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.

The issue with Jenny & her Bricks

J&J's mid renovation problems have officially started tumbling in.


After the tumultuous pre-renovation discussions that happened with them, right after I came back from my New York Trip, the renovation itself did proceed without much of an issue, things went as smoothly as they could and even though I found out I was undercharging them for certain items, I was still making a bit of a profit from the overall renovation.



The biggest issue with this renovation, aside from my disdain towards Jenny as a client, is the Brick Wall that they requested. I had undercharged them previously and told them I had to charge them a little higher to recoup my losses, Jonny was all for it, he was very understanding of my predicament, but then Jenny came in and stared a huge fuss about how I was trying to earn more to make up for the huge discount I had given them earlier, essentially guilt tripping me about the additional charges and the whole fiasco ended to her benefit.



So the renovation starts and things went well, then the brick walls came in and Jenny started to nitpick about it when she saw the wall half completed, her main complaint was that the colour wasn't what she wanted, so I tried to convince her that it would look different once it was completely done up, sending her sample photos of how the end result of the wall would look like and that was able to placate her for a while.



The kicker here is I have showed her the brick samples before and I have told her that the bricks won't be pure white, that there will be a bit of brown and cream speckled throughout, she was initially a bit concerned then but she accepted it because that was the lightest shade available for the brick wall she had requested. This was before we started the renovation, I have told her about it before and suddenly she somehow conveniently forgot about it.



Anyway, now that the wall is done, I was fully anticipating for Jenny to complain about it, I mean it is inevitable that she will have issues with it, it is Jenny after all, can't expect any positive outcome when dealing with her. Well, today is the day because Jonny called me about an hour ago, sharing his concerns with the brick wall, and I am 100% certain that he is just the mouthpiece, the one who has the real issue is without a doubt Jenny.



Reason for the complaint? The colour wasn't what they were expecting.



I have showed them the actual pieces in my showroom weeks before we started the renovation, I have explained to them the colour would not be the same as the one I have done up in my 3D and they never listen. My tiler has actually done a pretty good job spreading out the darker bricks out evenly so it doesn't look too patchy but because it's not a consistent light colour throughout, Jenny isn't happy with it.



Every time I try to do a disclaimer to them, it's like I am talking to a fucking wall, because they don't listen. I don't have it on paper, on video or text message, it's my word against theirs and they can just simply say...

"I don't remember you telling me that."

... they haven't and I am hoping they don't use that. I haven't met any customer of mine who have said that before and I really hope I don't because you really have to be a literal scumbag to be able to abuse your rights as a customer and lie through your rotten teeth.



We are going to meet this week to see if there are any solutions and I honestly don't know how it will end. I mean the wall is done, the bricks have been installed, the only way this ends well for everyone is for them to accept the wall the way it is. Worst case scenario is we tear everything down and redo, but I really don't see the point in that because their issue is with the colour and the supplier themselves don't even have control on how the colour will turn out.



I knew from the start that J&J's project will have problems and I was absolutely right, I honestly can't picture their project beyond this brick wall issue right now, but I will definitely be facing even more problems when the carpentry goes up because that is when a lot of my homeowners start finding problems, I am not looking forward to the dozens of "dings" my phone will be getting from their text messages.



This is the part of the renovation process that I hate, my last 3 projects that I was doing before I flew to New York were so smooth sailing, I guess having this project go to shit is the universe's way of balancing all that out.

Ghosted

Today's plan was to meet a client at her office this afternoon.



This client hadn't gotten her keys to the apartment yet, so the arrangement I had with her when I first got hold of her contact information was to schedule the meeting once she got the keys, since she was only planning to do bit of touch up work, meeting now seem pointless if I can't assess how bad the current condition of the home was and she also didn't have any photos of the place to share, so there was really nothing for us to go on. I relayed this information to my admin when she was doing her routine check on the status of all the designer's customers, and she was aware of my arrangement.



My admin then texts me up a few days after she did the check with me and told me the client would like to meet at her office in the afternoon, and ask me if I was available. A little confused as to why that client reached out to my admin instead of me, I just told the admin I will get in the touch with the client to arrange the timing.



So I texted the client and told her I was informed of her request to meet up, to which she then told me that it wasn't actually her that requested for it, it was my admin who had called her to arrange a meeting.



It was really odd but since she has already agreed to a meeting, I quickly confirmed a date and time with her and that date and time was this afternoon at 12.15pm. My admin then text me to update her of the arrangement and I shared with her the time and date of the meeting.



So after what was supposed to be a No.1 became a No.2 in the toilet this morning, I actually ended up leaving the house later than I was planning to, I missed my first bus as well and as I was in the train on the way to the designated meeting place, I quickly texted the client telling her I will be about 10 minutes late.



No response.



Once I finally reached my stop, which was about 15 minutes after I had texted my client, I realize it was raining, so as I was scrambling for my umbrella, I decided to check my phone for any messages from the client.


No respond, message wasn't even read.



I made my way over to her office, it was quite a walk away and there were so many people, CBD during lunch time is really packed and walking behind a bunch of people who dilly dallying as they were peering into the different food court and restaurants to see what was available was really infuriating. I was already late and people were so slow, even got hit by some guys' umbrella as I was brisk walking through a traffic junction.




When I finally reach the place, my bag was wet but thankfully I was pretty dry, I decided to text the client again and let her know I had reached the place, unfortunately because it was lunch time, the cafe she wanted to meet at was packed to the brim, I was also too lazy to stand around and wait for a seat, so I headed to the office lobby and waited at the sofa area.


Both text messages were not read and at about 12.35pm, I decided to actually give the client a call to see what was going on, if she was still going to appear or not.



Doesn't pick up the call.




I pretty much had it by 12.45pm, so I lied and texted her that I had an appointment elsewhere, so I was not going to wait for her any longer, if she wanted to reschedule, then we can meet at my showroom. I would have preferred not to but it is much safer to let her know I was gonna leave lest she actually shows up, thinks that I had ghosted her and calls up my company to complain about me.



This is why I do not like meeting customers I have never met before outside at their convenience, because they may potentially be a huge waste of time. I traveled all the way down to the CBD area, braved the rain and in the end, I got ghosted by the client.



Needless to say, I was pretty peeved and was about to Insta-story the situation when the client finally responds back, and her first reply was...

"Sure, catch you later!"

... I would have expected the first text message to be an apology, but she then goes on to explain that she was stuck in a meeting and couldn't leave, and apologizes for not responding sooner.



She apologizes for not responding sooner, but not for that futile trip I made to see her.



That's like me accidentally running over your dog and then apologizing to you for dirtying it's fur with my wheel while you dog is bleeding from it's asshole and missing it's entire head.



I really didn't want to respond back and was really contemplating not to, but had to be professional and lied that it was no big deal, I told her not to worry and that was it, normally I would ask the client...

"No worries, just let me know when you are available and we can arrange another meeting."

... just to keep the conversation going and actually actively attempt to schedule another appointment, but I just stopped at "No Worries" because I didn't want to drag on the conversation, she also didn't response back with a new meeting date and time, so WHATEVER~ 

New Laptop Soon?

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.