It is a relatively small scale one, and from what I have heard from my friends who have run similar projects before, it is going to be a lot easier than the ones I have been running in the past.
I was really not looking forward to getting any new projects to run after I came to realize that the clients from my fourth project will potentially be a huge pain in the ass. The husband actually got angry at me over text after I had a bit of miscommunication with him and his wife, he didn't curse at me or anything, but I could sense from the way he wrote the text that it was meant to be a confrontational "I've had enough of this crap" tone. I honestly wasn't having any of it, so I also didn't bother coming across extra friendly or extra apologetic in text after he pulled that shit on me, I did apologize for the miscommunication begrudgingly, because they are paying me for my services, but I wish I could have told them to go fuck themselves.
So that exchange with them really affected my drive to sign more new projects in the weeks to come, but out of all the customers I had the pleasure of getting in the weeks following, there was only one couple I was quite interested in, so I put in the effort for their proposal and they decided to engage me for my services a few weeks later.
Unlike all the other customers I have had so far, these couple's main focus was design, and they are actually willing to pay more for it, and when they are willing to spend more, I am also willing to put in more effort for the proposal.
We signed, I was happy that I manage to finally get a new project after months, and then I just stopped wanting to get anymore because every time I think about the fourth renovation project, it's like a motivational killer.
And then in the very same week, two of my follow up customers decided they wanted to meet me again to confirm my services. I haven't met these 2 different sets of customers for weeks and I was not particularly fond of one of their projects because the requirements were a complete mess.
That mess of a project actually belongs to the parents of one of my existing clients, had these couple met me with no prior connections, I wouldn't even have entertained the thought of meeting them a second time.
They are the kind of customers who think they know what they want, but when they share their ideas with me and I actually apply it to the space planning, it just becomes this whole cluster fuck of very bad and contradictory ideas.
For example, in the beginning, they will tell me they want to do an open concept kitchen, to knock the kitchen walls down completely, but then 5 minutes later, the husband will tell me he wants to keep the kitchen door because it was only recently installed by the previous owner.
Open Concept Kitchen = No Doors
...and it isn't just once, both the husband and the wife will constantly tell me they want to retain the doors, even though they have requested for the walls to to be demolished, it's fucking frustrating.
And aside from their contradicting request, their ideas were just extremely questionable, like knocking down a wall between a service yard and a study room, so those 2 rooms can be combined into a bedroom for their guest, the service yard is where the rubbish chute is located and they want to introduce that disgusting chute into the guest room. I told them it was a bad idea, but they just kept telling me it was alright, that they won't be using the rubbish chute often enough for it to become a concern.
The problem here isn't really about convenience....
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... it just feels a little rude to be putting your guest in a room where you also go to throw the thrash.
Sometimes, I would tell them something was not possible, but they will forget about it and then ask me 5 minutes later if that impossible task was possible or not, its fucking annoying and I really want to scold them, but my client is sitting right beside them, so all I can do is pretend I find their forgetfulness endearing.
Lastly, because they are on a very tight budget, like so tight that the renovation shouldn't even be financially possible, the wife decided to take my quotation and pick out the items that she wants to do, so she actually took the time to slowly took the items from my quotation and created her own version of it, which reduced the total project cost, but when she was shortlisting what she wanted to do, there were a few necessary renovation works that were not included, so when she came to me last week and showed me what she had prepared, the final figure was just completely off and I ended up having to redo the entire quotation based on what she had prepared, needless to say, the figure was way too low because there were a lot of items she had failed to include in her own quotation, additional and necessary items that amounted to an additional $10,000.
She told me she stayed until 3 am to consolidate what I had prepared for her, like it's something I should be impressed about. I just find it hard to be impressed about something that will end up giving me more work to do.
When I prepare a quotation, there is a certain format that I follow to ensure that everything is accounted for, to make sure that I am not missing any items because I really do not enjoy charging my customers for additional items in the future, so when she came to me with her own version, everything was just completely wrong, the order completely threw me off and I had to spend more time that I normally would trying to come up with my version of her quotation, which was an experience I did not enjoy at all.
Because I honestly have zero patience to deal with them and also zero interest to run their project because it's just a fucking mess, I had to find a way to break the news to my existing client, hoping he can convey the message to his parents, so I dropped him a text a few days ago telling him that I will be busy over the next few months, that I can only start his parents renovation in March, a delay which I am very certain his parents won't be agreeable to, and well, he didn't respond. He told me his parents were actually planning to confirm my services that week, but fortunately, they did not show up, which means my client did convey the message to them, but he just didn't bother updating me about his parent's decision.
If a project is a little difficult to run, but I am able to earn a substantial amount, then fine, maybe I will consider running it, and it is a huge maybe because if the clients are going to such a mess to deal with, that will also affect my interest in the project. This project is not worth the time, it's not worth the effort and it's definitely not worth the measly amount I will actually earn from it.
So fuck it and good riddance to that project. Shitty thing is I still have to deal with him in the future once his project actually starts and I have no idea if he is upset at me or not about rejecting his parent's project.
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