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Local Keller Williams realtor&nbsp;Nona Armour&nbsp;first met&nbsp;Megan Vess&nbsp;about 4-6 weeks back, she estimates.Right away,&nbsp;Armour says, she noticed the 13-year-old girl is&nbsp;&#8220;just a really strong kid.&#8221;In early 2013,&nbsp;Megan,&nbsp;her mother&nbsp;Amber, her father and three siblings moved from Johnson City, Tenn., to Marion, N.C., into a two-story modular home. The upper floor&nbsp;was unfinished when the family moved in, though they expected to fix it up&nbsp;over time, giving the oldest two girls a space of their own.&#8220;But&nbsp;then Megan got sick, and with the hospital bills and trips to [St. Jude&#8217;s in]&nbsp;Memphis,&#8221; Armour explains, the home-improvement project took a backseat to other priorities.<div>After battling&nbsp;leukemia for more than two&nbsp;years, Megan received her final chemotherapy treatment in March&nbsp;&#8212; a huge victory&nbsp;for the family.<img wp-image-503006="" alignright"="" src="http://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/20150413_112120-720x540.jpg" alt="20150413_112120" width="330" height="247" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; height: auto; display: block; max-width: 100%; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 15px !important;" />But as they recovered from a constant state of worry, it became clear that the four&nbsp;Vess children, still sharing&nbsp;a single room, were growing out of their space.Meanwhile, in&nbsp;Asheville, Armour&#8217;s&nbsp;team at Keller Williams was looking for a charitable&nbsp;project&nbsp;for&nbsp;the company&#8217;s &#8220;RED Day,&#8221; a company holiday that&nbsp;encourages all&nbsp;employees, nationally, to &#8220;put down their cell phones, take a couple of hours off and go help somebody in need,&#8221; says Armour.And as local employees were sifting through volunteer opportunities, Armour received&nbsp;a call from Special Spaces, a nonprofit dedicated to giving&nbsp;children with life-threatening illnesses their own&nbsp;&#8220;dream bedroom,&#8221; where they can escape to find peace and comfort.Special Spaces, however, does not have a Western North Carolina&nbsp;chapter &#8212; the call was coming from the nonprofit&#8217;s Tennessee Tri-Cities branch, near the family&#8217;s hometown.<a href="http://mountainx.com/news/local-companies-create-dream-room-for-teen-leukemia-survivor/attachment/20150413_112112/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=local-companies-create-dream-room-for-teen-leukemia-survivor-1643#main" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" rel="attachment wp-att-503007" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3b59b7; text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: color 200ms; transition: color 200ms; background-color: transparent;"><img wp-image-503007="" alignleft"="" src="http://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/20150413_112112-720x540.jpg" alt="20150413_112112" width="372" height="279" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; height: auto; display: block; max-width: 100%; float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px !important;" /></a>&#8220;They contacted our office because Megan goes&nbsp;to the Johnson City pediatric hospital,&#8221; Armour explains. &#8220;They said, &#8216;We don&#8217;t have anybody&nbsp;[in WNC]&#8221; to take on this project. &#8220;Is this something you&#8217;d be interested in doing for RED&nbsp;Day?'&#8221;Armour called the family and found out they live&nbsp;in Marion. &#8220;That&#8217;s a little out of our district, but I said, &#8216;Let&#8217;s see what we can do.'&#8221;Together with&nbsp;Cindy Stringer&nbsp;andSharon Duncan&nbsp;at Showhomes, a local home-staging company, Armour&nbsp;formed a team of about 15 to give Megan the room of her dreams.&#8220;We&#8217;ve gotten contributions from all over Marion and Asheville to make the room for her,&#8221; Stringer says. &#8220;[Megan] made an account on&nbsp;Pinterest, and pinned&nbsp;ideas [for the room] that she likes. And we&#8217;ve&nbsp;followed through with that.&#8221;<img wp-image-503008="" alignright"="" src="http://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2015050795094315-720x1280.jpg" alt="2015050795094315" width="211" height="375" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; height: auto; display: block; max-width: 100%; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 15px !important;" />Getting to know Megan a bit more, Armour says,&nbsp;&#8220;She&#8217;s such a cool&nbsp;kid. She owns her own miniature horse. She&#8217;s quiet, and she likes to read. And she wears this pair of boots everywhere. They nicknamed her &#8216;Boots&#8217; at the hospital.&#8221;Because of her treatment, the young teen&nbsp;has been having problems in her joints, especially in her feet. But &#8220;she told them she wasn&#8217;t going to quit wearing her boots,&#8221; Armour explained.For her room, Megan&#8217;s&nbsp;pins reflected preference&nbsp;for a simple, rustic, country bedroom. Though at&nbsp;first, Stringer explains, &#8220;she wanted both rustic&nbsp;and&nbsp;nautical themes. I said, &#8216;You know,&nbsp;no matter how good we are, those two themes are a&nbsp;tough combination for any designer.'&#8221; Stringer laughs.The 13-year-old&#8217;s list&nbsp;includes&nbsp;rustic barnwood&nbsp;furniture, red paisley bandanna-patterned pillows, denim upholstery and country-style DIY&nbsp;picture frames and collages.One addition that Armour says&nbsp;Megan was most excited for, though, is &#8220;a hanging chair&nbsp;in her window, so she can&nbsp;read and look out to see her miniature horse.&#8221;<img wp-image-503010="" alignleft"="" src="http://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Megan-s-Dream-Haven-page-001-720x540.jpg" alt="Megan s Dream Haven-page-001" width="337" height="252" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; height: auto; display: block; max-width: 100%; float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px !important;" />And the team isn&#8217;t just&nbsp;building and designing one room. They&#8217;re designing four: Megan&#8217;s &#8220;haven,&#8221; a room for her older sister, a bathroom and a communal&nbsp;room &#8220;where the family can gather or do their homeschooling,&#8221; Armour says.After one&nbsp;month of planning, painting and perfecting &#8212; and one final day of&nbsp;last-minute hustle, Megan and her family will get to see the&nbsp;room on Thursday, May 14, in &#8220;a&nbsp;big, HGTV-style reveal,&#8221; says Stringer.&#8220;Everything&#8217;s been very simple,&#8221; Armour&nbsp;explains. &#8220;Barnwood and blue jeans and denim and bandanas &#8212; just a&nbsp;simple, rustic look.&nbsp;We have had a few&nbsp;donations, money-wise, and&nbsp;we&#8217;re using that to help furnish her room and pull everything&nbsp;together.&#8221;The volunteers created&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/s4k8/megan-s-haven?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=local-companies-create-dream-room-for-teen-leukemia-survivor-1643" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3b59b7; text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: color 200ms; transition: color 200ms; background-color: transparent;">GiveFoward</a>&nbsp;page, setting the bar high for donations &#8212; at $10,000, &#8220;because we&#8217;re&nbsp;hoping&nbsp;to have some left over to help the&nbsp;family,&#8221; she continues.<img wp-image-503011="" alignright"="" src="http://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Megan-s-Dream-Haven-page-002-720x540.jpg" alt="Megan s Dream Haven-page-002" width="332" height="249" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; height: auto; display: block; max-width: 100%; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 15px !important;" />And though they&#8217;ve had generous donations from both businesses and individuals, Stringer says the project&nbsp;still needs&nbsp;help&nbsp;in a few key areas. &#8220;It&#8217;s pretty amazing how the community has come together for this,&#8221; she continues. &#8220;Unfortunately, we weren&#8217;t able to finish the drywall in the common room.&#8221; Paying per sheet, plus labor,&nbsp;&#8220;it was just really expensive, and we didn&#8217;t have the money to do it.&#8221; So they&#8217;re hoping&nbsp;to find someone willing to help, either through&nbsp;volunteering (especially for hanging drywall) or donations, she says.Both Stringer and Armour say they&#8217;re excited for the big reveal. &#8220;What better a reason to&nbsp;volunteer?&#8221; Armour asks.&#8220;Megan is very bright, smart, positive girl,&#8221; Stringer adds. &#8220;She&nbsp;loves to read; she loves her horse. The&nbsp;whole family is&nbsp;really just delightful.&#8221;For more information, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/s4k8/megan-s-haven?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=local-companies-create-dream-room-for-teen-leukemia-survivor-1643" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3b59b7; text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: color 200ms; transition: color 200ms; background-color: transparent;">Megan&#8217;s&nbsp;GiveForward page</a>.</div><div id="mx-ad-premium-banner" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 670px; margin: 15px 70.59375px 25px auto; overflow: hidden; color: #444444; line-height: 22px;"></div>

1851 Franchise

Thirteen-year-old leukemia survivor Megan Vess gets a "dream room," constructed by Keller Williams and Showhomes WNC

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