The Two Brick Walls

Had an appointment with a brand new client today who had actually requested for me specifically when he called the company to schedule an appointment.




When I first received the call from the client, I was in the toilet taking a dump, which has got to be some sort of sign of how shitty this whole project will be. He requested to meet the next day, and I was agreeable to it, I also asked him which of my previous customer had referred me to him, and he told me he came across one of my customer's testimonial through one of the renovation portal online.




The last time someone found me through that means, I ended up having to reject the client because of how incredibly stubborn she was, it was impossible to work with her.




Well, this new client is EXACTLY the same and I'll be damned if I actually take on the project.




So prior to the meeting, I had already arranged with my colleague that I will cover the morning shift and he will take the afternoon shift because I had Christmas dinner at home to attend to at around 6.30pm. The appointment with this client, whom I shall refer to Mr Tee, was scheduled at 3.30pm, I was expecting the consultation to last maybe an hour tops and I would be on my way.



3.30pm comes, and he is nowhere to be seen, so at 3.45pm, I send him a text, but he doesn't respond, and after 30 minutes of waiting, as I was planning to give him a call to let him know that I wasn't going to be available anymore because I already have plans, he struts into the showroom accompanied with his wife, who looked a little displease.




Mr Tee then starts lamenting to me about how difficult it was to find parking near my office and his wife was visibly annoyed as he was complaining about having to park so far away just to see me, which just brought me back to the time I met Jenny and Jonny, except then, it was Jonny, the husband, who was the one was who very upset about being unable to find parking.





Making the connection between them and J&J was a horrible start.



So the consultation starts, I get a copy of Mr Tee's floorplan and we started running through the space planning and as we were talking, I could sense a great deal of hostility coming from Mrs Tee, who was obviously still very annoyed by the fact that she had to walk such a great distance earlier. She was very impatient during first part of the consultation, every time I tried to explain certain things and she did not understand my advice, she would just stare at me with this very annoyed look on her face, and I would have to explain it to her again until she finally gets it and moves on to the next thing to get upset about.




This went on for about 5 minutes until I finally had enough of her attitude and became really annoyed with her when she couldn't understand what I was saying, I would just look at her after I have explained myself and give her this incredulous look, an expression of...

"HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU ARE SO FUCKING DENSE?"

.... and she slowly backed down a bit because bitch I am not here for you to be annoyed at, you guys were half an hour late, so don't give me a fucking attitude just because you didn't know where to find a space to park.





When I first saw her giving me the attitude at the start, I had already made up my mind that I was not going to allow them to engage me because I have zero interest to run their project for them. First impression is extremely important to me, if you show your cunt-ness even before we have introduced ourselves, you are out!





But anyways, after Mrs Tee finally put her attitude in check, we were able to have a proper consultation session that lasted way too long for a project I didn't want to take on.



Aside from the attitude problem I was receiving from Mrs Tee, another factor that just made me shirk away from the idea of running this project is the fact that Mr & Mrs Tee are both insanely stubborn individuals who did not think the advice I was sharing with them as an Interior Designer, who has been working in this industry for 3 years, meant anything.



I told them some of the works they were requesting were not possible because it was either not safe or just straight up impossible to be done, such attempting to switch the toilet bowl position with the sink, but they were do insistent on doing it, telling me...

"It can be done!"

... based on what? It can be done because you, a layman who has no expertise in the construction field, said it can be done even though I, the professional, am constantly telling you it can't be done? I was so close to telling them to fuck off and find someone else to do their project if they were so insistent to do things their way, but was able to control the urge, and then when they asked me how much certain items were, and I shared the prices with them, the husband just stares at me, rest his arm on the table, leans in and goes...

"Why is it so expensive? The space I have is very small and we need this to be done, but you are charging me so much for it!"

.... in an almost confrontational tone and I was so pissed off I just told him straight to his face...

"I am simply sharing the price with you! You asked me how much it cost and I am telling you how much it cost! I am not forcing you to do any of these works, you are the one who is requesting for it, if you think it is too expensive, then don't do it!"

... and Mr Tee slowly takes his arms off the table and leans back into his chair.

Mrs Tee then offered alternative suggestions that weren't feasible and I was so bloody frustrated trying to explain why her way wouldn't work, but she kept insisting it could be done, and after a while, she also does the same thing as Mr Tee, telling me...

"But my space is already so small and you are telling me that it can't be done, then you tell me what to do? Where to put all my accessories in the toilet? You tell me! "

.... I wanted to punch her in the fucking throat! It's not my fault the developer decided to give you a badly design toilet, why the fuck are you taking it out on me? So I told her in a very exasperated tone...

"THIS IS THE WAY YOUR TOILET IS BUILT! I have no control over how your developer decided to design your toilet"

... but she was still very stubborn, so in order to move the conversation along because I was already late for my Christmas dinner, I told them I will ask my contractor if what she requested can be done, which honestly I don't think I would because I already know the answer from them is going to be, and even if by some Christmas Miracle, they tell me it can be done, I will still tell Mrs Tee it can't be done because I am not about to make my services more attractive for them to consider engaging me.

I was planning to leave the office at 5.00pm the latest, but I ended up leaving at 6.30pm because I spend so much time talking to 2 brick walls. I told them I will prepare a quotation for them within a week, but I don't really want to bother, it just feels so pointless. I will most likely just charge them an exuberant amount for a lot of items to scare them off and that is it.





Right now the calculated figure is at $80,000, which is honestly insanely high for the works they want to do, but that's really the whole point so fingers crossed that they will get scared off by the price and go elsewhere, bypass all the price negotiations with me and be like that last customer who wasted my time. 

Wasting time again....

Another day, another client who doesn't know how to respond to messages.



I met a couple a few days ago and they were requesting to renovation their new condo apartment, we had a very good chat and I thought we hit it off really well, but I was not interested in the project in the slightest because it is located all the way in Punggol and I have told myself I will never touch a Punggol project again.



I told the clients I will prepare a quotation and send it to them 3 days later, but I really didn't want to so I just left it alone and did not bother with it, that and also because I was pretty busy with my current on-going projects so I did not have time to really sit down and calculate all the cost for them.



So the third day comes and it was around evening when the wife messaged me asking if I had already send the quotation her way, I didn't even prepare one so I told her I will send it to her the next day as I had been pretty busy, which was the truth, so she was agreeable to it and I got down to preparing the quote the very next day and send it her way, which probably only took me 20 minutes to prepare. It's not about the quotation taking a long time to do, it's about getting in the mood to actually do the math for it.




She responded back very quickly, informing me that she had gotten the quote, asking me if I could send her some designs because she wanted to know what I was proposing, I never ever send out my proposals to non-paying clients, especially not to clients I have only met once because it's my design proposal, I am not about to let you take my proposal and pass it off to someone else to do. I do get this request a lot and it is just really frustrating to have to constantly repeat myself to different people.



I told her I won't be giving her a design proposal but I can prepare one for her to see in person if she was interested, then I told her I could prepare a 3D draft and she was agreeable to it, soon after that, she starts to ask me about the quote and goes....

"I notice that the cabinets are quite expensive."

.... and I will admit, I did charge her a little higher than normal because her project is located all the way in Punggol, if I am not earning a decent amount of profit from it to cover the inconvenience of me having to travel all the way there on an almost daily basis once the renovation starts, there is no way I am going to be taking this project, but the particular item that she pointed out was not something that I had charged an exuberant amount of money for. I tried to explain to her why it was priced the way it was, wrote out this entire chunk of text, send it her way and she just stops responding after that.





Now I am not sure if she still wants to meet up or not and this is what is really irritating about being placed in a situation like this by the customers.



I propose to prepare a proposal for us to run through in person.

You express your interest in such an arrangement

I take that interest as confirmation to prepare said proposal

You bring up an issue with the price and suddenly stop responding

I take that unresponsiveness as a lost in interest

So does this lost in interest overwrite the confirmation to meet again to run through the design proposal?




I will still do the SketchUp because I like doing SketchUp, it keeps me distracted from my ongoing projects and also gives me something to do at the office, if she and her husband decides to confirm the appointment with me later in the week to meet up then great, if not, then I will just add her to the list of time-wasting clients I have met.




Speaking of time wasting client, I also had another one a few weeks back, writing in to request for a quotation, sharing with me that they are on a budget and needed to stick to that budget, but then requesting a plethora of works that were clearly out of their budget. Even after advising them that it was impossible, they still insisted to keep to their budget and requested a quotation, asking me to list out different options for them,




It is extremely frustrating when a client who cannot afford the my services request for me to list out options for them in the quotation because that means more calculations for me to do, more time for me to have to put into preparing their quotation, all for what? So that once they see the quote, they will stop replying, because that is exactly what this time waster did.




You don't give us your unrealistic requirements and expect us to work your requirements around your unrealistic budget, you either do less to stick to the budget, or you pay more to stick to the requirements, you don't pay less and expect to do more, it makes no fucking sense because the last time I check in the mirror, all I saw was a face full of zits, not a pink fucking elephant who goes by the name of Sharity.

Loco Crazy

So the clients for that particular commercial project that I was blogging about a few days ago has submitted a pretty scathing review of their renovation experience and instead of targeting my colleague who had the unfortunate pleasure of being in-charge of the project,their review actually targeted the entire company, which was essentially carpet bombing EVERY designer in my company.



Needless to say, my boss isn't taking this review very well and has plans to send a cease and desist letter to them because their review is pretty much libel at this point. They wrote the review in point form, listing out all the issues they faced during the renovation and as I was looking through them, I can't help but feel like my colleague was painted in this horrible light and being completely maligned by them.




A lot of the points that were brought up by the clients were issues they brought upon themselves because they did not pay up in time, they did not follow my colleague's schedule, they failed to inform my colleague about changes they decided to make midway through the renovation, they focus so much on the bad things but conveniently left out all the goodwill discount my colleague gave them, the many times she closed one eye when they said they didn't have enough money to pay the installment but begged for the renovation works to proceed anyway, there were SO MANY things that were done as a favor for them during the renovation and this is how they choose repay my colleague.




Near the end of the renovation, my colleague was already starting to get really suspicious of the clients, they were clearly trying to squirm their way out of having the pay the final amount by trying to look for issues, and when they failed to find any that would actually stick, they resorted to the negative review detailing their extremely one sided experience. I was actually already expecting them to leave a bad review, so that did not really come as a huge shock to me, but I was not expecting this issue to potentially lead to a court case.




My company has responded to the review with a generic...

"We would like to apologize for your bad experience with us and will investigate into this matter."

... to which the clients actually wrote back with...

"Thanks for responding to our review, we hope you will investigate this matter and update us with your findings ASAP."

....this is probably what they are feeling like right now, all gleeful that their review was received loud and clear from our end, thinking that my company will try and "make things right" by offering them some form of compensation. But we are not and I am really looking forward to their reaction when they realize that my company isn't one to be trifled with.




I actually came across one blogger who also did something similar to the Interior Design company she hired, except hers was worst because she was documenting the entire process on her blog, it was like a series of reviews targeting the company and did not bother to censor the company name because in her head, I guess she thinks she is doing a favor for everyone by trying to warn others to avoid that particular company.




At first, most of her issues were valid, but as the renovation went on, she started to nitpick on every single thing, she would post pictures of her toilet tiles and complaint about them being scratched, but then there wouldn't be a single noticeable scratch found in the pictures, she also posted a picture of her newly installed window and called out the worker for not doing a good job because they did not peel off the protection sheet on the window panels. She could have literally done that herself in less than 10 seconds, but she chose not to and demanded the company to send their workers down to peel it for her.



The last post she shared about her renovation was about how angry she was that the company decided to respond to her myriad of negative post about them by sending her a lawyer letter, I mean what were you expecting? You wrote multiple blog post slandering the company's name and you think they won't bite back? A company's online reputation is extremely important in this day and age, unless they are in the wrong, no way they will just let this matter slide. I am not sure if the lawsuit happened or if she settled everything with the design firm behind the scenes, but she has since censored out the company's name in all her post and instead left a....

"PM me for the company's name."

...PLEASE! The company should be PM-ing everyone in the industry your name instead! If the Interior Designer is at fault, then any reputable company will fire that designer and try and settle the issue with the client privately, the fact that the company, which is a pretty reputable company from my own research, decided to side with their designer and send the client a lawyer's letter just goes to show who is actually the one giving the problem.

Tiler Problems

One of my sub-contractor is giving me so much issue for my project right now, it's really stressing me the fuck out.

This isn't about a job badly done but about how desperate he is trying to push for things to be done, despite me telling him multiple times that we can't proceed until a much later date.

This is like a couple getting ready to birth a new baby without knowing the gender, but then going all out and getting a bunch of girly accessories and clothes, and when friends and families tell them not to rush because they have no idea what the gender of the baby is, the couple's excuse is...

"But if we don't buy it now, then we will be spending the next 8 months being unproductive with the shopping of baby stuff. We know we are having a baby, so why not just buy all these items first?"

... STUPID!

This is what is happening with my site right, I have told the subcontractor multiple times not to proceed with the tiling works for the bedrooms and the living rooms first because I need the electrician in to run the wiring before they can lay their tiles. Every time after that very conversation, he will tell me...

"Okay, no problem, got it."

.... and then the very next morning, he will call me up and tell me...

"Can we just do the living and bedroom right now, since my guys are already there?"

... and when I have to explain to him AGAIN about why he can't, he goes...

"But I already sent all my guys down and they need to do something..."

... twice, I had to relay this to him twice, and he guilt trips me like it is my fucking fault he has selective hearing. I told him to concentrate on just a few areas first and he sends down enough guys to do the whole house, and somehow I am suppose to accommodate him? Fuck! My electrician on the other hand is very accommodating though and told me he will find an alternative to the running of wires, but this is completely ridiculous and I think I might actually have to resort to reprimanding the tiler. if he keeps insisting on doing things his way.

Then earlier today, he told me there wasn't enough tiles, that I had to order more, so I did and it will be delivered tomorrow. Normally when I order extra tiles, his workers are the ones who will go down and bring it up to the apartment and seeing how he has been sending an excessive amount of workers the past few days, probably not going to be an issue getting them to bring those extra tiles up, but then he sends me a voice memo going...

"Contact your other sub-contractor to bring those items up."

.... and I was confused, so I asked him why his workers couldn't do it, seeing how they have been doing it for all my past projects, and he goes...



"My guys don't have a push trolley, so it is not convenient for them to bring all the extra tiles up."



.... I was on site in the evening and I saw a fucking push trolley in the fucking house, luckily for me, I also happen to have taken a picture of the apartment before I left with the push trolley in it, so I send that picture to him, circled the fucking push trolley and just wrote under that picture...

"Isn't this a push trolley?"

... and he doesn't respond for the next 20 minutes, trying to concoct some sort of excuse, until finally, his voice message comes in and he goes....

"I won't be sending so many guys tomorrow, so I will be low on manpower and will need you to contact the other subcontractor to bring those tiles up for my guys."

... HOW VERY FUCKING CONVENIENT!




On the days I told him to not send so many guys up, he sends up a battalion of them, and on the day I need his manpower, he decides he will only send a few.



It's like he is trying to drown me in his bullshit, I am already desperately trying to tread water in that bullshit, to not drown, and he dumps even more on me.

I have used this tiler ever since I started working in this company and he is the default tiler everyone in my company automatically goes to when they have a new project, and even though his workmanship isn't the best, I can still close one eye and accept it, what drives me to use him continuously despite the declining workmanship is really his responsive, that to me is the most important factor, but lately I am really finding it really hard to close an eye and accept not only his declining workmanship, but also his constant need to find excuses to try and shirk responsibility for his poor workmanship.




When the Sly Fox issue came up, I told myself I wasn't going to give this tiler a chance anymore because his guy FUCKED UP really badly, but then another project came in and I went back to him out of habit and familiarity and I didn't really have any issues with those other projects that came after as well, so I thought of it as a one off thing, and that it was purely bad luck of Sly Fox's part, but with the way this current project is going, it's becoming extremely difficult to accept his standards anymore.




The ones who should be giving me problems and stressing me out are the homeowners, not the subcontractors, the subcontractors are suppose to be helping me alleviate the complaints the homeowners have, to lessen my stress, not add it in and make things worst.




For the next project, I really have to start reaching out to another tiler who has been receiving a lot of praises from my other colleagues who have made the switch. They have zero complaints about him despite him costing more, in fact, they are praising his workmanship and constantly asking me why I haven't switched yet, and well, it really is time to move on. My current one has gotten extremely complacent and needs to be taught a lesson.



I actually wanted to use the other tiler, but unfortunately he was already busy, but for the next project, I will make sure to book him in advance, even if I do end up earning less from the project, I really need to raise my standard for the tiler's workmanship.



UPDATE :


So the additional tiles were ordered today and I had to contact another sub-contractor, my hacker, to uplift those additional tiles.


My tiler told me yesterday he will contact the hacker on my behalf and update him on the uplifting for the additional tiles and since I was already having some trust issues with the tiler, I decided to personally contact the hacker this morning to double check. Lo and behold, he told me he wasn't inform about the uplifting nor was he contacted by my tiler.



The hacker was still very helpful though, despite the last minute request, he just told me to let him know what time the tiles will arrive and he will send his guys down to bring them up. I gave him the timing the tile supplier gave me, which was between 2pm to 3pm, fully expecting the hacker to send his workers down earliest at 4pm to help me bring everything up.



By 3pm, I got a call from the hacker asking me where all the tiles were because his guys were already there and they couldn't find any tiles, getting a bit worried at this point, I quickly called my tiler supplier contact to double check and she is pretty fucking useless, doesn't pick up the phone and didn't bother to reply the text message I send to her, so I directly called her company and they told me it will only arrive at 4pm due to traffic.



I then called my hacker and informs him about it and he told me to update him again when the tiles arrive.



I got to the jobsite at about 3.30pm and waited until about 4pm when I finally got a call from the tiles delivery guy, he told me he was there already, so as I was making my way over to the lobby where he told me he had placed all the tiles, I called my hacker up and told him the tiles were here, that he could send someone over now.




Here is the deal. My current project is a Private Condo, that means any tiles or building materials need to be left at the main gate outside the estate, I had requested for the tile supplier to leave the tiles INSIDE the estate because if I could get them brought up to the apartment on the same day, there won't be any issues and the Condo Management will close one eye.




My hacker was unfortunately not able to rush down in time because the management won't let any construction workers in after 5pm and it was already about 4.15pm when I finally contacted him again. I then told him I had specially requested for the tiles to be brought in because I was expecting him to be able to get everything up by today, he really couldn't make it, so he kept telling me he will come tomorrow instead and to leave the tiles outside the estate instead of inside.




I understand his predicament and also my request being a little too last minute for him, but when I contacted him, it was to inform him that the tiles were already delivered, not that it was in the process of getting delivered, what are you expecting me to do? Carry the tiles outside by myself?




I couldn't be bothered to reply to him and quickly made my way over to the lobby area and THANK GOD the tile supplier was still there, I could do two things at this point, either ask him to put the tiles outside the estate for me and have the hacker drop by tomorrow to uplift them, or I could simply uplift those items myself, there is the push trolley in the apartment and if there tiles aren't too many, I am sure it would be fine. I asked the tile delivery guy how many boxes there were, he told me about 10 and it sounded manageable, so I told him I will be bringing it up myself, he was nice enough to lend me his push trolley, puts all the tiles up and I was fully expecting him to deliver it with me to the apartment, but he leaves me at the lift and tells me that is as far as he will go, that once I was done, to bring the push trolley down.



The lift door opens, he pushes it in for me and I thought, great, this wasn't so difficult, press the level I was headed to and then got really worried because now, there isn't anyone to open the lift door for me when I am at the top, then the lift door opens and that was when the struggle began.




As I tried to push the trolley out, the lift doors kept closing and opening because I was outside the lift and the trolley was too low for the door sensors to work, and what made things worst was the fact that one of the wheels of the trolley got stuck between the gap of the lift opening, so that means not only was the lift door constantly opening and closing ,  I was also struggling to push the trolley out and also make sure I wasn't going to damage the lift doors. I literally wanted to scream out loud...

"HELP ME!"

... to get the tiler's worker's attention because they were in the apartment still doing their thing, but then decided not to because I didn't want to neighbors coming out, so as I was pushing the trolley out, I was starting to get really really pissed off at the whole situation that I just didn't give a fuck anymore and just really shaking the fucking trolley out with all my might until it finally got loose.




In my head, I was having a mini celebration, that I was able to do this myself, and also cursing at my tiler for being so fucking unhelpful and putting me in this situation because he was too lazy to ask his workers to help me.




I pushed the trolley towards the apartment, open the door and asked the worker who was doing the tiling work to help me get the tiles in, he immediately stopped what he was doing and started bringing them in, and as I was helping him move the tiles from the push trolley into the apartment, I noticed that something was not right, the lift door wasn't closing for some reason.



So I stopped what I was doing and had the worker just carry everything in himself, went into the lift and started pressing the "Close" button and it wouldn't close fully, it just closes 20% and then gets stuck.




FUCK!



Then I remembered one of my own colleague getting into a similar situation before with the lift door suddenly not working, which lead me to exclaim "Shit" out loud because my colleagues' condo management ending up requesting a few thousand dollars for compensation because for his case, the sensors were damaged and had to be completely replaced, luckily for him, he wasn't the one who damaged it, it was one of the sub-contractors who ended up forking out the money, but I am the one who damaged the lift doors, that means if there is any compensation, it will be coming from my commission, which would be horrible because it's fucking expensive and I don't think I am earning much from this project after all the cost absorption I have given to my clients.




I immediately called up my condo management office to report the lift door not closing and my biggest concern, aside from the potential compensation fee eating up my entire commission and then some, was how pissed off all the neighbors would get once they realize that the moron who has been disrupted their tranquility for the past 2 weeks has also damaged the fucking lift, the lady on the phone told me she will send a technician up and since the lift was not working, I ended up carrying the fucking push trolley down 6 flight of stairs to return to the delivery guy, who after realizing what had happened, could only laugh at my bad luck.



A little worried about the lift situation, I then headed to the management office in person and told them about the lift door, the lady then assured me that a technician has already been send down, so I went back to see if the technician was already there or not. I don't really know what happen afterwards because when I went up to my floor using the working lift, the damaged lift door actually got unstuck and closed on it's own, but it wouldn't move, so I ended up taking the flight of stairs down again and then realized that the lift had gone one level up. Not super sure what happened, I am hoping the technician was able to fix it and I don't have to pay any compensation for it, something I won't know until tomorrow I guess.




I blame my tiler for putting me in this situation. Not going to use him for my future projects anymore, he has put me under so much stress and also hugely inconvenience me today. I also found out that one of the worker he had send to do up my current project was the same guy who fucked up Sly Fox's place because of his horrible workmanship. I would very much like to ask my tiler to get someone else in, but then he probably won't listen because he gives zero shit at all, all he cares about is getting things done asap, which is why despite me telling him not to do the tiles for my living area, he has ignored my request and instructed his worker to do the exact opposite of what I told him not to do. I might have to bring this issue up to my boss very soon and have him do something about the tiler because this is honestly just unacceptable.

Soil Ha Ha

A few months ago, a couple walked into my company's showroom requesting for renovation works to be done to their space , at that time, because I was seated in the front of the showroom, I automatically up went to attend to them.



When I was informed that they wanted to renovate a commercial space, I immediately backed out and got my colleague to serve them instead, which she did and after an hour of consultation, my colleague walked them out and then came up to me and ask me if I was interested to come up with a design proposal for that commercial space since design wasn't really her strongest suite and also because she didn't have a lot of time to prepare the proposal. The idea of just coming up with the design and nothing else is pretty much my dream job, I hate the project coordination portion of Interior Design, so I agreed to her request under the condition that I will purely be in charge of the design aspect of it and that is it, she will handle all the nitty gritty renovation stuff.




I came up with a proposal within an hour and then passed it to her, the following week, she meets up with the clients, goes through the design proposal and they were very impress with the design, but they decided not to go forward with my company because they felt that the price was too high for them, so they told my colleague that they will be engaging another designer instead and that was that, the price my colleague prepared for them was pretty much non-negotiable because if you do not want a cookie cutter design, then be prepared to pay the price to achieve that look.




About a week after the rejection, surprise surprise, the clients actually messaged back and decided they wanted to engage my colleague after all, it was really out of the blue because the last time they messaged my colleague, they told her they will be engaging another Interior Designer, and then all of a sudden they are back again? We didn't think too much about it and were just happy that the project was clinched.




They were still a little tight on cash, so my original design was altered to fit their budget by my colleague and I really didn't like the final result because a lot of what made the space looked good in my opinion was removed, like a concrete wall that was meant to give texture to an otherwise flat looking space, and instead of painting all the walls with stripes like I had originally envisioned, only one wall was painted and the others were left stark white, which ended up making the place look half done and really cheap, but the clients didn't really have too much of an issue with it because for them, budget was more important than the overall aesthetics I guess, which also makes me wonder how bland were the designs proposed the other interior designers they visited.




The project finally starts and in my company, we have a very strict payment policy, the renovation itself can only commence once the client has paid 50% of the total renovation fees, this is a policy that is pretty much practiced by any legit Interior Design firms in Singapore, and after the owner has paid up 95% of the entire renovation fee, then we can do proceed to actually complete the entire renovation and really finish up the space. These clients told my colleague that they were tight on cash, so they can't make the 50% payment yet, but requested for the renovation works to start first because they had to make sure the place was done in time for them to operate 2 months later. My colleague took pity on them,so she proceeded to arrange all the renovation works with the contractors without informing our finance side.




At this stage, if the company found out about this, they will have the right to cease all the works and my colleague would have gotten into trouble, but fortunately for her, this wasn't brought to the company's attention until much later on when the client finally paid up, but it wasn't even 50%, they only paid about 30% and claimed that once their other shop closes, they will have the money to pay up.




This dragged on for a while and then when the carpentry was finally done and the clients were suppose to pay up to 95% of the renovation fee, same excuses again, that they still didn't have the money and couldn't pay up the full amount, so they just paid up to 80% and my colleague proceeded with the carpentry installation, once again out of pity and goodwill.




During this period, my colleague would reach out to the clients and ask them to pay up till the 95% because the company had found out about it and was already pressuring her , but the clients would come up with the same excuse, that they didn't have enough cash on hand and requested her to give them a bit more time,  and it was this constant back and forth until finally one day, the clients suddenly had a change of tune and decided to play the "workmanship is unacceptable" card and it is just fucking disgusting the way they were nitpicking on even the smallest issues.




First issue that they brought up to my colleague was about a power trip cause by bad electrical works.


1. Power Trip

According to them, when they turn on one of their mini fridges, it would short-circuit the entire shop, and they blamed it on the bad wiring done by the electricians. The problem is the shop's electrical works has already been approved by the shopping center management, there was zero issue during the inspection so there was no way it was due to bad wiring, all the power outlets were tested prior and it just didn't make any sense. The client even went and told my colleague that they got the "fridge" supplier down to inspect and the supplier told them it was due to the bad electrical works.




I told my colleague that it was pointless for her to solve the issue on her own, and it would be best to ask the clients to arrange a date for the electrician and the fridge supplier to meet, this way, the 2 experts can really determine what was actually causing the short circuit, and she did, but then a few days later, the clients suddenly said the supplier couldn't make it and they had to cancel the appointment with the electrician.


The electrician and the supplier never met, the shop is currently in operations, I am guessing that means the fridge is also working fine in order for the shop to be operational, and so far, there hasn't been any short circuit, the fridge issue has not been brought up since. My colleague and I then came to the conclusion that the "supplier" was completely made up, the clients didn't get anyone down to check their fridge, they were blatantly lying about being told that by the supplier that it was bad wiring.

Liar Liar

2. Bad Carpentry Workmanship.


After unsuccessfully finding fault with the electrical works, they decided to set their sights on finding issue with the carpentry work.



So for their place, what I had proposed in my design was to do suspended shelving that would act as tables, where customers could sit down and place their bags and drinks on, it wasn't meant to be a heavy duty table, and this was reiterated by my colleagues to them multiple times.


Nothing heavy was to be placed on the shelving tables because it is not meant to be used for heavy items. They went to put 2 safe deposit boxes on it.

2 SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES. 

And then they have the audacity to message my colleague and tell her that the shelving are bending due to poor workmanship, and then accuse my colleague that they weren't inform about not putting heavy items on it.


They then requested for the shelving to be removed, which I don't think they meant and was trying to force my colleague to settle with a monetary compensation instead, but then my colleague agreed to it and got the carpenter down to actually dismantle the shelving, so they no longer have the built in shelve cum table, which is great, except for the shameless fact that the client then requested for a refund for that shelving. 




Extremely disgusting individuals.




My colleague has since given up on this project and requested for another colleague to take over because she just couldn't handle the clients anymore and as far as I am aware, that other colleague is also currently going through the same shit as her, with new issues being brought up and the best fucking line the clients said to that other colleague was...

"I don't know what I did to deserve this from you guys, I don't think we have underpaid you for the renovation works."

FUCK YOU! You only paid 80% when you are suppose to have paid 95%! THAT IS UNDERPAYING! And then the earlier sentence about being undeserving of going through their current predicament.

This perfectly describes the current predicament they are going through.




It is just really disgusting how ungrateful these 2 clients are, after all the help my colleague offered them, the discounts she ended up giving, starting the renovation work before they have made the proper payment to ensure they can operate their business in time, this is how they show their gratitude.



2 Fucking Ingrates.

Right now, everyone who is aware of this 2 pieces of shit at work are theorizing that they are stirring up all this shitstorm to void their final 20% payment and also to get even more refund.

GROSS!

Before starting the renovation, I was still joking with my colleague that we should be getting special discounts whenever we get drinks from the shop, but looking at the current state of the working relationship, fuck no am I ever going to support their business.

New Projects Soon?

I am suddenly getting an influx of clients who are showing interest to engage me for my services just when I have a new project that is about to start and am going to be at my busiest.


This new project is slated to start tomorrow, it is my biggest project to date and it is going to be one of those complete makeover types that I love to do,  I have done complete makeovers before and it was extremely satisfying when the place was done, but compared to that other complete overhaul project that I did earlier this year, this one has a lot more renovation works that needs to be done and I am extremely worried about things going wrong.



Right now, I can't really foresee any potential problems, but I have pretty bad foresight when it comes to this kind of things so I have been in a worried state for probably the past week, and when you throw that with the ongoing haze for the past few weeks, it is a recipe for getting sick, which I did end up getting, the triple combo of fever, cough and runny nose.



What worries me about this project and what makes it so difficult is the unavailability of my clients, the husband is overseas 80% of the time and I honestly am not putting a lot of hope in the wife to make any important on the fly decisions on her own. I can call the husband or text the both of them to confirm certain changes, sure that works fine, but sometimes, there are aspects that would be best discussed in person, for example, should a tile they choose suddenly be out of stock and a new one has to be found to replace it within the next 48 hours, I would prefer for them to be present at the tile shop to look through the tiles together with me and make the decision then and there, rather than me taking a picture of tile A, sending it through Whatsapp, wait for their opinion, look for another tile, take a picture of tile B, send it through Whatsapp, wait for their opinion, look for another tile, take a photo of tile C, repeat, repeat, repeat for the next few hours because both of them are busy and can't respond immediately, and then to have them tell me...

"Can we trouble you to help us shortlist more option?"

... have me walk back to the tile shop, shortlist a thousand more tiles, repeat the process, only to have them then decide on tile A or worst, not be able to decide on anything because they can't feel how the tiles actually feel.




So far, this couple have been rather easy to work with, but in the early stages, a lot of them always are, it's normally during the renovation stage that they start showing their ugly side and I am really scared of how ugly they can potentially get and how much I might end up hating them during the reno, which happened to my very first clients. They just get really really particular with every single detail and the chat group would just suddenly get an influx of messages asking me stupid question.



My colleague recently had a client message her telling her our carpenters did a poor job because one of the shelving the carpenter did started wobbling when they put their safety deposit box on it, AFTER my colleague told them the shelving was not meant for heavy things. When I get this kind of message, the first thing that pops in my head is...

"Are you fucking dense?"

....I mean we can't scold them for being fucking stupid, even though they absolutely deserve to be called out for their stupidity, all we can do is explain to them that we have warned them before, but when we do that, they deny ever hearing us said that, demanding that it is a workmanship issue. This literally happened with my colleague just a few days back and when I heard her sharing this story with me, I actually felt angry for her. 

But back to my client. 

I do feel like I have a responsibility to make sure the renovation for this clients project goes as smoothly as possible, I honestly do for all my project, but more so for this because they were referred to me by my other client, who actually told me that he highly recommended me to his friends, and I feel like I have to live up to that expectation, but then there is that availability issue with them that makes it a little bit challenging and also a very very tight schedule I have to follow as well.

A part of me is dying to get this project started, just so all this pent up anxiety can go away once we actually get things moving. It has been a long time coming, this project was first brought to my attention the middle of last year, so it has been more than a year since then and it just feels a little surreal that it is finally happening on Monday. I am hoping things will go smoothly, but I am also anticipating there to be some minor hiccups, just don't be large bumps on the road that will affect my mood too severely because I actually have a client to meet the day after who is interested to engage me for my services.

And speaking of clients who are interested to engage me for my services, I will most likely be getting a new project on Tuesday, on hand right now there are also another 2 that I think are shortlisting me as well, one of those 2 I really don't want to work with, was really not expecting him to message me after I send him the quotation, but he did this morning much to my dismay.

There really isn't anything wrong with that particular client, the main reason I don't want to work with him is because I didn't click with him or his wife during our consultation, that's all, and if I don't click with them, I don't want to work with them, but he requested to meet me again and I can't really say No, so I lied and told him I was busy tomorrow and can only meet him next weekend because I want a break tomorrow, he then requested to look at my portfolio, which I shared with him and then replied back about 20 minutes later with...

"A lot of your past works are not really in the style that we want."

.... not really sure how to respond with this, I would have loved to tell him to go and look for more interior designers and get the one he feels can deliver the style he wants because it sounds like he is indirectly telling me he doesn't want to engage me if I have never done the style he wants, but how I am suppose to tell him that, am I suppose to grant him permission to take me out from his shortlist ? He then replies about 2 minutes later with....

"We can discuss again when we meet."

.... I honestly would rather not waste his time and him not waste my time. I mean I can do the style he likes, as long as I have some good examples from his end, I know I can extract the different elements to make it work. I will probably just grant him the time to meet up again, but I am not going to have a repeat of what happen with J&J, and end up working on a project I didn't want to touch in the first place and actually hating almost the entire renovation journey.





Not too long ago,of of my army friend actually referred his own friend to me for renovation services and I had quite a good chat with him, but I really do not sense any potential in him despite our chemistry.



He was very honest and told me he had already visited multiple designers and gotten their quotes, and even told me that he had visited one of the designers project that was in the residential area where his new house was located at, showed me a video he took of that house and then shared with me that the house the designer did was pretty much the style he wanted for his own place and what not.



You have found your designer...



1. They did a project at the same residential area as your new apartment
2. They brought you to that exact project.
3. It was done in the exact style you wanted.



.... just engage them already.



I feel like when he visited me, I had already gotten the short end of the stick.



That being said, I am also not that interested in his project simply because his new place is located at the other end of the island and I ain't interested to be travelling from Bukit Batok to Tampines every day for 2 months. I doubt he will get back to me as well because my pricing is probably going to be about the same as the other designers he met. The only thing I got going for me is that I am a friend of his friend, that's it, other than that, there is nothing else that would make me an enticing option for him.

Death of another tooth....

I have visited the dentist a total of 3 times during the last 2 weeks and I will be dropping by again tomorrow for my 4th visit.



The first visit was to fix rectify the pain from my molar, the next 2 was to go back and check why there was still pain radiating from the molar despite the issue being "fixed" and the visit tomorrow is to redo my frontal tooth filling because it literally fell off while I was eating fried mushrooms.



The 2nd and 3rd visit was bad news because I was diagnosed with what could potential be a dying tooth, getting aches in the middle of the night, sometimes would happen randomly in the day time, and there are only 2 ways to deal with a dying tooth, I could either extract the damn tooth or I can keep the tooth by going for a root canal surgery. The last time I had a root canal done, it was for my front tooth, so the cost was about $850, this time, because it is a molar, the cost will be double the amount, which is a whopping $2000, on top of that $2000, I will have to fork out another $1000 to get a crown done as well, which brings the total up to $3000, so I guess there goes my plan to get a new desktop.




The dentist that I visited are all different, same clinic but always a different dentist and I really don't like that arrangement, having the same dentist would help a lot because that dentist would know the severity of the issue I am personally going through, especially if I am dropping by so many times.



So the 2nd time I visited, the dentist told me to observe the pain for a few days, prescribed me with some painkillers and then send me off. She told me that the pain might be from my tooth still trying to get used to the new fillings, so I should take my painkillers when it starts aching and then give it a few days to see if the pain subsides, if it doesn't, then it means I might need a root canal surgery. I really don't want to mask the pain with painkillers, so I pretty much ignored her advise and tried to power through it for 2 days, which was horrible because the pain actually got more spontaneous and started happening more frequently, which probably was a very very bad sign. I have done fillings many times before and this is the first time the tooth took so long to react to a new filling because I was fine for 10 days after the filling was done and then the pain just suddenly came back.



So 2 days after my 2nd visit, I made an appointment for a third visit and this time, it was a different dentist again, she did the same thing the last dentist did, which was a cold test to see how my affected tooth was reacting, it was VERY sensitive, and then we took an X-Ray and pretty much came to the same conclusion, that I might require a root canal surgery, so I got the root canal specialist number and if the pain persist, then it will be a straight visit to that specialist.




I am trying to avoid the root canal surgery and am now seriously hoping it is just my tooth getting used to the new fillings, one can hope, so I am popping the painkillers as per instructed and giving it a few days, my sleep last night was painless, which was great, a part of me wishes it was the tooth getting better, but I know it is the painkiller doing it's thing. I will be popping them again before bed because fuck that molar.



Dropping by again tomorrow to redo a fallen filling, the whole piece literally came out while I was eating and it was a really big piece, that particular tooth is 50% filling, so I look like I am missing a tooth right now, which was why I arranged for the earliest time slot available tomorrow to get that shit sorted out. I am spending A LOT of money on dental works.




1st Trip  - $400
2nd Trip - $50
3rd Trip - $40
Tomorrow - $150 (estimate)

Root Canal Surgery - $3000


That would be a total of $3640!
And I feel like the initial $400 is such a waste of money because it only brought me 10 days of serenity before I am told that I will have to reopen that cavity and dig all the nerves out.


THAT IS HALF MY TOTAL COMMISSION FOR 4 SEPARATE PROJECTS I HAVE YET TO COLLECT! I really needed that commission to cover back my US trip expenses because the figures in my bank account is now free falling and I don't feel good about it.



UPDATE :


Just got back from the dentist and was given some very bad news about that tooth that had to be filled.


It has been "restored" and I was pretty accurate with the cost, it was $150 before GST, so I ended up spending $170 today.


During the consultation, I explained to the dentist what happened to my tooth and what I wanted done, which is to refill the tooth, so she asks me when the filling fell off, how long it has been that way and then proceeds to check up on it.


As she was checking, I could feel her digging and scrapping away, then she stops and just stared at my tooth for a while, like she was pondering what to do, I was very nervous because if she is pondering for so long, then it can only mean that she has bad news and is wondering how best to deliver that news to me.

"Actually looking at your tooth right now, there really isn't much for the fillings to hold on to, so even if we do the fillings, it will only be temporary, which is why I would suggest extraction."

When she said "extraction", I was honestly caught off guard. This tooth is the second tooth from the front right, if I extract that tooth, it is going to look EXTREMELY obvious, every time I talk, people are going to notice a missing tooth, every time I smile, people are going to notice a missing tooth, the point here is the missing tooth is going to be very fucking obvious every time I open my fucking mouth, I am going to look like Stu from the Hangover movie, permanently.




I was shocked when she suggested that, so I just stared at her for a while, and then said...

'Extraction?"

... and she nodded her head and then re-explain why she thought extraction was the best option and the entire time, I was just really confused because I think extraction is the most extreme option, it's the one you offer to your patients when there really is no other alternative, and she was offering it to me, so I then ask her if there way any other alternative, if crowning was possible and she kept reiterating that extraction is the best option, that refilling will only be temporary and crowning is impossible because at this stage, it is too late, which is really not what I wanted to hear, which then made me realize that there was another option, dental implants. I then ask her if dental implants was possible, and she finally told me that that was indeed another option that I could look at.

I mean SERIOUSLY !?!?

If you are going to offer such an extreme measure like extraction, at least let me know that I can still do an implant to cover that gap. I was just relieved then that there was still an alternative and despite it potentially costing me $4000, the important thing here is that there IS a solution for replacement, but when I think back now, it just really infuriates me how she didn't really give a shit about how missing what is almost as good as a front tooth would impact the patient.



Your clinic offers braces as one of the many services and the whole point of someone wearing braces is to get their teeth straighten and perfect their smile, it definitely boosted my confidence when I finally got my teeth straighten, a small group do it for medical reason, but a larger group do it for aesthetics, which is the reason why I went for it, so it just amazes me that she just doesn't care.



That being said, she did a relatively good job restoring my tooth with the fillers, it looks good as new now, but according to her, it probably won't last long, she said it would last max 2 years if I take care of it really well, but would most likely start to fall off within a year from now, I guess that is enough time for me to set aside $2750 for the dental implant, with a little help from Medisave, the main thing I have to worry about is just my potential root canal surgery.

Damn Tooth

I am currently experiencing some oral pain and it has not been a very pleasant experience.



The pain first started during my company trip to Malaysia, the trip itself was fine, there was a lot of waiting involved, like a fucking lot of waiting involved, but the overall experience was good, except for the part where I was unable to sleep properly because my toothache kept waking me up in the middle of the night.




It is one of those "sour" pain that only triggers when I am lying down, which is the default position everyone has to get into before they sleep, and for the first few minutes, it's fine, but then the pain slowly creeps up and covers the entire portion of the left side of my face below the cheek while I am asleep, which of course then wakes me up and I would just lie there, concentrating on the pain and attempt to will it to go away, but the pulsating sensation doesn't stop and it gets progressively worst until I get up.




Honestly had no clue what happened, but I did manage to fall asleep the first night, forgot about it and when I got home after the trip was over, since it is only a 2 day 1 night trip, I had completely forgotten about it and went to sleep, only to be given a painful reminder minutes later that the pain is still there and it is not going away on it's own, and somehow wearing my retainer seems to make it worst, so I got up at 4.00 am to brush my teeth with a pain relief toothpaste, which didn't really work, took out my retainers and went to sleep again, adjusting my head to make the pain more bearable.



It is a real bitch, so I had no choice but to set an appointment with a dentist today to see what the fuck is going on. The last time I brought this up to my braces dentist, which was about a few months ago, there was just a bit of sensitivity issue and he said it was nothing to be to concerned about and his reason was that my filling was simply getting a little loose that's why the sensitivity is happening.




At that time, I took his word for it and just left it alone, it was still bearable then and was only uncomfortable when I chewed on that side of the mouth, but after using a sensitivity toothpaste, it got better and I ignored it, I should have known better though and he really should have just told me to get that filling replaced if it was getting loose, but he didn't, which makes me wonder if his intention is for the problem to get worst, so I will go back to him months later in pain and require a more expensive procedure to fix.



Anyways, I decided to set the appointment for 6.30pm today with a different dentist, a more affordable one because my braces dentist charges a premium for his services and I will admit, I was a little skeptical about how the consultation would go. I am a little bitch when it comes to receiving orthodontic treatment, so to have a completely brand new dentist scour my teeth for black gold is unnerving.




At around 6.00 pm, I decided to leave the office, the clinic is probably a 10 minute bus ride away, but due to peak hour traffic and a confusing shopping mall layout, I ended up only reaching the dental clinic at 6.40 pm and waited all the way till 7.00pm for my consultation to begin.



The dentist looks to be relatively young, might be younger than me from the top half of his face because is was wearing a mouth mask the entire time and he was quite gentle with the whole thing, I had an X-Ray scan and the dentist came to the conclusion that I had a massive decay on my molar, and as he was enlightening me on that, I can't help but silently curse my braces dentist for telling me it was "nothing to be concerned about" 6 months ago. The decay was so big this dentist actually told me I might require a root canal if it has affected the nerve, which was extremely worrying for me because I ain't made of money anymore.



This could have all been avoided if my braces dentist had just redone my loose fillings 6 months ago.




After a few taping and putting cold cotton pieces around the affected teeth to see where the decay was, we finally got down to business and that included 2 oral injections to numb my mouth. As I have said before, I am a little fucking bitch when it comes to dental treatment, and oral injections is probably at the top of the list of things I fear during a dental visit, I had a very horrible experience back in Secondary School when the free dental service came by and the dentist kept injecting my mouth in a futile attempt to numb the many teeth he was filling, but to no avail, the damn injections only managed to numb my lips because I could feel every drilling and every digging he had to do to my mouth for the 2 hours I was stuck in that chair, it was a fucking nightmare, and every time that Secondary School dentist saw me flinch, he would take the needle and just start injecting more like it's water and it would fucking hurt every time.



So after hearing I would be needing an injection, I pretty much begged the dentist to apply some numbing cream first before he did the injection, and he did, but unlike my root canal dentist who left the cream on for a good 5 minutes to really numb the area, this dentist left it for maybe 10 seconds before he started the injection, which worried me immensely, so I just went...

"So fast?"

... and upon realizing the huge pussy I was becoming, he quickly assured me that he would go very very slowly because that is how one achieves a painless injection, and he took his time to insert the needle. I was anticipating that prick that normally happens when I get these injections, but there wasn't anyway, it was just this dull pain that slowly drags on for 10 seconds and he was done, with the first one, and when he started the second one, which was to be injected at the roof of my mouth, he did warn me that it was going to be a little more painful, so I became even more worried, and it did hurt a little bit more, but once again, it was a bearable dull pain and I think I accidentally drank a bit of the anesthetic when he pulled the syringe out from my mouth and some of it dripped in because now, the numbness is all the way to the back of my throat and it feels like I have a sore throat because I can't really swallow properly.



The rest of the procedure after the injection was pretty painless, every time the dentist asked me that I might feel a slight discomfort and there was nothing, I just felt happy and after about 20 minutes of drilling and filling, the repair was done. Unfortunately due to time constraint, because there was another patient outside who had been waiting for an hour, the dentist couldn't do all the decay and requested that I return in a month's time to get those fixed and I agreed immediately.




I was anticipating the bill to be quite high, maybe $200 to $300, but then I remembered the X-Rays I had to take and those aren't cheap, plus there was polishing and the decay repair work that was a bit on the more complex side, there was no way my wallet would be let off that easily.



When the receptionist called me up, she broke down everything for me using a calculator and there were multiple $80 and $70 keyed into the calculation, which brought the total figure to $400. I could have gotten a mid-range phone with that money, but when I think about the figure, it really isn't as high as it could have been had I gone back to my braces dentist, who would have charged me at least $600 for the same stuff, if not more.




Now that the numbing is over, I do actually have a sore on the roof of my mouth from where the dentist injected the anesthetic,

My price ain't high, your budget is too low...

A few days ago, a client that I had previously blogged about, dropped me a message asking me when I would be available for a call, since I was still sleeping at 10.30am in the morning when I got the message, I decided to wait till I was fully awake to respond back to him, which was about an hour later when I finally gave him permission to call me for a chat.



When the client requested to talk, I knew for sure it was going to be about the price of the quotation, and I have been in this line long enough to know what the selling price for most of the renovation works should be at, so I wasn't worried about getting "called out" for being too expensive, because I know I did not overcharge them for anything and what I am charging is is actually lower than what my other colleagues will charge their customers.



So the call comes in and the client is very cordial at the beginning, asking me how my weekend was, if it was any good and I was already anticipating this conversation to take a huge turn once the niceties were out of the way, and it went according to how I predicted.




Let's just call this client Patrick.


So once the niceties were out of the way, Patrick starts going through the quotation I have prepared for him with me over the phone, going over the different points he had issues with and just straight up exclaiming that I was selling at a price point that was way too high to be acceptable.


He did his own break down of how much he thinks each item cost and then managed to calculate the total profit my company will earn, and I was quite impressed with his accuracy because he was just a thousand dollar short from the actual cost price.



The conversation went on for quite a while and he was progressively getting more and more aggressive with his tone, it sounded almost confrontational at one point, that I started to wonder if the whole point of this call was just him trying to "call me out" and make me feel guilty for trying to take advantage of him, so I got pretty offended with his accusatory tone and just told him straight...

"If you think my price is too high, I would advise you to hire a contractor instead."

... because I have not been engaged by him yet, there is no obligation for him to engage me if he thinks my pricing is unfair, and I just do not like the way he was speaking to me, it didn't feel like a respectful conversation and I do not want to work with someone who won't show me any respect, I have zero interest to work with someone like this, so I would prefer him to leave me alone, which made my "advise" to him come across as a very valid option. I am not trying to do some sort of reverse psychology and hope he would be scared and then adjust his tone, I just straight up do not want to work with him.

Upon hearing my response, he quickly changes his tone and goes...

"I hope that you understand it is not my intention to offend you. My wife and I like you very much, that is why I am calling you to try and work something out."

.... and then he goes on to use his position as an expat and a Caucasian as an excuse for his "bluntness" , and I honestly don't care if you are a Caucasian or an Expat, that is really not a valid excuse for being unpleasant.

Of course I did not tell him that, but instead told him I will rework the quotation and see if I can lower the price any further, that I will email the new quotation to him by the end of the week. 

The quote has been recalculated and the price is pretty much unchanged, I don't really plan on sending him the updated quotation because if he isn't agreeable with the first one, then this quotation isn't really going to make much difference. I also don't want him to call me again to negotiate further because I did not enjoy the phone conversation with him. If this is the attitude he is going to be giving me before an agreement has been signed, then I can only imagine how much of a nightmare he will become once the renovation starts.

At the end of the day, what I got from his phone call is my service isn't worth the money, simple as that. He calculated a $8000 profit from the project, so if we were to break down the commission based on his calculation, I will earn about $3200, which is honestly the average for a project of his size, and his exact words to describe the profit was...

"It is way too high"

... which really makes me wonder then how much would he be expecting me to earn, a few hundred dollars for 2 to 3 months worth of work?

If he does reach out to me, then I will just send him the quotation, just as a courtesy, but I am not going to allow him to engage me for his renovation works. I have turned down projects before and I am feeling very strongly against Patrick. I shall not let this be a repeat of the J&J fiasco.

Another waste of time...

A few days ago, I got assigned to a client who requested for a pretty last minute consultation session, and initially I wasn't too keen on the idea of meeting a new client because I am just really lazy af, but since no one else in the office was available, I decided to take it and just see how it goes, if the client is nice and we click, then I will follow up, if he or she is a piece of work, then the consultation will be all they get.



My HR then sends over the client's details and when I read through the requirements, it just felt like such a waste of time because the budget the client had set aside was not realistic at all. I have been in this line long enough to know of a rough estimate and running the project at her budget will incur huge losses on my end, but since the appointment has been set and I have been assigned to deal with this, I thought let's just get the consultation over and done with.



So 6 pm rolls around and the client finally arrives, she strolls into the office with her husband and when I saw the husband, I immediately got a bit worried because he was Caucasian, and the last time I spoke to a Caucasian homeowner, that old fart was just really unpleasant to deal with, so I was a little worried that this client's husband might be the same because they also look to be around the same age.



As I introduce myself to the wife, she immediately apologize for being a little late and also requesting for a consultation so last minute, I waved off her apologies and told her it wasn't a problem and she then introduces her husband to me and he was really nothing like that old fart I had to deal with early last year.




We started the consultation and they were a really lovely couple, very pleasant to talk to and it just made me feel better about this potential waste of time because the very first thing I ask the wife was how much she was willing to stretch her budget and she told me...

"$25,000 is the maximum we will go."

.... which is still extremely unrealistic and I really don't like it when a client gives me a maximum figure and that figure is still way too low to do what they are planning to do. So I told her that her budget is simply not realistic and then gave her a much more realistic budget, which was about $40,000.



I told them that I will prepare a quotation based on their requirements and then brought up the budget issue once again to mentally prepare them for the final figure, they both thanked me for my time and I honestly felt really hopeful.



Normally I will ask a client to give me 7 days to prepare a quotation for them, but since I like hopeful about this couple, I told them I will prepare one for them within the next 3 days, and I did. The final figure came up to about $40,000, which was exactly what I had predicted and told them about, so I send that quotation to the wife via email and then drop her a text to let her know that the quote has been send out.




Every time I send a message to a potential client about the emailed quotation, a client I have met, they will respond back with...

"Great, will take a look and revert back to you!"

... and they never revert back because their pants are on fire. From time to time, I would get ingrates some who wouldn't reply, like that "mini celebrity" I met a few weeks ago, I mean I also really wasn't expecting that celebrity to respond back because we did not click at all, but it would have been nice to at least send a courtesy reply back to me, I would have liked her a little more if she did that.



But anyways, I was fully expecting this client to send me a courtesy reply, but she did not, she read my text, it was double blue ticked, but there wasn't any "Thanks for the quotation", just left me hanging.



I am disappointed because in the end, she and her husband did ended up becoming a waste of time.

The inevitability of stepping into shit....

Just came back from work today and was originally suppose to meet a new client.



This client, which I shall just refer to her real name, called Teresa, scheduled an appointment with my admin side for a consultation session with an Interior Designer, and the date and timing was set for today at 2.00pm.



An confirmation email was sent to her and me to confirm the appointment.



I didn't have any showroom duty today, so when I went to the office in the afternoon, my intention was purely to meet Teresa. I went a little early than usual and reach the office at around 12.30pm, had my lunch, chit chat with my colleagues and waited until 2pm for Teresa to come.



2pm came around and Teresa was nowhere to be found, so my colleague started teasing me and told me that Teresa might have decided to ghost me. It was only a few minutes after 2pm, so I was still holding out hope that she might just pop into the office soon and then apologize for being late, and I will be like...

"Oh no worries, come on in."

... but then 10 minutes became 20 and by the 30 minute mark, I decided to text Teresa to ask if she was on her way. She didn't reply, so I told myself if she still isn't here by 3.00pm, then I am just going to leave because making me wait an hour for her without any text message to tell me she is going to be late or stuck in a jam is just plain rude.




At around 2.45pm, I finally get a text from her and she writes...

"I have already engaged another company to do my renovation, so I won't be coming down."

.... thanks for having the decency to send me a response text I guess, but this STUPID CUNT literally made me wait 45 minutes for her and then tells me she won't be coming down because she has already engaged another company, she had zero intention to update my company to cancel the appointment, I had to text her for her to inform me of her decision.



I would fucking spit at her face if I could, the level of entitlement this bitch has.
So my time doesn't matter?
My money for having to travel from my home to the office doesn't matter?



This bitch didn't even bother to apologize in her response, just simply stated that she won't be coming down and it just fucking pissed me off at how nonchalant her response was.



I read her text and I deleted the entire chat without responding to her, she is a customer, so I can't call her out for being an inconsiderate asshole, which is why I did the passive aggressive thing by making sure her message gets double blue ticked and don't respond to her because FUCK YOU TERESA!

Here's hoping you get scammed by the company you engaged.

Tired

A lot of things were happening today, work wise, and I was initially not planning to get busy until later in the afternoon.


There were 3 things were on my work schedule today.


1. Emily's Carpentry Installation

2. J&J's Rubbish Clearing

3. Meeting A Client in the Evening



I wasn't intending to visit Emily's site because she will be at home the entire day and I was expecting everything to go smoothly, when a client is staying in their own home during the renovation, based on my past experiences, things always go really smoothly, since they are there, anything that is not done to their satisfaction, they can let the workers know immediately, so it doesn't have to go through me, they are essentially managing their own site and it really saves me the hassle.



With Emily's project, the job scope is pretty small, all I was providing her was custom carpentry, 2 cabinets and a storage bed, I was estimating everything to be done within half a day, so in the morning after I woke up, I send her a text to remind her that the carpenters will be dropping by later, and she simply said "Ok".



I then got out of bed, brushed my teeth and proceeded to do more scheduling works with the various contractors and everything was going well for about an hour after I woke up I had just taken a bath and was watching some Youtube videos as I always do in my free time, then I get a call from my carpenter and he tells that me that Emily's Apartment Security Guard wasn't letting his workers in because Emily didn't apply for a renovation permit. I quickly called Emily to explain the situation to her and she went down to explain to the security what was happening and they proceeded to let the carpenters. I thought that this was a mistake on the security part, that they simply forgot about the permit.



15 minutes later, I get a called from Emily, and she doesn't usually call me, so I knew something must have fucked up, I picked up the call and the first thing she says is...

"Your carpenter fabricated the wrong carpentry for me, the size is too big!"

... and I just thought "Not again, my carpenter fucked up again.", I told her I will call with my carpenter to check, and I did that immediately, of course he denies screwing up and tells me had written down what he had discussed with Emily previously, that everything he wrote on his detail drawing was based on what was discussed and confirm with her.



I really didn't know what to say, so I told him to call his workers and than have his workers pass their phone to Emily, so my carpenter can actually explain to her personally, he was a little hesitant to do that, but he did it anyway.



Not even 30 seconds later, my carpenter calls me back and then tells me....

"Emily is not letting my worker do any work, she doesn't want them to do any cutting and sawing in her house, I can't do anything if she doesn't let my worker work."

.... and I thought Emily must have been pissed that the carpenter screwed up her measurement, that is why she is stopping them from working and as I was talking to my carpenter about how Emily is really making things difficult for everybody, I got a call from Emily, so I told my carpenter I will call him back, picked up Emily's call, and she goes...

"Why is the carpentry work so messy? Why are they cutting the wood pieces in my house? Why didn't you tell me it will be so noisy"

... and I was completely confused. I mean what were you expecting? An IKEA delivery?

And then suddenly everything made sense, the reason why the security wouldn't let my carpenters in, the reason why work was stopped by Emily, it was because she actually thought this would work like a fucking IKEA delivery, where my workers just delivers the item over fully built, screw them on the wall within 15 minutes and then leave. 

The reason why the security didn't have a permit for my carpenter was because Emily told them it was a delivery, not a small renovation and I really didn't know what to actually say when Emily blamed me for not telling her it was going to be like a mini renovation. 

I mean are you fucking kidding me? Are you seriously fucking kidding me?

YOU WALKED INTO A HOME RENOVATION FIRM AND REQUESTED TO HAVE CUSTOM BUILT-IN FURNITURE , IT IS A RENOVATION! WHY THE FUCK WERE YOU EXPECTING A SIMPLE FURNITURE DELIVERY?

Zero common sense. This has got to be the dumbest fucking client I have come across, actually has zero brain cells, and when she kept complaining about how I didn't tell her it was a renovation, how it was so noisy yadah yadah, I just didn't know what to say, I didn't want to apologize because I did nothing wrong, it's not my fault she is an actual retard.

She then brings up another issue with some electrical points and that also took a while to resolved, I actually lost my patience and might have been a little strong in my tone, she of course wasn't happy that my tone had changed, so she also raised her voice a little and it was just really irritating. It was at that point in time when I actually told myself, this is the last time I will ever work with a PRC homeowner because it's bloody ridiculous how fucking entitled she was coming across. We were really going nowhere at this point, so I readjusted my tone and told her nicely that I will speak to the carpenter and have him find a solution and she just hangs up.



At this point, she had also finally allowed my carpenters to actually start working on their carpentry so when I called the carpenter, I told him I definitely need to go down to the site to personally take a look, he then tells me he will go for lunch first and wait until I reach the place to decide what to do.

I was extremely stressed out and wanted to reach Emily's place as soon as possible to settle all this, so I took a Grab over and Emily was at home alone, having her lunch, the carpenter were all out and she was not in the foul mood I was expecting her to be in, we walk through the areas that she had issues with, I explained to her what was happening and even though she wasn't as emotional as I thought she would be, the blame game never stopped, she kept blaming me for not telling her about the scope of work, saying things like...

"You never tell me this was going to be a renovation?"

"I thought it was going to be a simple delivery, all this ruckus that is caused by the carpenters, this is as good as a renovation. My neighbors are complaining because of the noise."

... and I just told her it was not my intention to leave this information out to her, but she should have known that my company is a renovation company and she should have expected this, but my reasoning was always met with the same response from her...

"You never tell me."

... I mean this is like me having the need to tell a full grown adult that in order to quench his or her thirst, he or she needs to have a drink of water, it really doesn't take a genius to connect the dots. Or for the cashiers at McDonalds to tell customers who walk in...

"Hi, you are at McDonalds, a fast food outlet store that sells burgers and fries and isn't healthy when consumed on a daily basis."

But anyway, after speaking to her, I guess there wasn't any hard feelings between the both of us, so I left after I met the carpenters on site and proceed to J&J's place.

J&J's place is about 95% done, today was just clearing the rubbish and that was it, I checked with my contractor on his ETA earlier this morning and he told me he will be there before 4pm, I was in the apartment by about 3.20 pm and decided to just wait there until he came. I walked around the place, turned on all the lights to admire the space fully lit up, it actually looks really nice how everything came together. 

Jenny and Jonny then texted me and requested for some changes to the carpentry and it was one of those request I had denied them multiple times due to the in-feasibility of it, but it never gets into their head and they kept requesting for it again days later, as if to test my consistency in saying No.

But anyways, while I was waiting for the contractors to come up, J&J's son actually pop by the house for a while, we greeted each other, he went around and played with the lights and then leaves like 5 minutes later. It was nice that he came up because then, he can report to J&J that I was actually on site, which I learn later that he did.

As 4 pm rolled around, I started to wonder where the contractor was, because he told me he will be there before 4 pm and it was already 4 pm, so I texted him if his guys were on their way, and he just replies with...

"Ya"

... and doesn't bother to give me more information, just a one worded response and I really didn't like how nonchalant his response was, about 5 minutes later, I requested for an ETA, and then he actually leaves me a voice memo apologizing for taking too long, told me he will check with his guys and then doesn't bother to update me. 

10 minutes later, I ask him again where his guys were and he tells me they are already there, but he will check again, and 10 minutes later, still no one, so I ask him again where they were and he tells me that they should be there by now. I don't know what the hell was going on but his guys were 30 minutes late, I was feeling really really sticky when they finally started to clear the rubbish because it is warm in the apartment, I wasn't going to stay and watch them throw everything away, so after quickly telling them what I needed them to keep and what to throw, I left and headed to the office for my 7 pm appointment.

For the longest time, I have been planning to leave this industry and find a job with a stable income and the last few weeks spend working on Jenny's project has made that feeling of just being done with this career even stronger, then that whole fiasco with Emily that happened in the morning, I almost had a nervous breakdown, this job just didn't feel like it's worth all this mental stress.

So when I went for my 7pm appointment, I was feeling extremely dejected, I have met this couple many many times, the first time I met them was at the end of last year and back then, I didn't put too much hope into getting their project because it was pretty huge and I didn't feel confident clinching it, but they kept coming back to me week after week, month after month and for the longest time, we were stuck in this limbo like state. I could sense that they were going to award their project to me, but every meeting we had just didn't feel like the day they would confirm my engagement, and it just dragged on for the longest time.

Today, I really didn't feel my best, I didn't want to get anymore new projects, I just wanted to be done with J&J's and Emily, and then leave the industry for good, look for a stable job and earn a stable pay, go through that daily grind and get use to it.

And then today, that couple finally confirmed their contract with me and I didn't feel excited or happy about it. I just felt tired, like I was just done managing site. I still enjoy Interior Designing and I enjoy meeting clients to discuss design, but I really really hate the Project Management part, the part where I have to deal with clients and contractors because it is always at this part of the renovation when clients can actually turn nasty and it is something I always hope won't happen, but at the same time also have to anticipate happening.



I have a feeling the clients from this new project will be like the clients from my first project, whom I really liked because they are friendly and pleasant to talk to, but I hated working with them as clients because of how indecisive and stubborn they were. I am getting similar vibes and it is very worrying.



2020 might be the year I finally leave this career. Maybe.