Troy, MI March 2026

The People Who Make Troy Feel Like Home

If there’s one place where design, function, emotion and memory all intersect, it’s home.

More than a place to rest or gather, home is a living expression of daily life.

In Troy, home is deeply connected to community. It’s shaped by the businesses that serve us, the neighbors who look out for one another and the people who choose, every day, to invest their talent and heart into making this city better.

That spirit runs throughout this issue.

Step inside Italcasa, a Troy-based studio and showroom that specializes in high-end, modern and contemporary European (primarily Italian) furniture.

You’ll meet Ashley and Adam Dill, owners of ShelfGenie. They didn’t just choose a business, they chose a mission: to make everyday life easier for families. Discover how their lifelong commitment to serving others influences their work improving accessibility in homes and kitchens.

We are given an insider’s tour of designer Carrie Long’s own award-winning home. Her story is a masterclass in thoughtful living, blending beauty, functionality and personal expression into a space that is both refined and welcoming.

And, in honor of MS Awareness Month, you’ll learn about Yoga Moves MS, a remarkable local nonprofit providing free adaptive yoga and wellness education for people living with multiple sclerosis. They remind us that at the heart of our community lives compassion and service.

Every month, we aim to tell stories that reflect the character of Troy. Stories of entrepreneurship, generosity, creativity and connection. This month, we bring the stories home in a personal way.

Thank you for welcoming us into your own homes and your lives. We hope this issue inspires fresh ideas and deeper connections, with a renewed appreciation for the spaces and people that shape your days.

Here’s to a meaningful March!

TODD HAIGHT , PUBLISHER

March 2026

PUBLISHER

Todd Haight | todd.haight@citylifestyle.com

CO-PUBLISHER

Margaret Meyer Haight

margaret.haight@citylifestyle.com

EDITOR

Lynne Konstantin | lynne.konstantin@citylifestyle.com

ACCOUNT MANAGERS

Allison Sommerville allison.sommerville@citylifestyle.com

Dave Shoop | dave.shoop@citylifestyle.com

Carley Ridley | carley.ridley@citylifestyle.com

Julie Flores

PUBLICATION DIRECTOR

Jessica Parsons | jessica.parsons@citylifestyle.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Susan Thwing

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Simran Bajwa, Wilson Dorigon, Elayne Gross, Diana Paulson

Corporate Team

CEO Steven Schowengerdt

President Matthew Perry

COO David Stetler

CRO Jamie Pentz

CoS Janeane Thompson

AD DESIGNER Jenna Crawford

LAYOUT DESIGNER Kelsey Ragain

QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Brandy Thomas

Learn how to start your own publication at citylifestyle.com/franchise.

inside the issue

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Carrabba’s of Troy Introduces New Proprietor

Radislav “Ray” Tasevski is proud to step into the role of Proprietor of Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Troy. With a refined focus on warm hospitality, exceptional cuisine and elevated guest experiences, Tasevski is committed to honoring the restaurant’s traditions while bringing a thoughtful, contemporary approach. Working alongside a dedicated team, Tasevski looks forward to building lasting relationships within the Troy community and continuing Carrabba’s legacy as a welcoming destination for memorable gatherings. Carrabbas.com

MODERN LOVE

At Italcasa, high design meets human connection.

ARTICLE BY SUSAN THWING

Walk into Italcasa Design and you’ll notice two things pretty quickly: the boldness of contemporary European furniture and the ease of the conversation happening around it.

There’s no hard sell, no pressure to “know” design before you arrive. Instead, owner Bill Bahoora starts the same way

“Some people think modern design is going to be cold and stark, or that they don’t speak the language. My job is to make it comfortable.”

— Bill Bahoora

he always does: with questions, stories and, depending on the time of day, espresso, water — or maybe a glass of Prosecco.

For Bahoora, that sense of welcome is intentional.

“People are nervous sometimes,” he says. “They think modern design is going to be cold and stark, or that they don’t speak the language. My job is to make it comfortable.”

He also enjoys challenging that idea. Many pieces, he says, live in two worlds at once: functional and expressive.

“It’s furniture,” he says, “but it’s also art. Nobody’s house should look exactly like anyone else’s.”

That blend of high design and human connection shapes everything at Italcasa (italcasa.us). The showroom brims with sculptural forms, dramatic lighting and pieces that beg to be touched. But Bahoora and co-owner and designer Lisette David, who specialize in sourcing high-end European furniture, are quick to say their work isn’t about chasing trends or creating showrooms that feel untouchable. It’s about finding what fits the way people actually live.

Italcasa has been a respected go-to in Metro Detroit’s design scene for more than 30 years, evolving from a primarily Italian-furniture destination into a full-service interiors studio. Today, it operates out of the Michigan

Design Center in Troy and space in Royal Oak, working with homeowners and trade professionals alike.

Bahoora talks about furniture the way some people talk about music. Ask him about a chair, and he’ll tell you who designed it, where it came from, and why its proportions matter. That knowledge comes from decades of immersion — and countless trips to design fairs in Milan, Paris and Cologne. Even on vacation, he finds himself spotting familiar pieces in hotels and restaurants and snapping photos like souvenirs.

David’s path into design was more intuitive. Adopted from Colombia and raised in Michigan, she describes herself as having always been drawn to art and color. A few years ago, a friend

connected her with Bahoora, and she found herself immersed in a design language she’d never encountered before.

“I was learning constantly,” she says. “Every piece had a story.”

Even now, she says, when she’s unsure about something unusual, she turns to Bill. He’ll rattle off designers and histories as if flipping through an invisible catalogue.

At Italcasa, every project starts with a conversation. New clients sit down with the team to talk about budgets, timelines and, most importantly, how they want their space to feel. From there, the process might include home visits, measurements, layouts and curated presentations.

Some clients want quick-ship pieces that arrive in weeks. Others are willing to wait months for custom designs. Either way, the approach stays the same: flexible, thoughtful and personal.

While Italcasa works with many well-known European and international brands, Bahoora doesn’t think in terms of logos. He looks for designers with strong points of view and pieces that won’t feel dated in a few years.

“I like things that have integrity,” he says. “Something you’ll still love later.”

Some of Italcasa’s most important relationships began by chance. One of Bahoora’s favorites started at High Point Market in North Carolina, where he struck up a conversation with P.J. Natuzzi over coffee and Scotch. He was honest: He had once loved the brand but felt it had lost focus.

Instead of bristling, Natuzzi listened. That conversation evolved into a long-term partnership and helped shape Italcasa’s growing Natuzzi Italia presence.

“It was about being real,” Bahoora says. “That matters.”

Over the years, Italcasa has furnished everything from hospitality spaces to deeply personal homes. Bahoora recalls projects like 220 Merrill and the Kingsley Inn with pride, where modern design meets public comfort.

More recently, he’s been excited about outfitting a new Churchill’s cigar lounge in Rochester Hills, saying it’s a reminder that contemporary furniture doesn’t belong only in pristine living rooms.

But his favorite moments are quieter, when a client finds the just-right piece. Like a Plymouth home anchored by a customized Moroso design in bold color, chosen as much for personality as for proportion.

“That’s when you know,” he says. “It fits them.”

If Italcasa has a defining trait, it’s approachability. Bahoora and David want clients to ask questions, take their time and feel confident in their choices. Over the years, many have become friends.

“Design should feel special,” Bahoora says. “But it should also feel like home.”

BY DIANA PAULSON

DESIGNER CARRIE LONG’S OWN HOME IS A FUNCTIONAL, FRIENDLY AND POLISHED SANCTUARY.

WHIMSICAL, WONDERFUL

Carrie Long has an uncanny ability to see beauty in bones.

For example, when the local founder and principal designer of Carrie Long Interiors set eyes on a circa-1936 Colonial, she saw beyond the long-neglected foreclosure. What she envisioned was a light-filled, welcoming and livable home for her own family — her husband, Greg Sobol, and their two young children.

“We were drawn to the home for its proportions, character and the opportunity to thoughtfully reinvent a historic house rather than start from scratch,” Long says. “We needed a home that was kid-friendly but still sophisticated, designed for frequent entertaining — and comfortable and functional for everyday life, reflective of how we actually live.”

Mission accomplished.

Armed with a belief that great design should feel effortless, “elevated but never intimidating,” Long focused on proportion, natural materials and light to create spaces that feel calm, layered and deeply personal rather than giving in to trends. “Timelessness,” she says.

Tapping builder Domenic Serra, owner of DAS Contracting, Long gutted the house for a full renovation and layout reconfiguration plus an addition. “It was completely reimagined for modern family living while respecting the integrity and charm of the original structure,” Long says.

The result is a “warm modern” masterpiece, with naturally flowing lightfilled spaces that feel calm and cohesive. In addition to detailed finishes, custom millwork and furnishings, soft neutrals, natural textures, sculptural forms and layered woods and stone lay the groundwork for playful, witty and artful details and vignettes that bring the family’s personality.

“Art plays a significant role in the design,” Long says. “I love using special, unique pieces of art to anchor and elevate a space, whether it’s a bold statement piece or a carefully curated gallery wall. Art brings soul, color and personality — and often serves as the emotional starting point for a room.”

Estate-sale finds and fanciful accents like brass animal-shaped hooks in the kids’ bathroom and a pair of French bulldog figurines standing guard over the fireplace are scattered among original pieces by artists Frank Stella and Francine Turk. Judaica, including pieces from Long’s time in Israel, is displayed year-round, and kid-proof, designer-approved vinyl wallpaper and flooring lives among a biomorphically shaped sectional and chairs.

“WE NEEDED A HOME THAT WAS KID-FRIENDLY BUT STILL SOPHISTICATED, DESIGNED FOR FREQUENT ENTERTAINING — AND COMFORTABLE AND FUNCTIONAL FOR EVERYDAY LIFE, REFLECTIVE OF HOW WE ACTUALLY LIVE.” — CARRIE LONG

A series of oddly shaped spaces were transformed into a functional flow: the one-time kitchen became a scullery, while an enigmatic dead space is where Long created the new kitchen; a windowless screened-in porch became an expansively windowed sunroom, one of Long’s favorite rooms in the house.

In the supremely functional galley-style kitchen, clean-lined white cabinetry and marble surfaces are softened with warm wood accents and vintage textiles. Living and dining spaces feature sculptural seating and streamlined built-ins;  bathrooms

balance classic geometry with modern restraint, using pattern and texture to create subdued interest.

“Designing our own home allowed me to fully express my design philosophy — blending architecture, function, art and emotion into one cohesive environment,” Long says. “It’s both our personal sanctuary and a living example of my work.

“But what I love most is how the home feels,” she says. “It’s calm, grounded and deeply personal. Walking through the door or waking up in the morning, it feels like a sanctuary — a place that reflects our family, our creativity and the way we want to live.”

HOW ONE COUPLE IS CHANGING LIVES, ONE KITCHEN AT A TIME.

ARTICLE BY TODD HAIGHT

TO SERVE BUILT

The first time Ashley Dill truly understood how fragile independence can be, she was standing in someone else’s kitchen.

A woman in her seventies had her pots and pans neatly lined along the counter, because she could no longer bend down to reach the cabinets. Embarrassed, she told Ashley her son would be coming later to put them away for her.

“I don’t like needing help,” the woman said. Dill never forgot that moment. Not because it was dramatic, but because it was so ordinary. The kind of small, invisible loss that reshapes daily life.

For Ashley, it struck a familiar chord. She had spent her career in helping professions — first as a teacher, then as a speech-language pathologist — working with children and families whose lives were shaped by challenges others rarely see. Independence, she knew, is something we only notice once it starts to slip away.

Her husband, Adam, understands that truth in a deeper way. As an Army Paratrooper deployed to Iraq, Adam survived multiple IED explosions, the last leaving him seriously wounded.

He was medically discharged, forced to rebuild a life he had never expected to lose. Through sheer determination, he became an advocate for fellow veterans, earned a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and forged a new career. Not just surviving, but finding purpose again.

“It’s not just about getting back on your feet,” Ashley says. “It’s about feeling like you still matter.”

That belief became the quiet thread tying together everything they had lived through — and everything they hoped to build.

So when the Dills went searching for a business of their own, they weren’t looking for something flashy. They were looking for something that felt like a continuation of who they already were.

They found it in ShelfGenie (shelfgenie. com/locations/farmington-hills).

Today, Ashley and Adam own the local ShelfGenie franchise serving Troy and all of Oakland County, helping homeowners transform kitchens, pantries, closets, garages and basements into spaces that fit each client’s needs best.

But for Ashley, it has never been just about storage.

“Most of our clients call us because they’re frustrated, in pain or losing their ability to manage their home the way they used to, like the woman who had her pots and pans on the counter,” she says. “We give some of that freedom back.”

One of her favorite stories is a chef in Farmington Hills who had suffered a stroke and lost the ability to reach into cabinets or lift cookware — the very things that once allowed him to care for his family.

After ShelfGenie redesigned his kitchen with accessible, pull-out shelving, he told Ashley he finally felt like himself again.

“It wasn’t really about cooking,” she says. “It was about dignity.”

ShelfGenie’s custom glide-out drawers, blind-corner solutions, cabinet refacing and closet systems are designed to organize the space, yes, but also to bring ease and independence. Installations are quick, disruption is minimal and every system is built specifically for the homeowner. No cookie-cutter kits, no compromises.

Backed by Neighborly, one of North America’s largest home-service brands, ShelfGenie is affordable and comes with a lifetime warranty — a promise that reflects the Dills’ own long-term commitment to their clients.

And it’s given Ashley and Adam a way to bring everything full circle: his military service, her passion for caregiving and their shared belief that people deserve to feel capable in their own homes.

A PLACE TO BREATHE

LOCAL NONPROFIT YOGA MOVES MS CELEBRATES 20 YEARS — AND MS AWARENESS MONTH.

ARTICLE BY SUSAN THWING PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELAYNE GROSS

March is Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month, a time to spotlight the people and programs helping patients live with greater strength, connection and hope. In Southeast Michigan, one nonprofit has been quietly changing lives for more than two decades — one carefully supported pose, stretch and breath at a time. Yoga Moves MS (yogamovesms.org) recently celebrated its 20th anniversary of providing free, pain-reducing adaptive yoga and holistic health education for people living with MS, Parkinson’s Disease and other neuromuscular conditions. Founded by yoga therapist and longtime instructor

Mindy Eisenberg (MHSA, C-IAYT), the organization has grown from a single volunteer class into a multi-location community that blends movement with emotional support — something Eisenberg believes is just as essential as physical relief.

“It really holds true for many neuromuscular conditions,” the Franklin resident says. “Movement is like medicine.”

A former University of Michigan Medical Center administrator, Eisenberg founded the annual Virtual Holistic Health & Wellness Forum for MS and is a sought-after speaker and adaptive yoga trainer. But for Eisenberg, powering opportunities for movement is deeply personal: Her mother lived with MS at a time when people were often told not to move at all.

“Back then, they said, ‘Don’t move, you’ll make it worse,’” she says.

Treatments were limited, and movement wasn’t yet embraced as therapy. Those early experiences watching her mother navigate the progressive disease shaped Eisenberg’s conviction that patients deserved better tools and more dignity.

Yoga Moves MS began when Eisenberg agreed to teach a yoga class for an MS group. Participants immediately wanted more.

“MOVEMENT IS LIKE MEDICINE.” — MINDY EISENBERG

“People were so excited, they asked me to do that class weekly,” she says. “That’s what’s been going on for, I can’t believe it, 21 years.”

Today, Yoga Moves MS offers small, supportive classes in multiple locations, including Franklin, Troy, Livonia, Grosse Pointe and Farmington Hills, with additional programming connected to the Kirk Gibson Parkinson’s Wellness Center in Farmington Hills. Sessions are intentionally resource-intensive, with assistants in the room to help students feel safe, steady and capable.

“We have people who are spotting people, helping them get into poses — we never take over, but we’re there to assist and facilitate,” Eisenberg says.

One student described the program as “boutique yoga,” a term Eisenberg appreciates as it captures the individualized attention participants receive. While physical benefits can be dramatic, many transformations are quieter and just as powerful.

In a recent fundraiser video, one participant shared that the classes helped her accept her diagnosis after years of denial.

“This gave her a place of acceptance,” Eisenberg says. “It’s more like emotional, whole psychosocial support. There’s a sense of belonging.”

That sense of belonging drew Marni Cherrin of Huntington Woods, who was honored at the 2025 Yoga Moves MS Gratitude Gala for MS advocacy and community leadership in November. Diagnosed in 2007 at age 30, with three children under three and a full-time job, Cherrin refused to retreat.

“Different people drove me to work. I don’t think I missed a day,” she says. “I didn’t want to sit home and wallow.”

Over time, her outlook shifted.

“It changes the way you see life,” Cherrin says. “You start to notice and appreciate the little things — life really becomes a gift.”

A friend introduced her to Yoga Moves MS, and the connection stuck.

“Mindy is the kindest and most compassionate person,” Cherrin says. “She makes everyone feel seen, capable and valued.”

When Cherrin missed a class, she felt the difference immediately: “People were asking, ‘Where’s Marni?’ I felt I had a community.”

A key element of building that community is hosting fundraising and educational events. On April 21, Yoga Moves MS will host a Holistic Health & Wellness Forum for MS, with expert-led discussions. And last May, Michigan-native and MS advocate Selma Blair hosted the Yoga Moves MS Fundraiser Luncheon, where she was honored with the Beacon of Hope Award and the Key to the City of Southfield.

“We worked and hoped and wished to have her as our guest of honor in her own hometown,” Eisenberg says. “The luncheon with Selma was a dream come true.”

As MS Awareness Month encourages education and visibility, Yoga Moves MS offers something equally important: a reminder that living with MS isn’t only about loss. It’s also about adaptation, support and learning what your body can do today.

As Eisenberg puts it, the goal is simple and profound: “Empower people, reduce fear and help them keep moving forward.”

INSPIRED BY YOU, DESIGNED BY IMPACT

Design that elevates the way you live. At Impact, we create beautifully-curated interiors that feel effortless, intentional, and personal—spaces that reflect who you are and support how you truly live every day.

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