Wally’s World

Life in Wally and Shannon Szczerbiak’s household is rarely quiet, thanks to a pair of Italian greyhounds, a feline fluff ball named Teddy, and the couple’s eighteen-month-old daughter, Annabella. So their move three years ago from a downtown Minneapolis apartment to a larger riverfront townhouse was welcomed, if unanticipated. “We were kind of forced into a new location,” Shannon says. “The dog was discovered, and [management] said either get rid of the dog or move out. You can guess what we did.” The new place is a perfect fit for their active lifestyle—suburban spaciousness in Minneapolis’s North Warehouse District, a mere five-minute commute to Wally’s other home, Target Center.

DÉCOR STORE: “We furnished the home from Gabberts,” Shannon says. “It came highly recommended by a friend, and I was hooked the minute I stepped in the door. I developed a personal relationship with some of the associates and knew it was my home décor store for life. I even furnished our home in Long Island [where Wally grew up and where they spend the off-season] from Gabberts.”

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT: “We met at freshman orientation at Miami University. We were in the same group, number ten . . . . I’d say it was love at first sight, but Wally likes to joke about how blind I was that day because there was something wrong with my contacts. We were pretty much inseparable once we met.”

EATING IN: “Wally never cooks. His idea of making himself lunch is popping a Lean Pocket in the microwave, and that happens about once every four months. But I love to cook. Wally eats very healthily, so everything I cook is low carb, low fat, low salt, or low something. But he has to eat that way to stay in basketball shape. I should start taking credit for his 4 percent body fat!”

MINNESOTA: “I love having so many Targets in close proximity,” Shannon says. “The closest Target to my small town of Jeffersonville, Ohio, is about sixty miles away.”

BUT: “The worst thing is being away from both our families and, dare I say it, the weather,” Shannon says. “Mosquitoes in the summer, frozen tundra in the winter—but since we’ve taken up ice fishing and have grown immune to bug bites the size of softballs, we’re getting along just fine.”

Trad Home
“Wally and I are both into traditional, oversized furnishings,” says Shannon. “When we started shopping, all we wanted was big and comfy—those were our two requirements for everything in our home.  Even our living room has to be a place that you can relax in.”