That is the downside of having young couples as clients, they don't really know what to expect since it's their very first home, so they expect perfection and it's understandable, but extremely fucking annoying.
Just recently, they found certain issues with the way their tiles were laid, so the wife kept asking me if the lippages that she found on the tile was considered normal, I didn't really think too much about it, so I checked with my tiler and he assured me that it was considered normal, an information I relayed to my client, making sure to let them know that that was what my tiler told me and it wasn't something I made up.
I had a few days of peace, apart from the last minute carpentry changes they wanted made which was a whole other ordeal, until one fine day, when I receive a tile related text from the wife, still unconvinced about the tiles...
"Honestly speaking, do you think the tiles are considered acceptable?"
... honestly speaking, I thought they were acceptable, but after the constant barrage of messages from her and her husband, I couldn't help but second guess the tiler's workmanship.
It gets really tiring when you try to convince someone about something but they just don't want to accept it, so they keep asking you until you give them the answer that they want and that's exactly what the wife did, despite many attempts at trying to convince her that the lippages were normal, she just kept going on and on about how it's not suppose to pop that much because she had read about it on an article online and everything you read online should be accepted as the ultimate truth I guess.
And so if I were to Google "Best Chocolate Cake Recipe" and be showed 100 different "Best Chocolate Cake Recipe", I guess that internet will start to create a wormhole from the paradoxical result and suck everything thing into itself and become nothing.
I mean who knew that reading a few articles online suddenly makes you an expert at tiling works and makes you more qualified than my tiler at determining what's acceptable and what's not acceptable huh.
A few weeks ago, I finally found a bit of time to meet up with my friend for a movie, and everything was going well until I started getting messages from them, asking me about the renovation, asking me why things were happening the way they were, asking me why they were not informed of certain design decisions I had made for them, requesting for a few last minute changes that had to be made and just completely ruining my entire day with their bloody questions. I did not manage to finish my burger and fries that day because I just completely lost my appetite that day from having to deal with them, I was so busy texting them and explaining myself to them and that was the day that I realize they were going to be a real handful and my hand has been full of their loaded question ever since.
"Do you think the tiles are acceptable"
If I say Yes!
"But I read about it online and it states that it isn't."
If I say No!
"I knew it, so can you get your guys to fix it"
I get a little panic attack every-time I get a message because every-time I get a text message from either this couple or the other couple who's project still hasn't been handed over yet, it's almost always never a good thing, which is why now these 2 Whatsapp group gets their own ringtone and LED Indicator colour.
I used to tell myself...
"Don't run this project thinking about money, do it out of gratitude for the client, for the chance they have given you and for the experience you will gain from it."
... Well, that tune has fucking changed because it's not fucking worth it. I am almost running this project for them for free, so I'm not really seeing why I should be showing any sort of gratitude to them when the only thing they have given me so far is a bundle of stress.
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