It’s funny the clever little sayings we architects always offer our clients as our awkward way of helping them cope with whatever the issue du jour seems to be. “It always costs more than you expect” “it always takes longer than expected” “there is no set of perfect plans” “you’ll always think of something you want to change once you get in, the best you can do is make a decision based on the info you have at hand”. Now, these all seem like perfectly sound advice as long as the money, time and decisions are not yours to burn. Turn the tables and things take a tragically hilarious twist. That’s exactly what has happened to me over the past few months as I’ve decided to renovate a historic building to house my firm in concert with another in downtown Shreveport.
All the advice I thought was so harmless and honestly heartfelt is starting to seem increasingly annoying the deeper we get into this little voyage(death march) of ours. It doesn’t help that we are also doing some of the work ourselves. So not only do we wind up paying real money for our indecisiveness it’s also starting to cost us our spare nights and weekends. Let’s just say we are getting a dose of our own medicine and it’s a lesson worth learning.
Now, I’ve always thought that my side projects building things gave me a unique perspective on the business but this takes it to another level. For my end of it I’ll definitely approach my advice for helping clients quote with cost and time overages with a different tact than before. At the very least, I can completely and truthfully identify with the position they are in even if on a smaller scale. The lab is definitely open for learning and it has taught me what my advice sounds like on the other end. The feature image of this post captures rather well a glaring example of our own in decisiveness. Comment when you find it. And the more you know…