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.

Angry Guilty

Today was the day the final carpentry for J&J's place went up and knowing that there were a few issues I had spotted on my own during my previous few visits, I had to make an appearance to bring those issues up and have them rectified.



I reached the apartment at around 11.00am and by that time, one of the carpenter was already there, doing a few touch up works, we had a small chat, I showed him all the problem areas and he was really useful in terms of coming up with solutions to those problems. I was there for maybe an hour looking around for more defects while waiting for the final carpentry to arrive, but they were taking a little long and there were some design decisions that had to be made for the new carpentry, so I texted Jenny to confirm the design decisions and shared them with the carpenter before leaving.



Since I had showroom duty today, I made my way back to the office, got my lunch from a hawker center nearby and proceeded to watch the latest episode of Legion on my laptop, after that I stop Legion halfway and continued with work, preparing quotation for a new client, and then my phone starts buzzing and it was a text from Jenny, a picture.



At first all I could see was a puddle of water on a wooden surface and I thought she was showing me a few flooring samples and their waterproof capability, which makes no sense, and then she sends a text over and it writes...

"My son was over earlier and he spotted a puddle of water on the platform bed of his room, your contractor did not close to window and the rain got in."

... and immediately I remembered the heavy rain that just passed not too long ago and I was just completely shocked that the carpenter would allow this to happen. I apologize to Jenny, then forwarded the message Jenny had send to me, to him, he explain to me that his workers did close the window, but left it slightly ajar and the wind was really strong so it blew open the windows completely and cause the rain to wet the entire area, but it was not an issue because the carpentry is water resistant so there isn't any lasting damage.




At this point Jonny also responded in the chat and told me that there wasn't sufficient supervision happening, Jenny then told me that if anything is wrong with that particular carpentry, she will not pay for it, the only thing I could do was apologize on my carpenter's behalf and told them that I will tell my carpenters to be more careful in the future, they stop responding after that and I felt horrible but went back to doing my work and watching Legion.




Then in the evening, as I was contemplating whether to leave the office early or not so I can drop by J&J's site, my phone buzzes again and it was Jenny, again, She started the text with...

"Are your workers still around?"

... and my initial assumption was she probably needed them to help her with something, but since she isn't there on site, she needs me to relay the information to them, I wasn't sure if they were still there but looking at the time, which was around 7.00pm, it's safe to assume they had already left, so I told Jenny that they were probably gone and ask her why she needed to know, and she replies....

"Because I am here."

... and I knew IMMEDIATELY, something fucked up, best case scenario, one of the carpentry needed a bit of tweaking and touching up, worst case scenario, well one of the worst case scenario happened, she sends me a photo of her kitchen, the lights are turned on and the windows are completely opened....

"I came into the house to this"

... I was fucking horrified, I didn't immediately reply to her and questioned my carpenter what the fuck his guys were doing.



TWICE! ON THE SAME DAY, WITH THE SAME FUCKING PROBLEM, BOTH TIMES, THE WINDOWS WERE NOT SHUT, but instead of letting the carpentry becoming the fucking river Nile like the first time, the carpenters decided to keep the empty house fucking illuminated for the entire night.



Jonny then texts me and tells me that this cannot keep happening and I felt horrible, I just felt so guilty that they had to experience this twice on the same day and I was fucking pissed off at my carpenter, so I told him that the homeowners are not pleased that his man fucked up twice on the same day and I have to bear the grunt of it because I am the fucking middle man.



My carpenter then sends me a voice memo, telling me it is not his intention to sabotage me, but then goes on to insist that his guys did check everything and were sure all the lights and windows were turned off and closed, he then proceeds to me ask me to check with the clients if it was their son who had gone up again and forgot to turn off the lights and close the windows when he left.



I am 90% sure it was not the son, and when he send me a text of his workers telling him they had made sure to check everything, I knew it was them because the worker didn't sound convincing and secondly, it wasn't the worker who did the check, his words were...

"Carpenter B told me he checked everything before we left."

... I know Carpenter B and I know he has a tendency to shirk responsibility or try to bullshit his way out of helping me touch up defect, so it is also very possible he is bullshitting and shirking responsibility.



If I were to accuse her Son and it turns out it isn't him,because it is not, not only will she be angry that I am trying to shirk responsbility, her son will also be pissed that I tried to put the blame on him, me, because I am the fucking middle man, so naturally I did not ask Jenny if her son was responsible, I am not a fucking idiot.




At this point I got really tired because my Carpenter is just going to push the blame and there is no point harping on, so what if he claims full responsibility, the damage has been done, the impression J&J had of me is ruined, my carpenter really screwed me over and I am fucking pissed.



Completely lost my appetite after that because I was feeling horrible towards J&J and pissed off at my carpenter.



J&J didn't reprimand me, but they were very disappointed in me and it sucks because Jenny has been really nice to me the past week, thanking me for helping over look the project and just being really appreciative, and my carpenter has managed to ruined that for me. 




I am really more pissed off than I am feeling guilty.

Small Stressful Issues

The past weekend has been particularly stressful for me because all my projects are giving me problems.



On Saturday, while I was out getting lunch, I get a text message from Jonny informing me that one of my contractors had been smoking in his apartment and left a cigarette burn on his white kitchen counter top.


A WHITE kitchen counter top.


I remember one of the contractors asking me if smoking was permitted in the apartment and I told him by right they shouldn't, but if he wants to, don't get caught, so that means don't throw the cigarette butts on the floor for the homeowners to catch and don't leave any evidence that anyone had been smoking in the house, that was my requirement because the truth is telling them that smoking is not allowed is useless, they will still do it when I leave the place.



So imagine how peeved I was when Jonny send me a picture of his white counter top stained with a small cigarette burn. You'd have to be an actual fucking idiot to put the fucking cigarette out near a WHITE kitchen counter top.



With that on my mind, I was really distracted for the rest of Saturday, trying to find solutions to get rid of the burn mark because the contractor who left the burnt mark there wasn't able to repair it, all I could do was tell the contractor's boss and have him reprimanded but that does not help me a single bit, the damage is done, no amount of reprimanding would solve anything.




Then on that very day, I was slated to meet the clients with the $80,000 project, a couple I first met at the end of 2018 and have met a total of 8 times, never confirmed their contract with me, we have been in some sort contractual limbo ever since, so I was really not expecting them to sign a contract with me that day as well.




We had a pretty long discussion and I was pretty much offering them a lot of design input that would normally only be reserved for clients who have signed a contract with me, despite having been dangling a carrot in front of me for the past 7 months, it was still nice talking to them and they left once again without confirming anything with me.






Sunday rolls around and of course the first thing that popped into my head when I woke up was the damn counter top problem at J&J's house.



As the day continued, another client popped into my head as well, the meager $3000 project that I had gotten my hands on earlier this month, I shall call her Emily.


Emily is a PRC, so she mainly speaks to me in Mandarin when we meet in person, but via text messages, she always writes in English, not perfect English, but completely understandable.


So last Wednesday, I dropped Emily a text message, informing her of the upcoming work schedule, which days the different workers will come in and what time she should be expecting them. Since her project was pretty small, I didn't find it necessary to do any sort of site management because Emily is staying in her house, so she can oversee the works herself.



In the message, I also told Emily that her next payment is due and she has to transfer the amount by the end of the week, which to me is latest by Sunday, because whether she sends it to me on Saturday or Sunday, I will only be able to update my finance department on Monday.



It was a pretty chunky text message,, but I didn't use any difficult words that would be hard for her to understand, so she replies back many hours later with...

"Okay, noted!"

... Sunday rolls around, and she still hasn't made her payment yet, thinking that she might have forgotten about it, I send her a reminder to make payment soon, I didn't want to force her to make payment now because that might come across a little strong, so I wrote soon, hoping she will develop some sense of urgency and transfer the money within that day, but she responds back with...

"I remember, before Wednesday."

.... her carpentry is slated to be installed on Thursday, I told her in the last message I needed her to transfer the amount by the end of the week and she tells me she will transfer it before Wednesday, I was shocked because it's supposed to be before MONDAY!!!!




I then responded back and told her that she might have been mistaken, that my company's policy requires the homeowners to make the payment at least a week before the carpentry is slated to be installed, which means she should have made the payment by Thursday, and she went...

"You never told me this."

.... I did tell her this the first time she signed the contract with me, but that was done in person so I really don't blame her for forgetting. In an attempt to try and instill a sense of urgency in her, I told her that my company has a policy of withholding a client's carpentry work if payment isn't made on time because I mean if you are not gonna pay up, we are not going to deliver the goods, simple as that, this is how a transaction works, and I was simply explaining to her the policy with the goal of coming across as a helper, that I am on her side, helping her prevent any potential delays due to late payment, but she took it a completely different way and went....

"I told you I will pay before Wednesday."

"I feel like I am being threatened." 

...I was really initially really worried by how she had completely misconstrued my intentions, so I immediately apologize for coming across that way, but she just ignores the apology completely and ask me how much the electrical work will cost, so I apologize once again, send her the electrical costing and she doesn't say a word of thanks, just leaves me hanging after the quote was send to her and the more I think about it now, the more irritated I get.




My goal is to HELP you prevent any delay and you are taking it the wrong way and calling it threatening. What the actual fuck.




When I tell my other clients of this policy, they are always aware that I am telling them that from a place of good intention, to help them prevent any delays, but Emily found it threatening.

Finally coming together....

The carpentry for J&J's place is finally up, or at least 95% of it, and it is pretty exciting to see the place slowly come together.



I personally am not a huge fan of this project because Jenny was quite a handful and also because I didn't really have a lot of design input, I didn't feel like an Interior Designer going into this project, I felt more like a contractor who was simply following what the clients wanted to a tee, so I don't really feel like I left any sort of mark there as a designer. I am still going to try and convince Jenny to let my company professionally photograph her home, but I will probably not use those photos for my personal portfolio.


A few hours after the install was done, my carpenter sends me photos of all the carpentry that have been installed and when he came to the final one, he attaches a voice memo with it and told me that for one of the rooms, he had measured the height wrongly and now has to bring the casement doors for that particular carpentry back to redo because I did not tell him that I had done up the false ceiling.


I was a little confused because I would NEVER make such a rookie mistake and get him to come measure the carpentry before the false ceiling is up. So I told him there was no way I would make such a rookie mistake and he kept telling me it was not up when he measured it and kept insinuating that it was my fault he measured the carpentry wrongly, so much so that I actually started to wonder if it was true, if I actually made that mistake.



So I looked through the messages, sifted through them and then I came across the 3D rendering of that particular carpentry piece he had send to me, and on it were all the measurements he had marked out to confirm with me if the height and width of it was correct and he had clearly written down all the measurements there, so I calculated the total measurements and LO AND BE FUCKING HOLD, it was measured with an allowance for the false ceiling.




The original height of the room is 2.9m
The measurement he had written down totaled to 2.75m


There is a 0.15m difference because that is the height of the false ceiling!



After I saw that, I called him up and explained to him that he had shared with me the measurements prior to the fabrication it included the false ceiling height allowance, I wasn't confrontational because I have worked with him for a while now and I really am not someone who likes to be confrontational unless I know for sure I am never going to be interacting or speaking to that person ever again, unfortunately because I was quite nice about it, he didn't acknowledge his mistake, he didn't apologize for putting the blame on me even though it was clearly a fuck up from his end and all he did was simply brush it off by telling me...

"Nevermind, I will change the doors for you so don't worry about it."

.... like he was doing me a favor, and honestly, the more I think about it, the more infuriating it makes me because I really hate getting blamed for something I didn't do, probably one of my biggest pet peeve is to be maligned, but then my carpenter started telling me he will rush the remaining items for me, because Jenny had requested to have additional cabinets added in last minute and my carpenter told me he will rush it out by next week, which was less than half the time it would normally take for fabrication, so even though my anger was justified, it just didn't feel right to snap back at him,  I thanked him for it, but then also send him the picture of the 3D of the carpentry piece he had written the measurements on after over call was over, just as a reminder that the fuck up is his fault and I have proof. He didn't bother to respond to that picture.





I really do not know if he realizes he fucked up, or he still thinks it is my fault and it is very disconcerting.




Anyway, now that the carpentry is almost complete, the house does look nicer, the lights are also halfway done, halfway due to some defective lights, but I am still within schedule, I just hope my carpenter lives up to his end of the bargain and delivers the item on the promised date so I can actually proceed with everything else, whether or not I can complete the project on time really depends on my carpenter now and honestly speaking, my faith in him is slowly decreasing, I can't afford any fuck ups at this point.

Tiny Project

Got my hands on a new project today, probably my smallest one to date, just a meager $3,000. It's purely doing just carpentry work and I will probably earn like $400 in commission from it, the client walked in on Saturday, we had a short discussion, she left and then came back 2 days later to confirm.

I have never really taken on such a small project before, it feels a little weird because it wasn't so much a renovation project but a custom furniture purchase, which I have never really done on such a small scale before. 

Small projects like this are honestly not very difficult to do, all I have to do on my end is prepare the 3D Drawings, meet her and my carpenter on site once, and then leave everything to my carpenter, I assume it's going to be a pretty hands-off experience, unless the client evolves into a Jenny or a Sly Fox, but that is pretty much the only thing I have to fear.

Speaking of Jenny, I will be meeting her and Jonny very soon to discuss the Brick problem, I have managed to come up with a solution for their colour issue and I hope their issue is purely with the colour right now, if they are going to start complaining about the texture of the wall, I really don't know what I will do, I literally can't think of any response to that, maybe crying would work? 

Zero points for professionalism but a hundred points for guilt-tripping. I really cannot wait for the project to end to finally be rid of them as clients. Maybe once the project ends, I will look back and think to myself...

"Actually, they are not that bad."

...maybe. But with the amount of post that has been dedicated to them, I high doubt it, they will probably end up becoming a stain in my memory the way Sly Fox did, along with a few others whom I did not end up giving a name to, like this lil bitch, who up to date is probably my least favorite client to work with.



There is suppose to be a huge project in the horizon for me and I have been following up with the clients for that project for probably half a year now, but there has been so many breaks in between our meetings, sometimes I wonder if I will ever actually clinch that project. They have honestly invested quite a fair bit of time with me at this stage, so for them to suddenly back out last minute is highly implausible, but because we also haven't officially sign a contract yet, they won't really be making any sort of monetary loss if they choose to restart their hunt for another Interior Designer, just a lot of wasted time and effort on everybody's part.



As far as I am aware, they are planning to start the renovation in 2 months time, right after the Ghost Festival, and normally with any other clients, this would be a great time to confirm the contract so we can start getting into the design aspect of it, but currently the husband is overseas and the wife isn't really scheduling any appointments with me to run through anything, so the whole thing is now on-hold until the husband comes back which will be in about 4 weeks time, there isn't any sense of urgency from the wife, I really don't know what is going on because I know they are planning to engage me, but they just haven't, it feels like I am stuck in limbo with them, it's really fucking weird. I kinda want to give up on this project and tell them to find another Interior Designer if they are not going to confirm with me on anything soon.