Culturally, for me, it's been quite a shock.
That's kind of, that would be an understatement for sure.
Certainly Justin's having a rough period of adjustment and that takes its toll on me
as well.
So I'm just hoping he makes it through without, you know, asking for a divorce.
Things that I didn't expect were for me to be as emotional as I've been about the move.
Kind of once it happened, it got a little sad at times and a little bit lonely.
There are aspects of Los Angeles that I do miss.
I miss the design community.
I was very plugged in there with the design community.
I miss that.
But I think the thing that I miss the most is my sister.
She lived right across the street from us.
One of the things early on when Michelle was trying to convince me of the merits of why
we should move here is that my best friend from high school, Chris, lives less than two
hours away in Atlanta.
Best decision ever, ever.
I was super excited.
Justin and I have been on opposite coasts for a long time.
So to find out that he was going to only move two hours away from me, I was thrilled.
Justin's friend, Chris, married a lovely woman, Ashley, and I love her.
It's been great getting to know her better.
And I got a new best friend.
Michelle's wonderful.
She's fabulous.
So it was a surprise gift for me when my husband's best friend moved to Chattanooga.
When I found out about it, yeah, I danced a little jig.
I do have my first client, so that's good.
It's just two rooms at this point, but we'll see where that goes.
My name is Cassandra Burks, and I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
When Michelle was relocating, I thought it was just fabulous.
I couldn't wait.
I've seen several spreads and various publications of Michelle's work, and I love all of it.
This is the sheers on the windows, both up and down.
This is the sofa fabric and the sofa here.
So many of us look forward to having great design and designers.
I love the fact that she's bringing her glamour, her style, here.
I think Michelle is so talented that whatever she chooses is going to blend into Southern
living, even though we have a really great talent base to have someone of her expertise
to come.
It's just a very welcomed venture for us.
All right, so I want to talk about some of the things that we need to get done in the
house.
Okay.
All right, so we need to completely gut the kitchen.
Okay.
All the bathrooms.
All the bathrooms.
All the bathrooms.
Most of the things were done pretty high quality, except for the bathrooms.
They have half carpeting, and that's kind of gross carpeting in the bathroom.
The main closet that you and I are using right now.
The one that's in between the rooms.
Yes, I want to tear that out and make the two bedrooms connected.
But then we lose a bedroom.
We do lose a bedroom.
That's kind of a problem for guests.
I want to build a guest house.
Either convert the barn or build a guest house, whichever is less expensive.
Okay, okay.
See?
It's a give and take.
I think the shift is a bigger deal probably for Justin than Michelle.
You know, Michelle certainly loved the idea of coming to the South, and Justin has been
in the city his whole life.
With the property we got a tractor, and Justin hasn't been on the tractor yet, he might tip
it over.
I don't know.
I don't know what he's going to do with it.
Who knows?
Yeah, you're going to.
You're going to.
Why do I need the tractor?
Well, you need the tractor to keep the grass down, keep the snakes away and stuff like
that.
Snakes are not good.
No, no.
And they don't like short grass.
They like tall grass.
Some of the biggest challenges for me on this particular property, again, like I really
thought I was going to be a little more just kind of suburbs in this area, not on a farm.
That's what the bush hogs for.
This is a what?
So we have pastures and they need to be mowed, which I didn't, I always thought you just
left pastures to kind of grow.
You don't mow at all.
You got a bush hog, these pastures, like on a tractor, I don't, huh?
So that's really those elements where I just, I have no idea what to do.
So when you roll it over, it's got a roll cage.
When I roll it over, I'm like in the wild west here, I don't know what to do.
I don't know how much I'll be on it, I'll be honest.
I may be hiring someone to do it, but at least I know I can do it, you see, that's important.
