Room Fu is celebrating its 10th anniversary this July. Independence Day, to be exact–without meaning to, I declared my independence from my former boring job, right on July 4th, when I plunked down a few virtual dollars on the domain name. From there, I was off and running, taking on two guinea pig clients who allowed me to design bedrooms for them so I could start developing a portfolio. Less than six months later, I quit my day job and went after this full-time.

I’ve started planning a party to commemorate the occasion (please join our event page to stay in the loop!) and have been thinking a lot about how this business came about. I can’t help feeling nostalgic about all of the things that led me here. My design degree (graphic design, not interior design), my stint in NYC–which led to a high level of fantasizing about larger interior spaces, obsessing over every home show on TV. Then the biggie–the Mac Daddy of them all. I would never have had the confidence toward home improvement projects if I hadn’t taken on this beast first:

This is the house I bought after moving back to Texas. When I was single. Before I had any hands-on home improvement experience. Five coal-burning fireplaces, four bedrooms, three bay windows, a wrap-around porch AND a veranda, two original hitching posts plus a real-live carriage step, and almost 3,000 square feet of complete and total dilapidation.

It was a thing of beauty.

I had the best time working on that house. Both sets of my grandparents each spent a month with me, coaching me through various construction projects. It was such a rush to see this house returned (to an extent) to its former glory. Too bad I never got around to doing the kitchen I’d gutted.

Ahhhhh, the memories…