1KHO 900: Why Not Try? | Jean Stoffer and Grace Start, We Are Home When We're Together

**Ginny Yurich** (0:00)
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Welcome to The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast. My name is Ginny Yurich. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. And I had the opportunity to read this incredible book that has changed my life and gave me just so much encouragement about living and going after dreams and trying new things and being brave. It's called Establishing Home.
I am the worst interior designer anyone would ever know. But people I'm sure know about Jean Stoffer. This is a book about creating space for a beautiful life with faith, family, and friends. And then Jean has written a book with her daughter Grace. Now Grace is in both books basically because they work together. And this is a wonderful kids book called We Are Home When We Are Together. Trusting God Through Life Changes. Okay, welcome to both of you. I'm so excited that you're here.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:45)
Thank you for having us.

**Grace Start** (1:46)
We're excited to be here.

**Ginny Yurich** (1:48)
I loved reading about this journey of your family. And I just got chills. You know, I'm like, I'm most actually at the very end. So I'll read a book and then I'll take my notes on it. And then at the very end, I'll pop over to the person's website just to see if there's anything that I'm missing. And I got teary eyed. I am not kidding. I was almost crying when I went over to the website because it is so stunning and it is so far reaching. I was like, OK, hold on. When you go to Stoffer, it's Jean Stoffer Design. Then there's also, is there another website too? Stoffer Home?
Right.

**Jean Stoffer** (2:25)
Stoffer Home is our retail.

**Ginny Yurich** (2:27)
OK, so you could go to either one. But when I went to stofferhome.com, and then you also have a YouTube, there's Stoffer Home YouTube. It was like furniture, decor, kitchen and lighting, kitchen and dining, lighting, collaborations, exclusives, textiles, cabinetry, hardware, samples, shop the show, sale. And then there was under, then if you went under each thing, under exclusives, it was like Stoffer Home Signature Scents, the Madison, the Simmerpot, the Bradbury, the Cotswold. There's exclusive woodwork, there's exclusive pillows, there's ceramics, there's merchandise. Then it was like shop the show, seasons one, two and three. And then there's blog articles. And I was just like, this started from your husband, being like, my job is too stressful.
I'm going to quit. And you're kind of like thrown off. Oh yeah. You're like, wait a minute. And it started there, but it's this like journey of decades that turns into this remarkable thing. I was so emotional. So I don't even have a question. I just want to tell you that your story, it like reminds you of God's faithfulness. All right, I've got to come up with a question. How about let's talk about your 6th grade art class?
Tell us about Mrs. Hall and the project that you did and how that inspired. That was kind of some beginning inspiration here.

**Jean Stoffer** (3:54)
Oh, that is such a funny thing that we would go there Ginny. But just with your recounting what's happened over the decades, it's as much a surprise to me as anyone because this is not what I set out to do. I just enjoyed, after I discovered design as an adult, I enjoyed it and thought that it would be a wonderful way to do some work and it would work around being a mom.
Wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. But I think it only honestly, it was in writing of the book, Establishing Home, that I put some pieces together of what brought me to where I was. A lot of things didn't occur to me until I started reaching back and thinking about, oh, that happened. Oh, that was influential. And so my sixth grade art teacher had us make these Balsa wood homes, like a rudimentary version of an architect's model now.