Feet need pampering, too, and Judy Hickey's had their day on Wednesday. DANA ROMANOFF/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Putting her best face forward; Day of pampering follows months of woes

Months of troubles win Stafford woman a free makeover at a local day spa.

By LUCIA ANDERSON

Date published: 4/7/2006

Judy Hickey perched on the high stool and turned to grin for the cameras.

Shutters clicked double time, recording her glowing skin, brilliant eyes and artfully tumbled golden hair.

It had been quite a day.

Hickey, who lives in Stafford County's Aquia Bay Estates, was the beneficiary of Tina and Andrew Pilz's desire to provide a lift for someone who really needed one.

The couple own Skin Appeal Day Spa and Esthetics Center on Courthouse Road in Stafford. In March, they publicized their search for "a deserving person" to receive a free daylong makeover.

"We got about 70 nominations," Andrew Pilz said "It was really hard to pick."

He said the whole staff voted, since all the employees were donating time for Wednesday's makeover.

Hickey was nominated by her daughter, Christine Fewell of Dale City, following a patch of bad luck that stretched over the previous seven months.

Hickey's saga began in the middle of what was supposed to be a two-week vacation with her husband and other family members in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Fewell stopped by her parents' house to check on things and found water gushing out of one of the kitchen cabinets.

The water line to the refrigerator ice maker had ruptured, flooding the house for three or four days.

"The master bedroom is directly under the kitchen," Hickey said. "We lost pretty much everything in the bedroom."

Additionally all the carpet, upstairs and down, was soaked, and the wood floors had buckled. The downstairs ceilings had collapsed, and mildew was everywhere.

"We had to move out," Hickey said.

They spent a week at a local motel, then rented an apartment nearby.

The leak occurred at the end of July, and they weren't back home again until Dec. 21.

"They had to gut the kitchen, put all news cabinets in," Hickey said. All the carpet, the wood flooring, all the bedroom furniture had to be replaced. All the clothes and linens in the house had to be cleaned because of the musty smell.

Insurance didn't cover the entire replacement cost. To top things off, the company dropped their coverage once the work was completed.

"We'd been with the company over 20 years," Hickey said. "It was very hard to find another company."

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Date published: 4/7/2006