1. Replace weatherstripping back door.

2. Clean gutters

3. Trim trees

4. Re-carpet upstairs after in-laws leave post holidays (schedule now!)

5. Re-upholster family room sofa after kids leave post holidays (buy fabric, schedule now!)

6. Clean chimney

7. Paint eaves

8. Figure out how to graciously get more of kids’ belongings out of the house

9. Quit reminding spouse to shut garage door — maybe it will all get stolen!

While perusing through D Home, I found this story —  might be helpful to any of us about to let a workman take one step into our homes. Get those surgical booties ready, have them waiting by the front door!

In reading your piece on Oriental Rugs, I feel that I must respond to some of the points.

As you know, I am fortunate to be a part of an oriental rug family in Dallas since 1934. My grandfather and father built a business on honesty and trust.

I can see by the project that you write about that a very good thing is going on in Afghanistan. There have been various projects over the years that have tried to do this. In fact, the Oriental Rug Retailers of America, which my father founded, attempted to address some of these issues, with respect to child labor back in the 70′s.

My questions though, are these. If 92% of the proceeds from the sale of the rugs in the project is going to be returned to the weavers, how does the wool get purchased, spun, and dyed? And how do the rugs get shipped and marketed. There are a number of costs associated with producing a rug that go far beyond just weaving cost. Don’t misunderstand me, I think what these people are doing is very worthwhile, but I guess that I may be misunderstanding the math here.

Additionally, the statement about only buying a rug with a mission disturbs me a little. Are people to assume that those of us in this business that are not here simply for what we can take FROM our community, but rather to live by the idea that one needs to put back into the community that we take from….should we be excluded from the rug buying public?

My grandfather and father thought it extremely important to do those things. And they were not concerned about whether people should know. A lot of people in Dallas do a great deal for the underprviledged here, and without any fanfare.

As the people you have written about are doing, my family has done for the last 75 years. No “Going out of Business” sales, no “80% Off” sales….just honest dealing with the people of this community, with the idea that you put into the community what you get out of it.

I believe that the project in Afghanistan is wonderful…..but let’s not lose sight of great things being done by the local community as well. I count my self as one of those.

David

Rejebian and Son Oriental Rugs
6604 Snider Plaza
Dallas, TX 75205

For many of these women, Arzu rugs are the sole source of almost one year’s worth of family income and their ticket to literacy, health care, and a better life for their children.

Why Dallas? Because, said Duckworth, we have a growing economy, a  sophisticated design community, intense interest in great design, and we’ve weathered the lousy economy. We also have big hearts.

The Arzu story started, ironically, with a trader from Goldman Sachs in 2004. Chicago native Connie Duckworth, a retired Wall partner and managing director, visited Afghanistan with the U.S. Afghan Woman’s Council to try and figure out a way to give these women some hope — subservient women who (some) were beaten by their husbands, covered in burkas, women who washed clothes in icy-cold Chicago-like weather with bare bleeding hands because they had no laundromats, no hot water. It was a most unusual trip for Goldman’s first female sales and trading partner, but Duckworth had already retired and was looking for the next chapter of her life.

She flew in on a military C 130 cargo plane — no seats, no heat, special forces strapped out scouting for missiles, circular landing to avoid attack. There, in 2003, she saw first hand that Afghan women suffered a 100% illiteracy rate in rural areas. Virtual slaves to their husbands, they had no medical care, and they stayed indoors hidden in refugee camps raising children and caring for their families. One thing they did have, however, was the centuries old gift of rug weaving in a country renown for it’s delicately beautiful and high-quality rugs. Rugs that were knotted and tied by hand, created of natural abrash-style vegetable dyes, rugs that took time to create. Duckworth decided to harness their talent for rug-making so they could become self-sustaining, earn enough money to become self-reliant and support their families.

But she wisely didn’t stop with salaries alone. Duckworth created an infrastructure that helped the weavers become literate. She devised contracts that husband and wife had to sign, husbands signing with a fingerprint (because they cannot write) to indicate acceptance of the contract promising that if Arzu contracted for the rug, the weaver would be paid not only for her work but for attending school to become literate and she would also send her children to school, educate them.

Duckworth set up a business model for Arzu Rugs with as much pro bono support as she could, from the architect Zaha Hadid, interior designer Thomas Schoos, graphic artists and others she recruited from top U.S. contract design firms — such as Odegard Rugs  — even an office in the John Hancock Building in Chicago. She created a framework that, in six years, has created 800 jobs in rural Afghan areas, those jobs providing support for 2100 individuals. She used her own money initially, but subsequently received a U.S. Agency for International Development grant. She’ll take as many freebies as she can to minimize overhead with the ultimate goal of returning 100%  of the purchase price of the rug — ranging from $500 to $15,000 — back to the Afghan women. What I don’t want to do, she told me, is have to be dependent on donations.

“Billions of dollars have been poured into that country,” she says. “Very little has touched the people at the lowest level.”

U.S corporations have made major image shifts in the last two years, says Duckworth, to take a more wholistic approach and make a statement about who they are through conscientious design. Many buy Arzu rugs and hang them as art, labeling them with the Arzu story. In fact, I heard just this week how many corporation are selling off high-brow art collections to galleries like Heritage Auction Galleries and selecting less expensive but expressive works. They have learned that most of their employees don’t appreciate the haute quality of the pieces anyhow and aim, instead, for a more socially-conscious, less conspicuous display. Besides, said Ed Beardsley, Vice President of Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, if they bought them at great prices the sales are proving quite lucrative. Consumers, too, are practicing responsible consumerism.

“Families all want the same basic things,” Duckworth told me over drinks at St. Ann Court. “They want their children to be healthy and grow up safely to enjoy a better world. That’s what we want, that’s want these Afghan men and women want.”

Once the women began earning money, says Duckworth, they gained a new sense of empowerment and respect within their own families. They were the breadwinners. Now, she says, the women will sign the contracts because they have learned to read and write while the husbands are still making fingerprints. Through grants, Arzu has helped bring midwives and healthcare to the rural Afghan communities and even just completed what must be the most sought-after structure in all of Afghanistan: an indoor laundromat with hot water and a tea-room.

“Our women tell me they feel like a blind woman getting their eyes back once they learn to read,” says Duckworth. “And then one told me, I weave so my daughters won’t have to.”

Photo: The fibers that free the women of Afghanistan.

They just drink it.

Next thing you know, people will be filling their swimming pools.

 Jump for the press release.

For immediate release:    

Media contacts: Juliette Coulter, The Coulter Group, 214.366.2626, juliette@coultergroup.com

The Real Estate Council’s Associate Leadership Council Rebuilds Affordable,

LEED-Certified Home in Historic Jubilee Neighborhood

Dallas, Texas, May 29, 2009 – After research and site visits focusing on neighborhood revitalization, The Real Estate Council’s (TREC) Associate Leadership Council (ALC) class of 25 young leaders selected buildingcommunityWORKSHOP’s Congo Street initiative in the Jubilee neighborhood as its project. The ALC members have participated in an intensive 10-month leadership training course that began in August 2008.  As part of learning leadership, philanthropy and fundraising, they select and implement a real estate-related community service project.

Jubilee is an historic African American neighborhood near Fair Park.  Starting in February, the ALC class, in partnership with bcWORKSHOP and Congo Street residents, designed and constructed the house at 4523 Congo Street.  The team deconstructed by hand a dilapidated 98-year-old, 525-square-foot house so that the materials could be reused in rebuilding a LEED-certified, affordable home.  The new home is now 880-square-feet.

The home is completed, and TREC’s ALC class has dedicated 4523 Congo on Friday, May 29. Councilmember Pauline Medrano participated, along with neighborhood representatives and TREC leaders.

The house is the third of six houses set to be built, in conjunction with bcWORKSHOP, a community design center and design builder responsible for originating this initiative with the residents on Congo Street.  A mother and her six teenage children will live in the home, where the family has resided for 30 years.  Members of the family have lived on the street since 1910. 

Mitch Paradise of Corgan and TREC ALC chairman, said, “In addition to giving this family a new home and far better quality of life, we are contributing to the revitalization of an entire community by providing quality, sustainable, affordable housing and the educational tools to maintain it.  In partnership with the residents, bcWORKSHOP and private enterprise, investing our time, professional services and sweat equity, we are making a long-term impact, not a quick fix.”

Brent Brown, founder of bcWORKSHOP and TREC member, said, “I am honored that TREC’s ALC selected this project to learn more about real estate and neighborhood revitalization.  This home is one piece of a larger vision of revitalizing the community by building relationships with other nonprofits and creating a model for future nonprofit urban housing endeavors in Dallas.”

The project is valued at about $80,000, which includes grants and in-kind donations of materials and services.  The 25 ALC volunteers, bcWORKSHOP and residents contributed more than 2,000 volunteer hours in planning and constructing the house.

Ann Allison, TREC Foundation executive director, said, “The Congo Street project was selected because TREC Foundation has a history with Brent and bcWORKSHOP.  We provided an initial grant to build the first new home on Congo Street, which was a LEED-certified, award-winning, affordable home where families could stay while their homes are being rebuilt or renovated.”

To fund the renovation, TREC ALC members sold raffle tickets and received a grant from TREC Foundation.  In addition to the TREC Foundation grant, the ALC class solicited in-kind donations of materials and services from generous companies including American Roofing, Bartlett Drilling, CMC Rebar, Daltile, Gill Excavating Co., Inc., Hatfield Drywall, Hull Associates, LLC, King Building Services, LMC, Prism Electric, Inc., Summit Lumber, TDIndustries, Texas Plywood, Turner Forest Industries and Venture Mechanical. 

About TREC’s Associate Leadership Council:

TREC’s Associate Leadership Council is a leadership development program of The Real Estate Council designed to encourage individuals, 27-37 years of age, in the commercial real estate industry to assume leadership roles in the greater Dallas community.  Leadership development includes monthly programs about government affairs, neighborhood revitalization, mentoring and networking.  To learn more about TREC ALC, visit www.recouncil.com or call 214.692.3600.

About TREC:
Founded in 1990, The Real Estate Council is a dynamic organization of 1,600 commercial real estate professionals representing more than 500 companies in the Dallas area. Through investments of financial and human capital, TREC Foundation works to improve the quality of life in Dallas’ most distressed neighborhoods with programming to address job creation, child welfare, education, community revitalization, the environment and affordable housing. Since 1990 TREC has invested $7 million in cash and $75 million in pro bono professional expertise in the community. TREC is a leader of initiatives shaping the future of our community including the original $1.5 million grant spearheading Woodall Rodgers Park, and $250,000 in funding and $6.3 million in pro bono legal and title services creating the Urban Land Bank. TREC’s Government Affairs Board pursues advocacy efforts on local and statewide public policy issues. Find out more at www.recouncil.com or by calling (214) 692.3600.

Members of The Real Estate Council’s Associate Leadership Council 2008-09 Class:

James Adams – Corgan

Kate Alpert – Stewart National Title Services

Natalie Anderson – Wells Fargo

Monica Berry – Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Joseph Chu – Thackeray Partners

Steve Davis – Winstead PC

Valerie De La Rosa – Good Fulton & Farrell

Ian Fairchild – Munsch Hardt Kopf& Harr, P.C.

Brendon Fitzgerald – Henry S. Miller

Mike Jones – BalfourBeatty

Prama Kumar – Hill & Wilkinson

Jeff LaBauve – Comerica

Mandy Lemmond – Crow Holdings

Monica Libbey – Amegy Bank N.A.

Justin Miller – Transwestern

Tiffini Miller – Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

Justin Moon – Jones Lange LaSalle

Seth Parker – JSP Consulting

Sarah Payne – Stream Realty

Jason Piering – CBRE Melody

Randy Primrose – UDR

Clark Pulliam – Jackson Walker, LLP

Justin Ridnour – Jackson-Shaw

Oliver Robinson – Trammell Crow Company

Brooke Schmidt – Ernst & Young