I knew it was time to make some improvements in my home when the cat was so disgusted he started boycotting certain rooms. While I admittedly have a big house, I totally lack any sense of design, as most guys do. As a full-time Single Parent with what feels like the equivalent of four additional full-time jobs -- all of which I love -- I have let my home suffer, taking time only to clean when a machete is required. Getting my 11 year-old daughter, Holly, ready for school, helping her with her homework, extracurricular activities, feeding and clothing her, and all the numerous other challenges every parent faces gradually made having a beautiful home nonexistent as a priority for me.

I consider myself a very hygienic person but have to confess, unless I see something moving, these days the status quo is acceptable. OK, I do need to use that central vacuum system more often. I confess that, not only do I lack and design sense, my taste is nonexistent. I'm a guy who enjoys fine French cuisine one night and who can revel in the delight of a Big Mac the next. I know I now have failed to impress you.

So, to start to get things on track, Decorating Solutions, headed by Kathy Robertson, agreed to take the plunge and try to improve one of the largest rooms in my house -- the living room. It is a large space -- measuring about 28' by 24' (a total of almost 700 square feet). It also had ceilings which are almost one and a half stories (i.e., 15 feet high). It had an assortment of American Furniture Warehouse and garage sale furniture as well as some items friends dumped on me when they moved or got far better stuff (given my absence of taste, you often couldn't tell the difference among any of these categories). As you now would expect, very little of which matched.

There also was a variety of artwork I enjoyed -- all hanging almost randomly on the walls. I had a small television, VCR, and DVD so Holly and I could watch movies once in a while. There were two pianos -- one a spinet -- as well. Yes, two... it's a long story but the short version is the second one needed to be rescued.

The centerpiece was a stained, yellow rug which served as padding to protect our four dogs -- all retired from Guide Dogs For The Blind for medical or emotional reasons -- when they wrestled with us or each other. So, yes, my formal living room also served as our occasional family room. OK, it was a mess and made no sense at all.

Being an ignorant guy, I never had heard of "Interior Redesign" before Kathy contacted me. I thought the concept was particularly attractive to those on a tight budget or who were interested in selling their home. The basic concept, as I understood it, was to take one or more rooms in your home and then, using items from throughout the house, focusing on the priority rooms and redesigning them to look much better. I was confident Kathy would be successful, given where she was starting, but wasn't excited about showing the rest of my home to anyone without a search warrant. Remember, the living room was my best room!

Admittedly, I was becoming more apprehensive when I continued to think about Kathy and her team arriving tomorrow morning. I had seen her home and it was stylish, impressive, and immaculate -- everything mine was not. She clearly was quite talented and probably would be frightened by what she found at my home. I feared that she would see the place and run out the door screaming, "I'll never be in this business again." Then I would get blamed by all the people who were seeking her help. Suffice it to say, I knew she was going to be challenged. I just didn't want to scare her. Well, in several hours, I would see what judgment she and her crew passed on me. I could hardly wait.

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The Professionals Take Over
PART 2 OF 5

I rose early -- today it was at 4:00 am -- but I had a several assignments which needed to be completed before my "guests" arrived. Today was a "Professional Development Day" at her school (that means "Three Day Weekend For Everyone" in schoolese), so Holly was home all day. I worked furiously for three hours, then made breakfast for her and myself, and then looked around aghast at my place.

The kitchen was a mess -- not helped by the stacks of dirty dishes. The dogs had dirtied the pantry floor from constantly coming in to that location from the outdoors. The floors hadn't been vacuumed since King Tutankhamen was exhumed. And I had a pyramid of laundry which could hide several escaped convicts. It definitely was a domestic triage situation. I had no one I could call for help so I tried to figure out what I had time to do and what had to be ignored. Was it the massive pile of dirty dishes? The floors flagrantly covered in dog and cat hair? The laundry pile imitating Mount Everest? Or the small stain on the pantry floor, where my guests were unlikely to even go? I decided to tackle the floor stain.

It's amazing how one can live and not notice the steep descent into Interior Design Hell. I looked around and noticed I still had not replaced my "Breakfast Dining Furniture." It had walked out the door almost two years ago and I had temporarily replaced it with a long table and six metal folding chairs. Wow, that would impress anyone I brought into my home! I had meant to get something but, again, it simply wasn't a priority. Now it was too late to do anything. Heck, where could I get a dining set at 7:45 am and have it delivered by 8:30 am? Even my friends at Kacey Fine Furniture weren't open yet.

Looking around the disaster I called home, I thought of canceling at the last minute. Kathy had arranged for a Denver Post photographer to shoot "before and after" pictures. I was beginning to wonder if the "before" shots would generate a visit from Social Services. I was imagining the how the visit would go. "OK, Mr. Harber, we're taking your daughter with us, especially since we have to condemn your home." OK, it wasn't that bad but you never know with the government. Right now, I was more concerned at how everyone arriving today either would run away screaming or, alternatively, burst into laughter when they saw my home.

Just before anyone arrived, I realized I had failed to think about how I looked. When I do my television show, I almost always dressed up in a coat and tie. At home, it's the opposite. Sweatpants and a T-shirt are de rigueur. Right now I still was in what substituted for jammies. I quickly showered and put on light green pants and a beige Hawaiian-like pullover shirt. There, now I wouldn't embarrass myself... well, too much.

At 9:00 am sharp, right on schedule, Kathy Robertson arrived with her colleague, Yvonne Carr, and they had some muscle help to move around furniture. As they inspected the house and made decisions about what they wanted to use from other rooms, I was please that no one laughed at me -- at least openly. Actually, during the entire experience -- which lasted several hours -- they were very professional and even kind at all times.

A senior photographer from The Denver Post had arrived -- Glen Martin -- and I was pleased that he did not take pictures of any other rooms in the house. I was saved from substantial embarrassment. He took numerous shots as Kathy, Yvonne, and Nathan swarmed all over the place like bees.

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AFTER

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The Transformation Occurs
PART 3 OF 5

The Interior Redesign team was taking my house by storm. It was now about 10:30 am and the Living Room had undergone its first transformation -- my "lesser" items were gone, all having been shuttled to other rooms. This included a coach and loveseat purchased from a friend who moved to France who needed the money. In a moment of sympathy, I actually had paid cash for the cat-clawed furniture.

Other items which were removed included the large yellow rug which alternated as a wrestling mat. Almost all of the artwork was taken off. I explained to Kathy Robertson that I was having much of my "good stuff" framed at Brian Hart's shop in Denver -- Frame de Art II -- but she shooshed me away, knowing better that those selections were unlikely to represent any missed opportunities.

Soon all the walls were barren and much of the furniture was removed. It had been years since I saw my Living Room naked and it wasn't a pretty sight. On the other hand, the room suddenly looked bigger, as one would expect when items are removed.

Kathy Robertson and Yvonne Carr were debating what items to use and where each should go. The room has good natural light from the large number of windows but that also meant it was difficult to hide anything -- including my foremost home nemesis, dirt! Kathy and Yvonne weren't shy about cleaning up. They swept, vacuumed, and dusted that room like never before. They did find a few interesting personal items buried in the coach and loveseat cushions but, to protect the innocent, no further details will be disclosed.

Their next step was to complete their basic plan for the room. As time went by, furniture was constantly being arranged. Soon tables, chairs, and sofas all were in place. Then they tackled the artwork. It now was almost 12:00 pm and they had been working on the single room on a nonstop basis.

I was amazed at some of the items they had found -- many of which had been long forgotten by me. I also was impressed with how they were able to change the "look and feel" of the room despite the fact there were some immutable constants. The walls and ceiling remained the same. The windows were unchanged. The wood floors, of course, also stayed the same. So, in a certain sense, Kathy and her team had to work with what was there.

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Even I Am Impressed
PART 4 OF 5

The room wasn't quite done when Glen Martin, the Denver Post photographer, had to leave. He took a few more shots to add to the one or two hundred he seemed to already have taken. Glen also took a few pictures of Kathy, Yvonne, Holly, and myself.

After talking with Glen, who had been with the newspaper for four decades and had seen just about everything, I was convinced this very nice man would not use any of the photos of other parts of my home for blackmail purposes. After he left, I then took a look at the room and was amazed at the transformation. The place looked like it was being featured in a national home or architectural magazine.

It was now about 3:00 pm. Another photographer, Garrett Hasting of PhotographyG, had come to take pictures. One set was with all four of my dogs -- the three Golden Retrievers -- Wally (10), Bandit (8), and Wonka (3) -- were joined by Velma (5), our German Shepherd -- and no people. This was no easy task, especially because the happy "baby" -- Wonka -- kept trying to visit with everyone instead of staying in position. After some effort, everyone cooperated. All of the dogs were "retired" from Guide Dogs for the Blind. For medical or psychological reasons, the retrievers had never made it all the way through the program and the shepherd had been retired early. All of them had needed a quiet home and ended up with me.

Even the cat -- "Herrmann" -- who was respected by all four dogs as the boss, got into the picture. All he had to do was curl up on one of the couches and look sleepy. This was easy to do as (a) he already had taken a fancy to one of the throw-covers placed on a couch and (b) it was his natural state, when he wasn't chasing one of the dogs, each of whom was between five and ten times his size. Thanks to Herrmann, the final animal shots went well.

Kathy had altered the room primarily by creating a "conversation center" which deployed the three best pieces of furniture -- all new couches and loveseats -- in a U-shape with the open end facing the fireplace. It was an ingenious design as it created an intimate setting as the core of a large room, with plenty of space around that center for other people to mingle.

She had thoroughly gone through the house and had vetted my art "collection" -- the items I had randomly selected from charity auctions, artist friends who needed to make a sale, and any number of other sources. There was no rhyme or reason to the art I owned and my placement of it in the house was equally random. Kathy, however, selected pieces from the assortment she found available and made it "work." The accomplishment was representative of her overall approach and effectiveness. Now I wanted to see what everyone else thought.

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The Reaction
PART 5 OF 5

By 4:00 pm or so, everything was done and the Decorating Solutions crew was leaving. I looked over the Living Room from the hallway leading into it and was impressed with the transformation. The Living Room was well-organized into a space I could use when with a few friends yet it would accommodate large events. The new look was more in sync with the color of the wood floor and trim in the room. The artwork selected from my collection gave the room its pastoral and playful feel. The window treatments, although simple, created an attractive effect of elegance which the room had been missing. The furniture, in particular, now was organized in a manner which created a sense of consistency compared to my original choices, which represented a more random mix.

The room looked so nice, I wasn't certain if I wanted to use it or just look at it. In what was the most important test, I asked Holly what she thought. She liked it so I knew we were OK. My sister, Leah, came over to see the results and liked it, too. I thought this was a good sign because her tastes and mine differed considerably (i.e., she had good taste and I had none).

Over the weekend, a few other people had the opportunity to view the work of Decorating Solutions and everyone approved. I noticed the women were far more interested in what was done and were more perceptive about the changes which had occurred. Their opinions were more specific and detailed. The men generally liked the changes but usually pointed out just one or two features they liked. Overall, it was clear the effort had been a solid success.

I was curious how it would look in photographs as well as how well the contrast would show in the "before and after" pictures. The concept reminded me of all the weight-loss advertisements in which the "before" photo was that of a pudgy, obviously overweight woman posed with a frown on her face, straggly hair, multi-colored teeth (for those which weren't missing), poor posture, and clothing -- typically minimal -- all of which combined to create a "bag-lady" look. The "after" photo would show a svelte, happy woman who's weight-loss program somehow eliminated wrinkles, fixed bad teeth, and straightened posture to make a person taller.

Photography can be tricky, especially when the pictures involve inanimate objects, whose expressions cannot change. I hadn't seen any "before and after" shots so I could only go on my impressions and those of others. I guess I would just have to wait and see.

In the end, I was very pleased with the results. The transformation was so positive the dogs were banned from the Living Room (don't worry, they have plenty of room -- both indoors and outdoors -- to play). I tried to ban the cat, too, but he laughed at me. Unless I hermetically sealed the room and never used it, Herrmann would enjoy the couches whenever he wished. Now I was thinking, 'What room should be next?"

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Aaron Harber hosts "The Aaron Harber Show," seen Fridays at 9:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm on PBS Station KBDI-TV Channel 12. Please go to www.HarberTV.com for more information. Send your comments and topic suggestions for both columns and TV shows to Aaron@HarberTV.com. You also may view programs on a 24/7 basis via the "Broadcast Videos" section of the Website. Many of Aaron's columns also are available on the Website on the page entitled "Aaron's Opinions." You often can find them in The Colorado Statesman (www.ColoradoStatesman.com) as well as in The Denver Daily News (www.DenverDailyNews.com).