week to Kingston's recycling and green energy committees. For Young, meanwhile, it's been more a factor of finances. "Right now, it's just not in the budget,'' she said. It's a common lamentation these days for people in strained relationships with their living spaces. The remodeling market peaked in 2007 and then dove 20 to 25 percent, according to Kermit Baker, director of the remodeling futures program at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. The low point is still to come, he said, but a rebound is expected next year. Not surprisingly, the decline is the result of tightened financing — and the myriad fiscal maladies of a recession. Kitchens and bathrooms are the most common remodels, he said, because they are used most often and have more decorative features. Bedrooms and living rooms are more "discretionary,'' he said. People tend to focus more on "public areas,'' Ladetto said, neglecting personal spaces. Still, it's no excuse, Wyatt said. "My wife and daughter deserve better.'' Young described Cartwright as a "really good mom,'' recalling homemade meals as a kid, and her supportive face at every school event. "She spends a lot of time in that room. It's the place where she is the most,'' she said. Taryn Plumb can be reached at tarynplumb1@gmail.com. © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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