The housing crash of 1990-91 was as devastating to me as it was to anyone affiliated with the industry. New home construction dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million with sales plummeting a staggering 42%, the largest drop since World War II. “Recession” was no longer an allusion in the press, it was THE topic of national conversation.
I had been working in Fort Myers as a model home merchandiser for a national architectural firm, Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, for nearly four years and was laid off because the amount of incoming business for the Florida division couldn’t sustain my expense. They were extremely generous with my severance; since most of my business was conducted in Tampa they covered the cost of my relocation, provided a moderate financial package, and gave me all the necessary equipment to begin independently – office furniture, drafting equipment, and all the requisite supplies. Their greatest gift, however, was allowing me to maintain the builder contacts I had established while in their employment. The income I had generated for a multi-million dollar corporation wasn’t sufficient to offset my cost, but, it was a substantial income for an independent merchandiser operating from a home office.
In 1991, one of my largest accounts, Ryan Homes, closed their Florida division. Mark Walters, Ryan Homes’ regional Vice President of Sales and Marketing and a gentleman with whom I had worked closely, was recruited and subsequently employed by a German-Dutch firm, Interhomes GmbH & Co. He was entrusted to educate current staff on the less conventional system of American residential construction, recruit new employees more amenable to “radical” concepts, and to “Americanize” an indigenous firm ranked thirteenth in home sales in Germany. For all intent Mark was granted nearly complete autonomy in determining the company’s direction and was overwhelmingly successful, but, for their model merchandising. Interhomes had enlisted decorators to dress their model homes that didn’t understand the concept of merchandising and selling a product based on it’s emotional appeal. German builders had heretofore sold homes on stoic practicality and utilitarianism – the thickness of the block walls, the type of windows and doors installed, pragmatic use of space – and the decorators furnished that space . . . pragmatically. In 1992 Mark requested my assistance and my life changed.
My education and training had prepared me for the services for which I’d been engaged, but, not the extent to which my professional and personal life would further evolve. The opportunity was enormous; I was given a blank slate, the tools and budget with which to create, and basically afforded carte blanche. My one constraint was literally size – Interhomes products began at 660 sq. ft. of living space and maxed out at an extravagant 1,200 to 1,500 sq. ft. Every inch (centimeter) had to be used to its fullest advantage. I was employed on a salaried weekly basis, including trans-Atlantic travel time, reimbursed for all travel expenses, housed in upscale hotels, encouraged to dine where and as I wished, extended a gym membership as time permitted, and given a car and driver/translator/helper – a male university student fluent in English and willing to work extended hours. I commuted to Germany from 1992 to 1996, typically staying a month per trip and four trips per year. In that four year span I installed 43 model homes and, in concert with Mark Walters and the team at Interhomes, elevated the builder’s ranking from number thirteen to number two.
Virtually all the furniture and lighting for Interhomes was procured from local establishments, the reasoning being two-fold; the scale and usage of the furniture abroad corresponds better to the size of the housing and, should the home buyer wish to duplicate the furniture, it would be available. Once those purchases were secured I would bring samples, schematics, and photographs of the chosen pieces and blueprints of the homes back to the United States to continue the merchandising process: designing and drafting built-in units (of which there would be many), designing window treatments and selecting materials to be shipped to Germany for fabrication, and purchasing wall coverings, also to be shipped in advance and installed. Art, bedding, accessories, and silk foliage would be garnered in the U.S., packed in containers (pods) and shipped and processed through German Customs for delivery to the model sites prior to my arrival. The only time I would physically see the model homes, from inception to completion, was the actual day of their installation – everything had been accomplished solely on paper. The audience for whom I performed, the German prospective home buyers, could not have more accepting and appreciative of the new ideas to which they were introduced. They were absolutely ravenous for anything different from the mundane and, as their appetites continued to grow, home sales grew in tandem.
As to how my personal life evolved; until my employment in Germany I had never had the opportunity, or funds, to travel. A family excursion to Hawaii and a trip to Cancun’s Club Med were the extent of my “foreign” exposure. Crossing the ocean for regular employment enabled and emboldened me to travel for pleasure. Public transit in Europe is so easily navigated and affordable that recreational travel was “kinderspiel” (“child’s play,” auf Deutch). I’d seen many major cities in Germany due to the model installations, but, non-working weekends were available for side trips to other towns and even adjacent countries. My employment in Germany eventually ceased in 1996, but, I continued to travel and have since vacationed in Ireland once, the UK four times, Spain twice, the Netherlands six times, Belgium twice, France seven times, Austria twice, Bratislava once, Greece once, Slovenia once, Poland once, the Czech Republic once, Hungary twice, Italy twice, Turkey once, Morocco once, India once, Thailand once, China once, Vietnam once, Cambodia once, and still make frequent visits to where it all began – Germany.
