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.