How the journey began

About me:

You now know why Designs for Living & You, LLC was created but here’s a little story about the journey.

My name is Diana Raska-Goecke and I’m the owner of Designs for Living & You, LLC. As a child I would flip through the pages of my grandma’s Harriet Carter catalog looking at all the gadgets one would use in their home to make life a little easier and the next day would be ripping out pictures of the JCPenney catalog putting together a collage of various rooms and stylish items. Add my interests in art and science, mix these all together and you get an Interior Designer + Occupational Therapist who has merged the two careers together to form a design and consulting business that focuses on creating an environment that will fit a person and their family throughout the lifespan while maintaining aesthetically pleasing design. It’s all about function, style & innovation.

As with many things, this didn’t happen overnight. I learned about occupational therapy from a friend while I was attending college for interior design and working part-time as a patient transporter at a local hospital.  After completing my design degree, I was employed as a kitchen and bath designer for seven years, took a 180 degree turn working at a local co-op as a customer service rep/grain accounting associate and while I was working full-time decided to pursue a degree in business. It was during this time, that my grandma transitioned from living independently in her home of 40+ years to a nursing home due to macular degeneration, a debilitating eye disease. Besides my grandma having vision and hearing difficulties, she was independent with her mobility and had good safety awareness. With this in mind, I felt we could have done more to keep her in her home longer but didn’t have the right resources. This is when I started to research occupational therapy in more depth and learned how this career promotes independence and home safety. I decided that even though I may not have been able to help my grandma remain independent in her home, I could help others and provide the resources that were missing in my grandma’s situation years ago.

I started to apply for occupational therapy programs, but felt my interests and background were all over the place and it was an occupational therapy program director for a school that I was applying to that planted the seed and reassured me that I wasn’t all over the place. I was actually in the exact right spot. She reassured me and and made me realize that I could combine all my interests and experiences to form a home modification and design business.  Roughly ten years later, here I am.

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.”  1 Peter 4:10 (NLT)

This verse has served as a great reminder for me to step out in faith with the talents I have to serve others and my community.