The urge to get a new tech has come and now I am itching to get my hands on a new laptop. My current Aftershock has served me really well for the past 4.5 years and it will continue to serve me until the day it dies, but carrying it around in my bag to work has not been a very pleasant experience for my shoulders.
If there are projects that are happening, I normally like to drop by those sites first to take a look at what is happening before actually heading to the office and it is something I do all the time until very recently.
Travelling to multiple sites in the past with a 2.5kg laptop sitting in my bag was always a pain, but the rotten icing on top of that cake was that sometimes, I wouldn't even take out the laptop from my bag because by the time I have visited my last site, back when I had 4 sites to run at one time, it would already be 5pm, and returning back to the office just to sit around for 2 hours until closing was pointless.
So now, when I have the laptop sitting in my bag, I no longer have the mood to visit my sites before I go to the office and that really isn't a good thing, I am becoming lazy because of the potential strain my shoulders will be in, add the horrible weather into the equation and that laziness suddenly feels justified.
I was looking at the Microsoft Surface a few months back, before my trip to New York, contemplating whether I should invest in a new laptop or go on a holiday, and I honestly do not regret picking New York because it was a really good trip, but what I do regret is getting the Nintendo Switch for the trip because I barely touched the console there, and for weeks now, it has been sitting in it's dock, in perpetual charge and I paid $500 for it, such a huge waste of money, even got a copy Breath of the Wild, thinking I will really get sucked into the game, but don't have the time nor the mood to play it for more than an hour at one go. My declining interest in video games is a sign that I am getting older.
Anyways, after I came back from New York, I immediately felt broke, so the thought of getting a new laptop completely left my mind, but a few days ago, that itch suddenly came back and I started researching online again. I have lost interest in the Microsoft Surface because it's too expensive for me, now my eyes are set on getting an Apple Macbook Air, but I am currently a little worried about the OS transition from Windows to Apple, it will take awhile, I know I will get used to it eventually, in fact, I am really keen to try Apple's operating system, but my biggest concern is the software compatibility with Windows because my main need for the new laptop would be it's ability to run Sketch Up, I don't need it to render because I can use my current Aftershock laptop for that, but in order to be able to render on my Aftershock, the file has to be compatible with Windows OS.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
While I take time to contemplate on the laptop situation, work has also been feeling a bit messy, J&J's project is happening right now, things are going according to plan, there are a few minor changes with some of the renovation works and I have been getting the occasional text messages from Jenny sharing her concerns about how everything has been going on site, but overall it is still manageable. Took some time yesterday to really break down the cost of their project just to see how pathetic my profit margin would be and it is pretty bad.
The total project is about $27,000, this is after all the miscalculations and that giant discount I gave them, if I hadn't miscalculated and gave them the giant fat discount, the project should have been at around $30,000, which means a project of that scale should be netting me with at least $3000 in commission, but after some calculations, I am looking at about a $1,400 commission, it's not great. I do hope that J&J are at least aware of the fact that they have gotten a really really good deal from me. It's really such a newbie mistake for me to make with them, I have been in the industry for 2.5 years and I still made such a huge calculation mistake.
There is another project in sight that I might potentially get, the large one that would amount to $80,000. From my conversations with the homeowners, I can tell that they have pretty much decided to engage me, but they just haven't finalize that decision on paper yet. We have met SO MANY times, I would be surprise if they suddenly choose to back out and engage someone else.
The problem with that big project is that they have zero idea how little time they actually have left and the husband is actually no longer in Singapore to confirm the design details, so everything has to be decided with the wife and the whole arrangement just feels really really messy. There really isn't any sense of urgency on their end and because they haven't officially engaged me yet, I also don't really feel all that obligated to rush them, which I should. We'll see how it goes I guess, I might have to convince them to delay the renovation because starting it in 2 weeks time from now is going to be a huge bloody mess.
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