A letter from your Host, Robert Hartwell
Dear Friend,
When I purchased my home on Juneteenth 2020, I had no idea that it would become a TV show on HGTV and the Oprah Winfrey Network debuting this spring.
But what I did know is that the home’s mission was bigger than me.
Buying my home was the easy part. Staying the course the past 4 years to get it over the finish line – that was the biggest test of my life so far.
There were so many times where people around me said that it wasn’t going to get completed or that there was no way I was going to raise the capital to get over yet another construction delay.
But I kept going.
I kept going because I knew that if I didn’t stop you wouldn’t either.
At the end of 2023, a few weeks before construction ended and the film crews arrived to capture the sheer beauty of what we had created, I was walking around the house and I saw you there.
I saw you on my couch talking about your company. I saw you in my studio upstairs working out the intricacies of your story. I saw you at my dining table toasting to a bigger vision of your life.
I saw you there.
If I know anything about life it’s that without vision you are stuck.
We didn’t get over the finish line of this home to stop dreaming now.
We got over the finish line to bring others to it so that they had a physical meeting spot on Earth that if it happened for me surely it can happen for you.
There is something deeply transformational on that land that reminds you that you are not alone and that your story deserves to be told.
There is something in the creaking of the steps that echoes to you that you don’t walk alone.
There is something in the chimneys that hum along to wildly audacious dreams swirling around in your head.
There is something in the sparkle of the chandeliers that crown your efforts with success.
I can’t put my finger on it, but since completing the home every friend or family member that has stopped by walks around in awe and then in some way finds themselves creating – maybe in the studio crafting movement or downstairs in the study typing away.
The spaces in the home were shaped for creation.
I believe the greatest gift you can give the world is your story.
When we share our stories we share a path forward for someone else to not feel so alone.
Something in your vulnerability and truth allows them the courage to embody who they know they were always meant to be.
I love my home with all of my heart and I couldn’t think of a better place to bring more stories into the world than at Hartwell House.
I want to invite you for the weekend to create in my home and find your story and the audacity to tell it.
Hartwell House was created for us to shine our light more radiantly.
In 2024 I plan to light this place up with hope.
And that plan absolutely includes your story.
It’s time.