Homes with special functional built-ins like garbage chutes in counters, dumb waiters from basement laundry rooms to bedrooms, closet lights that turn on as their doors open, lazy susans in home offices, hidden pet doors and more. These are the high-WOW!-factor features that transform ordinary homes into extraordinary ones and make a home the talk of the neighborhood! After over 5,000 hours since 1998 researching more than 1,000 of these clever, hard-to-find home improvement ideas — and writing America’s first books about them — Carol is now America’s foremost home design expert about the built-ins that add convenience, function, comfort and safety to a home. She helps her clients quickly and easily learn about them through her consulting, publications and presentations. What they value most is how her work saves them all the research time, effort and dollars she invested in compiling them. Her innovative, practical, exciting, often-uncommon ideas can dramatically enhance everyday living in any home. They literally change people’s lives! And best of all, they’re often inexpensive to add to a remodeling or building project. They not only actively contribute to a homeowner’s life and daily needs, they also increase a home’s value and resale appeal — big-time! — no matter what its size, price, décor, age or style.

To download photo: Macintosh: Place mouse over image then control-click, select "Save As." Windows: Place mouse over image then right-click, select "Save As."

Through her company, ExtraOrdinary Homes, Carol excites and inspires homeowners who are planning to remodel or build about these fabulous features.

She also founded her premier home design e-newsletter, The Home of Your Dreams™, as well as a weekly newspaper column, ExtraOrdinary Homes — Affordably!™. The other key part of her business is helping real estate, home design and building professionals increase their sales and profits by promoting these convenience ideas. In addition, her books and consulting make great gifts!

Her goal in all this? To increase the number of these features found in all American homes. Her mission is to change the face of America’s homebuilding industry by raising the minimum functional standards we all require in our homes. Just as dishwashers, remote garage door openers and disposals went from luxury items in the 1950s to necessities found everywhere in the 1960s, she hopes many of the currently uncommon, affordable convenience built-ins she promotes will be considered necessities in future decades.

Carol’s groundbreaking work and convenience built-in ideas have been featured in many of America’s largest newspapers as well as numerous magazines.

Her prior professional life. . .

Was as one of a few ex-Wall Streeters in America who advised corporate top management teams for 25 years about how to deal with Wall Street, the financial press, the SEC, stock exchanges and investors. With more than 200 corporate clients by 2001 — many in the Fortune 500 — and an MBA in finance, Carol began that career as one of the first women analysts and investment bankers on Wall Street in the early 1970s. She then spent several years on the staff inside four major corporations as an internal expert and advisor before starting and building her California-based consulting, publishing and seminar company from 1983 – 2001.

Carol currently lives in Sedona, Arizona.

Contact her to learn more.

She hopes you’ll love the features she’s collected for you!