Okay, so you know your girlfriend, Janell, is a neat freak. So, when you are standing in her office looking down upon a ton of shredded paper that you've just been asked to glue upon your friend's wall, what do you do? Well, you can explain to the designer, Hildi, that your friends hate clutter and that they have two little kids who will pick the pieces of paper off the wall and eat it! Will it do any good? NO!
So, tens of thousands of little pieces of shredded paper ended up on Matt and Janell's wall, along with inside plexiglass columns used for a desk.
Oh, and speaking of plexiglass columns...my husband, Gene, was asked to hold a piece of one of those columns while the glue dried. Unfortunately, his finger got GLUED to the column for OVER AN HOUR while they figured out how to free him! I was so upset because he needs his fingers to play his horns and piano, not to mention for other things. They were asking around as to the best way to unglue him. I suggested acetone, but there was none to be found in the house. So, I called my sister and asked her to bring some acetone to the set. She did. Gene's finger was soaked and drowned in acetone and then, the star of the show, Paige Davis, took a razor blade and shaved his finger free. I was NOT amused. I wanted to take the razor to my husband's finger myself. But, Paige did a good job and we were able to move onto our next chore.
The joy of varnishing wood in closed quarters! Yes, the smell, the fumes, the HIGH! I had to quit and leave this task to my husband with the now shaved finger. The varnished shelves were not even fully dry when we had to assemble the bookcase. Bummer.
Then came the reveals of our respective offices! Thinking that I was going to reap the future promotion of my "WOWgirls" project (since I had mentioned it 74 times while taping,) I pretended to love the finished product of my office. Let's see. A cheap white rug was laid over my old black carpet. My walls were now done in a pitiful version of Venetian plaster. Cheap chairs and a bookcase were added along with some horrible chrome lamps. I LOVED the WOWgirl painting on the wall, though. It was copied from an original costume sketch done by a talented artist, costume designer and good friend, Rebecca Gaston. Note, the original girl in the sketch had blonde hair, but since Janell was designated as the lead WOWgirl, she asked that the wall painting have brown hair like hers! Love her for that! LOL!
My expensive Murano glass chandelier was taken from my spare bedroom and placed in the ceiling of my new office along with the two matching Venetian mirrors I had hanging in my guest bathroom. Oh, and they put a few nice dings in my custom vanity while taking down those imported mirrors. Nice.
My Italian fruitwood desk which I asked them NOT to touch, was now covered in material befitting a little girl's birthday party. But, at least the curtains matched! Yikes!
Needless to say, they were NOT happy! Poor Janell! She later told me that she was sooooo angry but she held it together. But, there was more I had to tell her. You see, they wanted to PAINT the lovely, tan Mexican tile that Matt and Janell had on their floor!!!!! YES!!!! They were going to PAINT the tile RED!!!!!! Do you know how expensive that would have been to replace? It went from the office and extended to the rest of the bottom floor of the house. So, they would have had to try to match it as well! So, I intervened when I heard them discussing this paint job. I lied to them. I said that Matt and Janell were only RENTING the house and that they really should not paint the freakin' tile! They argued a bit, but the tile was left alone, thank God!
It took Matt five days to scrape the shredded paper off of the walls. We were all left with horrific messes to clean up from the aftermath.
Was it worth doing the show? NO! Would we advise anybody else to do the show? NO! But, the crew was delightful to work with as were the stars.
Matt and Janell kept the bookcase and the desk in their office. Everything else was changed. As for my office, I decided not to move my pink chandelier out of there because they cut the chain and I could not find the extra pieces. I also kept the WOWgirl painting that was done on my wall from an original costume sketch by artist and good friend, Rebecca Gaston. Note, the original sketch had a blonde-haired WOWgirl, but since Janell was designated as the lead WOWgirl, she asked them to give the painting brown hair like herself. I love her for that! LOL.
Everything else was taken out of there except for one little tacky decor item which I now cherish. You see, the designer had purchased a small, blinged out picture frame for my office but they did not have a photo to place inside of it. So, Matt fetched a picture of himself as "Elvis" and humorously placed it inside of the frame.
This little item will forever make me think of my admiration for my friends, Matt and Janell. But, it also serves as a constant reminder that LAUGHTER IS KING!
