Cougarboard might be a terrible place to ask this but have you ever hired an interior designer and was your spouse happy with the experience? We're you happy with the financial side?

My wife has had a challenging four years. She gave up on a lifelong dream to attend medical school as she did not believe it would ever be a match for our family. She thought that becoming a nurse practitioner might work. That meant going back to school for another bachelor's degree (nursing) while being a full-time mom. Lots of very late nights & tons of investment in both her learning/training and our family. For the last 18 months, she's worked full-time as a hospital nurse getting clinical hours. The pandemic has magnified that experience. Now we hope to hear from grad schools over the next ~8 weeks. It'll be another challenging 3-4 years.

We don't live in a McMansion but our house is now 14 years old. She's never loved the kitchen cabinet color and felt that the decorating didn't have the 'finished' look she wanted. The existing hardwood needs to be refinished and she wants to extend it into some rooms that the investor who spec built the house chose to carpet. Some other flooring needs replacing, walls need to be repainted and the kitchen countertop is cracked. Several big furniture pieces need to be chosen or replaced/refurbished. There are lots of decisions to make, sub-cons to manage, etc.

Her birthday is approaching in the next week or two. With everything going on I'd love to take the 'homework' part of the project off of her plate. I'd love to surprise her with two vetted candidates to choose from to get the project started & done. Does anyone have any candidates that they would recommend?