As part of the finishing touches on Resident Bedroom No. 206, Catherine Jordan Connon, proprietor of Catherine Jordan Designs in Fairfax Station, wanted to wash the slipcover on an old chair she'd refurbished for the room. It fell apart in the washing machine.
"All the seams fell out of it," Connon said. "It was a nightmare."
A friend handy with a sewing machine helped out though, and the room came together as part of Guest House, the Alternative Design Showcase house in Alexandria. The house is a halfway house for female prisoners, designed in the communal spirit by separate interior designers, the Alexandria Kiwanis Club, Houses for Humanity and Friends of Guest House. Connon brought some of the furniture she used from her basement while other things were donated, such as the bed, the closet, shelf boxes on the wall, the headboard and the knitted afghan.
"We got the room, and we had to go out and get everything," she said. “It was really a positive atmosphere. I did not have to ask very hard for people to donate their services and time."
All the other rooms, as well as the back yard, were done in this spirit of women coming out of incarceration and trying to get their lives started again. Although the house is located in the Del Ray area of Alexandria, people from all over the area helped out. In 1972, the house was zoned as a halfway house and housed former prisoners through the year until funding evaporated and the house fell into disrepair. The initial operating funds to reopen the facility for the coming year are provided by the Arlington County government. The additional $50,000 to $60,000 needed to run the facility is in the form of donations.
The Alexandria Housing Trust Fund is providing $99,000 to pay off the existing mortgage loan and $40,000 for rehabilitation materials and a security system.
THE WOMEN living at the house must be convicted of nonviolent offenses, some in lieu of prison, and will stay three months while they get their lives together. They must be employed, as well.
Peter Lunt is the board president for the Friends of Guest House Inc. He coordinated with the Virginia Department of Corrections in preparing Guest House.
"We have a close relationship with the Department of Corrections," Lunt said. "From Richmond north, there's no other place for female ex-offenders."
The women will come to the house from Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties. Lunt is soliciting grants from all those jurisdictions, preparing for June 30 when the funding from Arlington runs out.
Susan Estomin of Fairfax Station has been involved in the interior decorating business for 25 years. She is acting as a coordinator at the house. She is an active member in the Alexandria Kiwanis.
"I came up with the idea 'let's do a showcase house,'" Estomin said. "My role as co-chair was to bring in all the designers."
Anna Sidner, volunteer intern for Houses for Humanity, took off a year between high school and college. She's been working on the house since the beginning of last winter and adopted one of the rooms upstairs, where she helped move a wall, making three rooms out of one.
"I loved it because of the windows, and I helped frame it," Sidner said. "I felt a certain connection to it."
EACH ROOM features a combination of pastel colors and art in a simplistic approach. The upstairs bathroom was made into two bathrooms, the living room and dining room have a comfortable red influence, and the basement is done in a meeting room motif. In addition, a resident mother suite is located in the back, and the kitchen resembles a galley. The basement can be changed around for meetings, parties or a training room where job skills will be taught.
Marymount students Janet Kibler and Nicky Brady pooled their efforts on the back yard, keeping in mind that the house is for women with children who will visit from time-to-time. Kibler and Brady are both interior design students. The back yard includes a deck, a patio in one corner, and a playhouse in a castle motif.
"This gives them some hope that not everything is as bad as it was before," Brady said.
According to Estomin, the house is still lacking some essentials. A resident manager has not been hired yet, and the house needs a new washer-dryer, television, computers, exercise equipment and donations. The house is scheduled to open on May 1, but it may take up to four months to fill the rooms after opening.