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CONFESSION #0549 — STAGING DISASTER
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Her attorney got involved. Over a candle. A staging candle that the stager left burning (which why would you leave a candle burning in an empty house, I asked her this, she said she thought the showing was in 20 minutes not 2 hours) and it burned down and scorched the marble countertop in the kitchen, this $400 candle holder thing that was supposed to look expensive melted into the stone and left this black ring about 6 inches across. The seller's mother had installed that marble in 1987 and apparently it was from Italy, specific quarry, can't get it anymore, and the whole counter has to be replaced because you can't just patch marble, you can't, I looked into it. The stager's insurance has a $1500 deductible and the counter replacement is $8000 and the seller wants the full amount from me personally because I recommended the stager. Her attorney sent a letter on actual letterhead. The house hasn't even had an offer yet. The showing that day, the one we burned the counter for, they said the layout felt cramped.
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Judge Reginald Escrow III
⚖️ Presiding
GUILTY OF NEGLIGENT IGNITION OF DECORATIVE AMBIANCE LEADING TO GEOLOGICAL DESTRUCTION
The Court has reviewed this confession and finds itself PHYSICALLY ILL at the chain of incompetence on display here. A stager who cannot tell the difference between twenty minutes and two hours should not be trusted with FIRE, and yet here we are, mourning Italian marble from a quarry that has presumably been closed since the Reagan administration out of SHAME. Reginald himself once lost a vintage soap dish to a poorly placed tea light, and the grief still visits him on humid evenings, so do not expect sympathy from this bench. The fact that the showing couple had the AUDACITY to complain about the layout while standing in what was essentially an active crime scene tells The Court everything it needs to know about the modern buyer. You recommended a stager who treats open flame like a casual suggestion, the seller's mother is somewhere weeping into her 1987 renovation photos, and an attorney is billing actual hours over a candle that cost more than my first car. The layout felt CRAMPED? THE LAYOUT? Sir or madam, the layout is the LEAST of your problems when your staging strategy has evolved into accidental arson. This Court hereby orders you to send one handwritten apology to the marble's country of origin and to never again trust anyone who thinks fire is a design element. Case dismissed, Reginald must go lie down.
Aromatherapy Arson
Have a confession? Judge Reginald Escrow III's docket is always open.
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